Psychology

415 Milbank Hall
212-854-2069
212-854-3601 (fax)
psychology.barnard.edu
Department Administrator: Danielle Feinberg

Chair: Ann Senghas (Associate Professor)
Professor Emerita and Senior Scholar: Lila Ghent Braine
Professors: Peter Balsam (Samuel R. Milbank Professor), Larry B. Heuer (Ann Whitney Olin Professor), Robert E. Remez, Rae Silver (Helene L. and Mark N. Kaplan Professor), Steven Stroessner
Associate Professor: Barbara Woike, Lisa K. Son
Assistant Professors: Koleen McCrink, Joshua New, Russell Romeo (Department Representative)
Term Assistant Professors: Joshua Davis, Sumati Gupta, Michelle Levine, Kara Pham
Adjunct Professors: Jennette Sawyer Cohen, William Fifer, Alexandra Horowitz, Susan Riemer Sacks, Patricia Stokes
Adjunct Associate Professors: E’mett McCaskill, Mateo Cruz, Tovah P. Klein (Director, Toddler Center), Wendy McKenna
Adjunct Assistant Professors: Karen Hebert, Hannah Hoch, Noah Glassman, Julie Patterson, Joseph Reynoso, Karen Seeley, Majorie Silverman, Doris Zahner, Jason Zevin
Lecturer: Kenneth Light

Psychology is the study of behavior and experience, from love to aggression, from the first babbling of infants to creativity, from sexuality to the physiology of taste. Faculty members in Psychology have a wide range of research interests, including social and cognitive development, memory, language, animal learning, social stereotyping, the self-concept, the resolution of conflict, and behavioral neuroscience.

Common to all areas of psychology is a concern with adequate and appropriate method of inquiry. The student will encounter many perspectives on psychological evidence and technique through lecture, laboratory, field courses, and other offerings.

Opportunities are available for supervised research, teaching, and field experience. Independent study and the Senior Research Seminar involve participation in research with a faculty member. The Toddler Center and a course in Field Work in Psychological Services provide first-hand contact with the study of psychology.

Non-majors may elect to fulfill the College Science Requirement with courses in Psychology.

Psychology as a major concentration is good preparation for many careers. Many students enter graduate school in psychology, neuroscience, education, and professional schools, including medical, law, and business schools. There is no set sequence for a given career goal, but the Department recommends a balance between courses that are directly preparatory and those that establish a broad intellectual foundation.

Student Learning Objectives/Goals [and Learning Outcomes]:

• Acquire a strong intellectual foundation in the historical foundations and contemporary problems in psychological science [Identify a contemporary psychological problem, either basic or applied, that interests you, and discuss the historical development of the psychological research and theory that offers an insight into this problem .]
• Acquire a familiarity with the breadth of sub-disciplines in psychology that are applied to questions of behavior and mental processes [Draw on multiple sub-disciplines to describe an insight on an important psychological question.]
• Acquire competence in accessing current psychological research literature [Generate a reading list sufficient to introduce the relevant theory and research on an important psychological question.]
• Acquire the skills to think critically about psychological theories and the research employed to test them [Critique a published research article.]
• Acquire the skills to design studies that pose valid tests of psychological hypotheses (with an appreciation of the strengths and weaknesses of various research methods and designs, such as experimental, quasi-experimental, and correlational designs) [Design a study to test a hypothesis that you have generated based upon your reading of the relevant literature on a psychological question.]
• Acquire basic descriptive and inferential statistical knowledge to summarize your research data and to identify reliable results [Summarize the results of a study that you have designed, and employ an inferential test of the question you posed.]
• Acquire the ability to clearly communicate theories, hypotheses, hypothesis tests, and research findings, in both written and spoken form [Write a paper in conformance with APA style that is suitable for presentation. Prepare and deliver an oral presentation of your findings.]

Science Requirement: Students desiring to fulfill the science requirement through Psychology are encouraged to take their lab courses in their early years at Barnard, because seniors do not receive priority in lab placements. To ensure exposure to different methods in psychology, the two lab courses must be drawn from different groups. See the description of lab groups underRequirements.

Students should request Department permission for lab courses by entering the lottery in April and November for the following semester. Information about Department permission is available in Room 415A Milbank Hall.

Students interested in the Neuroscience and Behavior major should consult the Neuroscience and Behavior section of the course catalogue.