Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

Psychology

It has been said that man’s favorite object of study is himself. Understanding the factors that help maintain psychological, physical and social well-being can benefit graduates in psychology throughout their professional and personal lives. The range of phenomena that psychologists study is vast. Listed below are only a few of the fascinating topics that students study in their psychology classes.

• Love - Prejudice - Depression
• Gender - Aggression - Schizophrenia
• Dreaming - Rape - Autism
• Learning - Hate - ADHD
• Thinking - Animal Behavior - Addiction
• Memory - War - Anxiety
• Sex - Gangs - Gambling
• Sleeping - Terror - Hallucinations

Psychology graduates tend to have strong "people" skills, a valuable commodity in almost any profession. The application of these skills is not confined to the helping professions such as counseling and medicine but is useful in such diverse fields as law, human services, community and public affairs, education, management, sales, advertising, marketing, service industries, research, and writing. Nationally, psychology is one of the top three most popular undergraduate majors in liberal arts colleges and universities.

For many psychology students, the undergraduate degree is but a stepping stone to graduate study and a career in the profession of psychology.

Purpose & Goals

Purpose Statement

The purpose of the psychology program at USC Beaufort is to provide its students with a broad knowledge of the principles of human behavior and mental processes. The study of psychology has wide applicability to the solving of human problems at both the personal and societal levels. Knowing the factors that help maintain psychological, physical and social well-being can benefit graduates in psychology throughout their professional and personal lives. The program seeks to engender in its students well-developed problem-solving and communication skills which allow the critical analysis and integration of complex information using disciplined thought processes. Further, the program is committed to providing students with a solid academic foundation in psychology for those who will pursue graduate work in psychology and related fields.

Program Goals

• Meet demands of regional students who wish to pursue a baccalaureate degree in psychology and provide a solid foundation for those planning to pursue graduate studies in psychology and the mental health and human services.
• Provide students with knowledge of the broad areas of scientific psychology that results in students becoming more self-aware, more perceptive of others, more analytical in their thinking and more effective in their professional, social and personal relationships.
• Provide opportunities for students to gain experience and knowledge in the conduct of psychological research which underlies scientific psychology.
• Prepare students to contribute to their future work environments and the larger society and to grow personally and professionally throughout their careers.
• Foster in students analytical and decision-making skills, communications skills, a global perspective, a sense of social responsibility and ethics and characteristics of leadership.
• Attract diverse, career-oriented students by making available curricula that correspond to regional community needs in a variety of areas involving human functioning.
• Establish a learning environment in the psychology discipline that contributes to cooperation and collaboration with the educational and service community in the region and the state.

USCB seeks to ensure that all students who complete the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology are able to...

• Demonstrate a broad-based knowledge of the all of the major areas of psychology required for pursuing further graduate study in psychology or for employment using the skills acquired during their program of study.
• Explain the concepts and methodologies of conducting research in psychology and be able to apply those principles in conducting research.
• Apply the basic principles of human and animal learning to analyses of behavior as well as describe the current research findings in human cognition and language.
• Demonstrate mastery of the basic functioning and role of human biological systems in the production and regulation of behavior as well as the current research findings regarding the processing and organization of sensory information in perception.
• Trace human physical, cognitive, personality and social development from conception to death.
• Identify the social psychological processes involving the interdependence and interaction of individual behavior and group processes.
• Describe the major approaches to understanding human personality and to define abnormal behavior, its symptoms, course, and causes.

Psychology Curriculum

Entering the Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology program assures that the student will be exposed to the broad spectrum of subfields of psychology. The student must obtain a grade of “C” or better in all courses taken for major credit. Students who pursue the psychology major must either elect a minor (with a minimum of 18 hours) or complete 12 hours of cognate courses. To qualify for graduation, a student must meet General Education requirements and Psychology requirements as outlined in I-V below.