This course examines methods used by psychologists to understand the  psychology of individual personalities. The primary focus is on three psychological assessment tools: the Early Memories Procedure, the Thematic Apperception Test, and the traditional interview. Students will take these devices themselves, read the theory behind them, examine case studies by prominent psychologists using these devices, and conduct their own interpretations of responses given by college students and by psychotherapy patients.

This course will expose students to many of the psychological disorders of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, such as mood, anxiety, schizophrenia spectrum, trauma-related, dissociative, eating, disruptive, and addictive disorders. Based on a review of contemporary research findings, lectures and discussion will focus on the most relevant approaches for understanding, diagnosing, and treating psychological disorders. The biopsychosocial model will serve as a basis for explaining the etiology of psychological disorders.

Students in this course will design and execute an original research project related to creativity. Psychologists have defined creative ideas as those that are original, useful, and surprising. Creativity can be observed in many contexts (e.g., the arts, science, athletics, politics, and business), and can refer both to ideas as well as the people and social environments that foster such ideas. The semester will begin with a careful reading of the literature which will help students develop individual research proposals; group projects will be selected from amongst these proposals.

Are men more aggressive? Do women talk more? We will consider sex and gender as variables in psychological research, focusing on areas in which sex differences have been noted, such as spatial reasoning, play behavior, aggression, and mental illness. We will examine the literature in these areas and consider the arguments for and against the notion that these differences are meaningful. We will engage with both human and animal literature to attempt to disentangle the roles of biological variables and societal influence in creating these differences.

This course covers the basic statistical procedures used by behavioral scientists  including: confidence intervals, t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), correlation, and regression.  Although the course will teach students how to calculate relevant statistics, equal emphasis will be placed on the theoretical background that underlies the practice of statistics.  Primary source articles will be discussed to illustrate how statistical inferences yield theoretical conclusions.  Students will learn both how to present data to a scientific community and how to evaluate stat

A double credit course with department approval. This course is only open to seniors majors who have been accepted in the Political Science Honors program and have departmental approval.

Fall semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent research, written work, and oral presentations.

One full course. This course is open only to seniors majors who have been accepted in the Political Science Honors program and have departmental approval.

Fall semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent research, written work, and oral presentations.

Independent reading course.

Fall and spring semesters. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Independent research, written work, and oral presentations.

This course will explore how autism as both a medical diagnosis and a social category has gained significance over the past forty years. The course will situate the study of autism in the broader framework of the disability rights movement. We will consider the evidence for its characterization as an “epidemic” and how medical experts, parents, and autistic individuals have challenged and collaborated with each other.

(Offered as SWAG 400 and POSC 407) The topic will vary from year to year. This seminar explores when and how women and LGBTQ communities resist domination across racial, class, and national divides. We will examine varied and changing expressions of agency and modes of activism—through art, poetry, literature, cinema, and electoral politics. We will devote particular attention to how the growth of right-wing nationalisms globally influences the character of resistance. Which modes of protest challenge dominant narratives of the nation? What alternative imaginaries do they offer?