'This course examines the plant life in the woods and fields around us, the exotic plants in our greenhouses, and the plants we depend on for food. We will study plants living in surprising circumstances, settling into winter, escaping from gardens, reclaiming farmland, cooperating with fungi and insects, and fighting for their lives. We will find that plants challenge some conventional, animal-based assumptions about what matters to living things.

'We will survey the great diversity of life on earth from the archaebacteria that live in hot sulfur springs to giant sequoia trees to singing birds. Labs will explore biological diversity via collecting trips around campus as well as laboratory experiments and will introduce students to data collection, manipulation, and analysis.'

This seminar is designed to promote communication of research activities among students in the department and to encourage students to share knowledge and resources in the solution of problems encountered in all stages of research.

'Languages differ in the way they describe the world. For example, the noun for bridge is feminine in German, but masculine in French. Russian has two words for blue, while English has only one. The Piraha (an Amazonian hunter-gatherer tribe) arguably have no number words. In this course, we will be asking to what extent these cross-linguistic differences are reflected in thought. That is, do German speakers think bridges are more feminine than French speakers do? Can Russian speakers discriminate different shades of blue better than English speakers? Can the Piraha count?

'Adult illiteracy in the U.S. presents an ever-growing challenge. To understand this problem, we will learn various theories of reading. However, since many models of reading are based on data gathered from children, we will also examine how the cognitive abilities of adults are different from those of children. A large component of this class concerns learning the lab techniques associated with assessing reading abilities. In addition, since this is a community-based learning course, each student will become a tutor for an adult enrolled in an area literacy program.'

'This course will cover developmental implications of close relationships from infancy through adulthood with a focus on parents, friendships, and romantic partners. The goal is to examine normative developmental processes through a relational lens.'

'In the role of a participant-observer, each student studies intensively the social and personality development of the children in one classroom at the Gorse Children's Center at Stonybrook. Students learn how to articulate developmental changes and individual differences by analyzing detailed observations. Topics include social cognition, peer relationships, social skills, concepts of friendship, emotional development, identity formation, self-esteem, and the social and cultural context of development.'

'Psychologists have typically conceptualized 'mental illness' in terms of the symptoms and diagnoses proposed by psychiatrists in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).

'This course offers a hands-on introduction to methods of psychological research that focus on the qualitative description and analysis of human experience. Students learn a variety of techniques of data collection (interviewing, intensive observation, archival research) and methods of analyzing textual sources -- from historical accounts to blogs, memoirs, observational narratives, and interview transcripts.

This course examines social psychology and sociological theories and research addressing why women do more housework and child care than men. It pays special attention to the situation of dual-earner families and considers class and ethnic differences on the nature of this inequality and the barriers to full equality at home.