Major Overview

Psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes, so if you’ve ever wondered about people’s motivations, tried to understand your own feelings, or discussed the actions of others around you, you’ve already explored this area, albeit in an informal fashion. As you learn how to formalize your inquiries into a scientific study, you’ll be exploring psychology’s historical underpinnings, as well as the influence of culture and social context. Our diverse programs of study, which concentrate on areas like neuroscience and clinical, developmental, and cultural psychology, will prepare you to work or pursue further study in a variety of fields where knowledge of human motivation, critical thinking skills, and sensitivity are valued. To become a practicing psychologist, students must prepare to pursue a degree at the Masters or Doctorate level.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

The educational goals for this major are as follows:

  • You will conceptualize the complex factors (biological, neuropsychological, cognitive, developmental, social, relational, cultural, and historical) that influence human psychology and comprehend the interplay between these forces.
  • You will understand how culture and society influence basic psychological phenomena such as behavior, development, interpersonal relationships, thought, identity, memory, and emotion.
  • You will develop an informed, and critical, stance toward psychological theory and practice.
  • You will demonstrate knowledge of different psychological research traditions and methodologies and their advantages and limitations.
  • You will employ psychological theory and research to construct sound arguments.

Learning Environment

Your classes’ small professor-student ratio will allow you to collaborate with professors in their areas of research, while benefiting from their mentorship, and our commitment to the liberal arts tradition, as well as our location in Paris, will give you access to interdisciplinary perspectives, intercultural field experience, and resources from French and European scientific institutions, laboratories, and archives. As you consider human psychology from different analytical frameworks, while challenging the validity of any single one, our hope is that dialogue and debate will thrive in the classroom and across the AUP community, through hosted conferences and invited speakers from around the world. 

Major Components
Build Your Degree

With every single one of our majors, you’ll find a carefully curated medley of core courses and electives, which will provide you with the tools you need to establish an unshakeable foundation in the principles and concepts fundamental to your growth within your disciplines of choice. Many majors also enable you to specialize further within the broader area of study.

Core Courses

Core Courses

We aim to help you develop a range of skills, capacities, and modes of inquiry that will be crucial for your future since employers and graduate schools are looking for the critical thinking and innovative problem-solving skills that are associated with a liberal arts education, including sophisticated writing abilities, willingness to pose difficult questions, and an understanding of the historical and cultural contexts surrounding a topic or decision. 

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Electives

Electives

Each elective provides you with entry to a variety of subject areas which you can choose among to further focus your studies. With the help of your academic advisor, you’ll be able to tailor your major so that it most effectively prepares you for the next step in your academic and professional journey.

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Core Courses

The Psychology core courses, which you must take as part of the major requirements, will provide you with the tools you’ll need to ground your present and future studies. Your introduction to the fundamentals of Psychology will help pave the way for your successful completion of other Psychology courses.

PY1000 Intro To Psychology

This course discusses the intellectual foundations of contemporary psychology. Students learn about the concepts, theories and experiments basic to an understanding of the discipline, including classic thought and recent advances in psychology such as psychoanalysis, learning theory,biological mechanisms, developmental, social, cognitive, personality and abnormal psychology.

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PY2020 Research Methods In Psychology

Students will learn the basics of doing experimental research in psychology, including the ethics of working with human subjects, researching ideas in the scholarly literature, and designing and interpreting research findings. The principles learned here apply in many domains where research is employed to describe and understand persons and social reality. MA1020 is recommended as a prerequisite.

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PY2120 Writing The Social World

This class is uniquely tailored to the interdisciplinary focus of students majoring in Psychology and/or Gender, Sexuality, and Society. Juxtaposing different forms of writing, evidence, and rhetorical practices in psychology, the social sciences, and the humanities, students will reflect on methods and writing practices in order to develop an authentic disciplinary voice. Prerequisites: Sophomore standing, EN 1010, and PY 1000 or GS 2006

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PY4090 Senior Seminar

The purpose of this class is to challenge advanced psychology students to: practice and improve their skills in reading, critiquing and conducting research; strengthen their ability to effectively communicate their scholarship; clearly define their scholarly interests; and consider their future goals. Students will be given the opportunity to craft a well researched and argued literature review. Involves class discussions, presentations, and a major research proposal or literature review.

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PY4095 Senior Project

A Senior Project is an independent study representing a Major Capstone Project that needs to be registered using the Senior Project registration form. (Download: https://aupforms.formstack.com/workflows/senior_project)

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