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.

(Offered as PSYC 206 and EDST 206)  This course will explore how children learn through play. The first part of the course will focus on defining play and exploring researchers’ differing perspectives on whether children can learn by playing. The second part of the course will involve visits to the Beneski Museum and Holyoke Children’s Museum to explore the role of museums in studying and advancing children’s playful learning.

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 statistica

An introduction to the nature of psychological inquiry regarding the origins, variability, and change of human behavior. As such, the course focuses on the nature-nurture controversy, the processes associated with cognitive and emotional development, the role of personal characteristics and situational conditions in shaping behavior, and various approaches to psychotherapy.

An introduction to the nature of psychological inquiry regarding the origins, variability, and change of human behavior. As such, the course focuses on the nature-nurture controversy, the processes associated with cognitive and emotional development, the role of personal characteristics and situational conditions in shaping behavior, and various approaches to psychotherapy.

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.

Spring semester. The Department.

How to handle overenrollment: null

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

Spring 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.

A consideration of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Western political theory. Topics to be considered include the fate of modernity, identity and difference, power, representation, freedom, and the state. This year’s readings may include works by the following authors: Freud, Weber, Benjamin, Heidegger, Arendt, Derrida, Foucault, Berlin, Butler, Connolly, and Agamben.

Requisite: At least one POSC course (200 level or above).

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Dumm.

What are the origins of human civilization? What causes political, economic or categorical inequality? What explains the rise of the West or the collapse of complex political orders? Where do states, empires, cultures, religions, organizations, and markets come from? How do technologies, catastrophes, geography, demography, and ideas shape social change? Taking its cues from the recent rebirth in scholarly interest in these issues, this research seminar will investigate the very biggest questions confronting empirical social science.