Master's in Psychological Sciences Course Descriptions
Major Field Core Courses
Developmental Psychology
PSYC 6331 (HCS 6331, ACN 6331) Cognitive Development (3 semester hours) Survey of cognitive
development theories and research in a variety of domains including perception,
memory, language, and problem solving. (3-0) Y
PSYC 6350 (HCS 6350) Social
Development (3 semester
hours) Foundations of social and personality development. Includes
survey of psychodynamic, social learning, behavior genetic, family systems, and
social-cognitive approaches to the study of attachment, parenting, aggression,
peer relationships, sex typing, and other contemporary issues. (3-0) Y
PSYC 6368 (HCS 6368, ACN 6368) Language Development (3 semester hours)
Advanced study of normal oral language development. Focus on research in child
language and recent theories of language acquisition. Prerequisite: Consent of
instructor. (3-0) Y
Cognition
PSYC 6330 (HCS 6330, ACN
6330) Cognitive Science (3
semester hours) Cognitive, computational, and neural processing approaches to
understanding perception, memory, thought, language and emotion. (3-0) Y
PSYC 6333 (HCS 6333, ACN 6333)
Memory (3 semester hours)
Research and theory on the acquisition, representation and retrieval of
information by the mind/brain. Includes information
processing and neuropsychological perspectives. (3-0) T
PSYC 6395 (HCS 6395, ACN 6395)
Cognitive Psychology (3
semester hours) Theory and research on perception, learning, thinking,
psycholinguistics, and memory. Prerequisites: CGS 3361 (PSY 3361)
or consent of instructor. (3-0) Y
Social/Personality
Psychology
PSYC 6327 (HCS 6327) Personality (3 semester hours) Survey of
cognitive, analytic, and learning theory approaches to study of personality. Emphasis
on intensive exploration of selected concepts and related research (3-0) R
PSYC 6376 (HCS 6376) Social Psychology (3 semester hours) Overview
of the social bases of behavior. Topics may include social cognition and self justification,
biases in judgment, attitudes and persuasion, conformity, compliance, group
dynamics, prejudice and stereotyping, interpersonal attraction and
relationships, aggression and altruism, cultural diversity, and applications
relevant to these aspects of the human experience. Special attention to
research paradigms of interest to students developing their own empirical work. (3-0) Y
Neuroscience
PSYC
6344 (HCS 6344, ACN 6344) Functional Human Neuroanatomy (3
semester hours) Function of each major brain system as related to the
organization and synaptic connections of their principal nuclei. Function of each system related to the
neurological disorders associated with disease or lesions at specific
locations. (3-0) T
PSYC 6346 (HCS 6346, ACN 6346) Systems Neuroscience (3 semester hours)
Integrative systems level study of the nervous system. Aspects
of neural mechanisms and circuitry underlying regulation of motor behaviors,
sensory and perceptual processing, biological homeostasis, and higher cognitive
functions. (3-0) Y
Research Methods Courses
PSYC 6312 (HCS 6312, ACN 6312) Research Methods in Behavioral and
Brain Sciences - Part I (3 semester hours) Applying, understanding, and interpreting
various statistical techniques in behavioral science context. Participants have the opportunity to learn
appropriate statistical details for basic descriptive and inferential
statistics, the interrelationships among techniques, and computer skills
required for data analyses. Students without the necessary background
knowledge of basic statistics and experimental design will be required to take
PSY 3392 before registering for PSYC 6312. (3-0) Y
PSYC 6313 (HCS 6313, ACN 6313) Research Methods in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences - Part II (3 semester hours) Topics in general linear modeling
including regression analysis correlation, simple analysis of variance,
factorial analysis of variance, analysis of covariance, between and within
subject designs, and multiple regression. Prerequisite: PSYC 6312 or consent of
instructor. (3-0) Y
PSYC 6316 (HCS 6316, ACN 6316)
Research Methods in Behavioral and Brain Sciences–Part III (3 semester hours) Applying, understanding, and interpreting
various advanced multivariate statistical techniques in brain
and behavioral science contexts. Includes principle component
analyses, simple and multiple correspondence analyses, partial least square
regression, discriminant analyses, and structural equation modeling. (3-0) R
PSYC 6319 (HCS 6319, ACN
6319) Scientific Writing (3 semester hours) Scientific writing of articles
for publication. (3-0) Y
PSYC
6399 (HCS 6399, ACN 6399) Research Ethics and Scientific Integrity (3 semester
hours) An
interactive, intensive course designed to cover critical issues related to
human subjects, animal welfare, research design, accountability of scientific
actions and fraud. Course designed for individuals intending research
careers in academia or industry. (3-0) Y
Other Courses
PSYC 6320 (HCS 6359, HDCD 6320) The
Developing Child: Toddler and Preschool Years (Two to Five Years) (3 semester hours) Relevant developmental theories and
processes as well as skills acquired in motor, sensory-perceptual, cognitive,
and social domains from 2 to 5 years. Prerequisite: HCDC 5311 or HCS 6357 (3-0)
Y
PSYC
6332 (HCS 6332, ACN 6332) Perception (3 semester hours) Psychophysical,
neurophysiological, and computational foundations of sensation and perception. Basic senses of vision, audition, chemoreception, and
tactile processing, with emphasis on understanding the processes that take us
from neurons to perception and action.
(3-0)
T
PSYC 6335 (HCS 7376, HDCD 6385)
Child Psychopathology (3 semester
hours) Major classes of childhood psychopathology manifested during
infancy through adolescence. Normal personality development as a basis for identifying
psychopathology. Issues of etiology, diagnosis,
prognosis and social policy. (3-0) R
PSYC 6339 (HCS 6339, ACN
6339) Psycholinguistics (3
semester hours) Classic and current research in psycholinguistics.
Includes
concepts from linguistics, the biological bases of speech and language
processing, and child language acquisition. Hands-on exercises include labs on speech perception,
language acquisition, and language comprehension. (3-0) R
PSYC 6355 (HCS 6355, ACN 6355) Judgment and Decision Making (3
semester hours) This course examines human inferences, judgments, decisions,
and the processes by which we arrive at them. It will focus on the fact that
our social judgments are not based on the laws of probability and chance, but
on other cognitive processes that may have serious shortcomings in important
inferential and decision-making tasks. We will also see that these processes,
while ecologically efficient, systematic and often predictable, are imperfect
in today’s data-rich environment. (3-0) T
PSYC 6357 (HCS 6357, HDCD 6319) The Developing Child: Infants and
Toddlers (3 semester hours) Relevant developmental theories and processes
as well as skills acquired in motor, sensory-perception, cognitive, and social
domains from the prenatal period through two years of age. (3-0)
Y
PSYC 6367 (HCS 6367, ACN
6367) Speech Perception (3 semester hours) Current topics and theories in speech perception. Topics include the acoustic
correlates of speech sounds and the problem of invariance, the perception of
speech under adverse conditions, the effects of hearing impairment, and models
of speech perception. (3-0) T
PSYC 7318 Special Topics in Psychological Sciences (3 semester hours) Selected
topics of current research in psychological sciences. (May
be repeated for credit.) (3-0) R
PSYC 7V50 Internship in
Psychological Sciences (1-6 semester hours). Applied
placement in community agency or other approved site. (May be repeated for credit) ([1-6]-0)
PSYC