Please note that not all of the courses mentioned below are offered every semester. The following information is entirely unofficial and was created as an aid to Psychology Majors and their advisors. The Boston College Undergraduate Catalog for the year you entered Boston College provides the official requirements. Use the following as “academic scratch paper” to help design your education. The requirements include a total of ten courses from within the Psychology Department and two additional courses from outside the Department (i.e., corequisites).
From within the Psychology Department:
- Survey and methods: These courses provide a broad introduction to the field and science of Psychology. PS 110 and PS 111 should be taken (in any order) as soon as possible after declaring Psychology as your major. PS 120 and PS 121 should be taken preferably in sophomore year.
- PS 110 - Introduction to Psychology as a Natural Science (freshman year best, sophomore year okay)
- PS 111 - Introduction to Psychology as a Social Science (freshman year best, sophomore year okay)
- PS 120 - Introduction to Behavioral Statistics & Research I (sophomore year best, junior year okay)
- PS 121 - Introduction to Behavioral Statistics & Research II (sophomore year best, junior year okay)
- Distribution: This distribution requirement extends the educational goals of the introductory courses. The distribution requirement guarantees that each student has some in-depth exposure to at least a few different areas within psychology. The specific courses that satisfy this requirement have been chosen to represent key areas within the discipline. Three 200-level courses are required and must include one course from three of the following four clusters:
- Biological:
PS 284 - Evolutionary Psychology
PS 285 - Behavioral Neuroscience
PS 287 - Learning and Motivation - Cognitive
PS 271 - Sensory Psychology
PS 272 - Cognitive Psychology
PS 274 - Perception - Developmental & Clinical
PS 260 - Developmental Psychology
PS 264 - Abnormal Psychology - Social-Personality
PS 241 - Social Psychology
PS 242 - Personality Psychology
PS 254 - Cultural Psychology
- Biological:
- Electives: Three additional Psychology courses are required, at least two of which must be at the 300-level or higher.
- A number of courses can be used to fulfill this requirement. Ideally, a student uses the electives to incorporate genuine "depth" into his or her major by exploring in more detail an area of particular interest within psychology such as, for example, human cognition or perhaps developmental psychology, social-personality psychology, or biopsychology.
- Alternatively, the electives can be used to examine a particular topic, such as the psychology of women, from a number of related perspectives. While the two introductory courses and the distribution requirement guarantee breadth of exposure to psychology as a whole, the electives can be used to acquire state-of-the-art expertise in a narrowly defined portion of psychology.
- Students can take an independent study course or a "Research Methods Practicum" course in partial fulfillment of their elective requirement.
From outside of the Psychology Department:
- Corequisites in Math and Computer Science (for students matriculating before Fall 2006*): Psychology Majors must take the following corequisites outside of the Department: Two courses in mathematics (MT 004-005, MT 020, MT 100-101, or any two MT course above MT 100-101 with the permission of the Department). Students may substitute Computers in Management (MC 021 or MC 074) for one of the two required mathematics courses. Students are urged to take a computer science course in addition to the two required math courses. This requirement reflects the importance of numerical data analysis and computer technology for much of psychology.
*The Math requirement has been eliminated for students matriculating in the Fall of 2006 and thereafter; those students will no longer be required to take any additional courses in mathematics beyond those required for their University Core Requirement. - Some important considerations: The courses alluded to above often form part of a two-course sequence. However, you do not have to complete a sequence to fulfill the requirement. For example, a student could take MT 100 and then MT 004 to satisfy the corequisite, or MT 004 and a computer science course. However, you should consider the educational value of staying with a sequence once you have started it. Students typically fulfill these corequisites before their senior year, usually during their freshman and sophomore years. If you are considering applying to medical school or double-majoring in biology, math, chemistry, or physics, you should pay close attention to the course requirements for these programs as they are considerably more specific than those for psychology. The same advice applies to students pursuing a concentration in biopsychology.