M.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: PSY 3361 (or CGS 3361) or equivalent. (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: ACN/HCS/PSYC 6312.
(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. (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) R
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) S
PSYC 8V80 Research in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (1-9 semester hours)
Supervised research experience. (May
be repeated for credit.) ([1-9]-0) S