Undergraduate Program
Program Requirements
Required Courses for students entering prior to Autumn 2008
I. Statistics/Methodology Sequence
A coordinated two course sequence covering statistical methods (Psych 20100) and methodological issues (Psych 20200) in psychology (Taught Winter and Spring Quarters). Students may opt to take Stat 2200 or a more advanced statistic course instead of Psych 20100.
These courses should be taken as early as possible, and certainly no later than the third year.
II. Breadth requirement
Students are required to take 3 of the following 5 courses. Each of these courses will be offered every year.
- Biological Psychology (Psyc 20300)
- Cognitive Psychology (Psyc 20400)
- Developmental Psychology (Psyc 20500)
- Social Psychology (Psyc 20600)
- Sensation and Perception (Psyc 20700)
III. Psychology Electives
- At least six additional courses (for a major total of eleven), are to be chosen from among the courses offered by the Department of Psychology.
a. For students pursuing Honors in Psychology, one of the elective courses should be an Honors Seminar (Psych 29800), which will be offered during the Winter Quarter.
b. When choosing elective courses, students should be aware that many require prerequisites. These prerequisites and course descriptions can be found in the Courses of Study and Programs.
IV. Research Requirements
- Research experience is required of every psychology major.
a. This can be obtained by working on a research project under the guidance of a faculty member or by taking a course with a research component other than the Methodology course.
b. Courses that have satisfied this requirement in the past are listed below. However, courses change and these same courses may not include a research component in the future. It is the student's responsibility to check the quarterly listing to ensure the course still satisfies the research requirement.
c. A maximum of 3 research courses can count toward the 11 courses required of a psychology major.
Past Courses with A Research Component
PSYC 20200 Psychological Research Methods (for students who enter in Autumn 2008 and thereafter)
PSYC 20900/30900 Lab in Emotion, Cognition, and Intimate Relationships (Stein)
PSYC 21300, Experimental Approaches to Systems Neurobiology (Margoliash)
PSYC 22500, Cognitive Development (Bertenthal/Huttenlocher)
PSYC 23000, Cultural Psychology (Shweder)
PSYC 23200, Intro. to Language Development (Goldin-Meadow)
PSYC 23500, Intro. to Interaction Research (Duncan)
PSYC 23600, Development in Infancy (Bertenthal)
PSYC 23800, Introduction to Learning and Memory (Nusbaum)
PSYC 24000/31200, Systems Neuroscience (Ramirez, J. , Ragsdale, C.).
PSYC 24300, Qualitative Methods in the Social Sciences (Cohler)
PSYC 24400, Observation of Child Behavior in Natural Settings (Stodolsky)
PSYC 24800, Lab courses in Emotion, Cognition, and Behavior (Stein)_
PSYC 25800, The Psychiatric Patient – Cohler
PSYC 26200, Research Seminar in Behavioral Endocrinology (McClintock)
PSYC 26400/36400, Theories of Emotion and the Psychology of Well-being (Stein)
PSYC 26700, Perceptual Development (Bertenthal)
PSYC 28500, Research Seminar in Social Neuroscience (Cacioppo)
PSYC 28700/38700. Social Cognition Research Seminar (Epley)
PSYC 31100 BIOS 24204, Cellular Neurobiology (Staff)
PSYC 31500, Neuroethology (Margoliash)
PSYC 33400, Research Methods in Language Acquisition (Goldin-Meadow)
PSYC 35501, Cross-Cultural Child Development (Optional research requirement) (Freedman)
PSYC 35503, Human Development and the Genomic Revolution (Freedman)
PSYC 35600/HD 35600, Topics in Conflict Understanding and Resolution (Stein)
PSYC 36200, Models of Word Learning (Regier)
PSYC 38200, Analysis of Interaction and Gesture (Duncan and Duncan)
PSYC 38201 Analysis of Eye-to-Eye Interaction (Duncan)
PSYC 38700, Connectionist Modeling Techniques (Regier)
Other courses may satisfy this requirement. If you completed an intensive laboratory project as a part of a course in psychology at the University of Chicago, but this course is not on the above list, you may petition the Curriculum Committee, describing in detail what the project entailed. The committee will consult with the instructor and decide whether the course fulfills the requirement. Psychology core courses (20300, 20400, 20500, 20600. 20700) and the methods course (20200) do not fulfill this requirement.
The lab requirement can also be met in two other ways:
(1) completing an honors thesis
(2) taking an independent study research course with a faculty member in the Psychology Department
Research courses can be taken P/F but all other courses must be taken for a letter grade.
Each research course must be with a different faculty member, i.e., have a unique course number.
V. General Education Requirement
- Majors are required to take two quarters of calculus as part of the college general education requirements.
The research requirement can also be met in two other ways:
- completing an honors thesis
- taking an independent study research course with a faculty member in the Psychology Department
Summary of Requirements
Concentration
- 2 Statistics Courses
Psyc 20100 (or Stat 22000 or above)
Psyc 20200 - 3 Courses (to be chosen from the following five)
Psyc 20300
Psyc 20400
Psyc 20500
Psyc 20600
Psyc 20700 - 6 Psychology Elective Courses
- Research Component
General Education
- Math 13100 - 13200 or higher
Courses without a psychology number must be approved by the Curriculum Committee.
