Psychological Science

Overview

Program Description

The Psychological Science program at California State University Northridge is comprised of faculty who are active researchers in their fields, and who are dedicated to training and mentoring students who plan to pursue academic and/or research careers in an array of basic and applied areas of psychology. The application requires applicants to indicate which faculty member they would be interested in working with as their thesis research advisor. An applicant must be accepted into the research lab of a faculty member in the Psychological Science program before the department can accept the student into the program, even if the applicant meets all of the other admission requirements. It is therefore advised that applicants review faculty research interests prior to submitting an application.

Student Learning Outcomes

Students will:

• Apply key concepts, principles and overarching themes in psychology to written work and oral presentation in multiple theoretical domains. Students will demonstrate a working knowledge of psychology’s content domains by distinguishing between theoretical principles as they differentially apply to each content domain (e.g., principles of group interaction processes as they apply to social, cognitive and developmental psychological phenomena). Students will illustrate the application of theoretical principles to their own novel research agendas.

• Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomena in published empirical literature as well as in their own work, by evaluating the evidence-based explanations for observed results both in written work and oral presentation. Students will evaluate published psychological research and define key terms.

• Complete multiple quantitative and/or qualitative data analytic projects using outside data sets, and will demonstrate mastery of analytic approaches in analyzing their thesis or project data set.

• Design innovative research that solves novel problems and conduct and interpret these studies alongside their research advisor. Students theses or projects will consider sociocultural factors as relevant, and students will critically consider these factors in their classroom work.

• Demonstrate ethical standards to evaluate psychological science and practice in submitting institutional research review board (IRB) applications to review the ethical parameters of their original research, and will illustrate examples of ethical applications in classroom discussions of research methods and published research. Students will build interpersonal relationships with at least three faculty members who will serve on their thesis or project committee, and demonstrate values that build community at local, national and global levels through their independent research work.

• Demonstrate effective writing across written classroom assignments (discussion posts, response papers and research papers), in both the quality of their written expression and the sophistication of their idea presentation. Students will complete oral presentations of their work in classroom and professional (e.g., conference) settings. Students will integrate their work with existing peer-reviewed scholarship through completion of their thesis or project, conference presentations and/or publications.

• Apply psychological content and skills to academic and/or career goals by researching Ph.D. programs of interest and/or non-academic jobs and discussing fit with classmates and faculty members in classroom and networking situations. Students will exhibit self-efficacy and self-regulation by meeting research deadlines. Students will enhance teamwork capacity through regularly reviewed work in the lab setting with their peers and with undergraduate students, and will develop meaningful professional direction for life after graduation by having discussions with students and faculty and making appropriate preparations for academic and/or non-academic professional paths, such as applying for jobs, Ph.D. programs and/or professionally oriented summer internships. Students will practice appropriate professional communication through conduct with other students and faculty in their research lab, and with outside contacts through meetings at on-campus presentations, professional conferences and electronic communication.