The Undergr

GiovaBehavioral S

raduate Psychology Degree: A

anni Riveros, Mari Miner, & Jessica C. HScience Department, Utah Valley Univer

Re-Examination

Hill, Ph.D. rsity, Orem, Utah

Background

•  Due to the growing need to assess accountability efforts in institutions ofhigher education, the American Psychological Association (APA) hasprovided assistance to psychology programs by publishing a revision of tGuidelines for the Undergraduate Maj(APA, 2013).

•  Current best practices in higher educarely on setting clear expectations for student learning, aligning curricula withese expectations, assessing student attainment, and using assessment resu

Method

f

the ajor

ation

ith

ults to

•  Course offerings at 174 institutions of higher educatio

•  Coding methods similar to Stoloff et al. (2005) and Pe•  Two-year programs were excluded if they offered•  Four-year programs were excluded if they did not

•  The courses were then collapsed into the 46 most com

Results •  Surprisingly, there was a wide variety of courses offe•  Along the different types of granting degree institutio

Introduction/ General Psychology, Developmental Ps

• Even though historically most of the offered courses h

n in the Rocky Mountain Region (Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah,

erlman and McCann (1998) were used to establish exclusionary criterd no psychology courses. t offer a formal psychology or behavioral science (with an emphasis i

mmon psychology courses as established by the APA (APA, 2014).

red in the Rocky Mountain Region at the 2-year college level on studied, it has shown that most of their courses offered have remainychology-Lifespan.

have remained the same there are changes in their total frequency am

Colorado, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico) were examined.

ria as well as tabulate the courses.

in psychology) degree.

ned the same: Clinical / Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology,

mong all institutional levels

Discussion

•  The difficulties in the data mining remain the same as reported by Perlman (1999); that could imply that the difficulties in creating a broad consensus in course contents and their place in the psychology curriculum could be a field in itself

•  Considering that most of the courses are offered at the 2 year college level, it is necessary to review their curricula more deeply.

•  In the field of psychology as a

,

effect changes that promote more efficand effective student learning (APA, 2013).

•  Findings from the 1991 St. Mary’s

conference indicated that undergraduapsychology students should have a strfoundation in psychology as well as a broad base of knowledge in the naturasocial sciences that expose them to thediversity in the field. They should alsoexperience conducting research in ordlearn about the different methods usedexplore human behavior and cognition(Stoloff et al., 2005).

•  Current data are needed to allow department chairs deans and faculty

cient

ate rong

al and e o der to d to n

to

Table 1 Amount of Institutions in Region Included by Institutio

Institution Type

Doctorate Granting Universities

Comprehensive Colleges and Universities

Baccalaureate College

Two-Year College

Tribal: Tribal Colleges

•  Even though historically most of the offered courses h

TaOv

Ra

on Type

# in Region # with Ψ Program/Classes

% with Ψ Program/Classes

21 20 16.4

20 17 13.9

27 17 13.9

83 65 53.3

12 3 2.5

have remained the same, there are changes in their total frequency am

able 3 verall Frequent Courses by Study

ank Perlman & McCann (1999)

Stoloff et al. (2005)

Rocky MountainArea (2013)

1 Introductory Psychology

Research Methods Area

Introductory/ General Psychology

2 Abnormal Developmental Area Social Psycholo

3 Social Psychology Introductory Abnormal

mong all institutional levels.

whole, there is a general lack of understanding of what is being taught in each course nationwide, the content of the curriculum on a national level, and the courses being offered nationally.

•  The difficulties experienced and coding and the dramatic variation of courses from institution to institution may indicate that there is a need for set of guidelines to help departments and programs as they shape their curriculum. These guidelines should likely address consensus in the field on what courses and skills are critical for psychology students. In addition there should be flexibility

n

gy

department chairs, deans, and faculty evaluate the status of national curriculand to assist them in curricular decisiofor their service areas, justifying and defining new and existing positions, adeveloping outcome and assessment measures. (Perlman & McCann, 1999

Hypotheses •  The same general courses or course are

should be represented as in previous investigations with some allowance for regional variation in interests.

•  Even though traditional core courses coremain in the most frequent offered cou

to la ons

and

9).

Special Focus Institutions (Art/Business/Religion)

eas

ould urses

Table 2 Most Frequent Offered Course / Area - Rocky Mounta

Doctoral Granting (N=20)

Com

Rank Courses Raw

Count % RaCou

1 Introductory/General Psychology 15 75% 15

2 Social Psychology 20 100% 183 Abnormal 17 85% 14

4 Personality Psychology/ Personality Theory 17 85% 13

11 0 0.0

Total 174 122 100

ain Region (2013)

mprehensive (N=20)

Baccalaurate (N=22)

2-Year (N=82)

All Institutions (N=144)

aw unt % Raw

Count % Raw Count % Raw

Count %

5 75% 27 100% 70 85% 127 88%

8 90% 27 100% 41 50% 106 74% 4 70% 24 89% 40 49% 95 66%

3 65% 27 100% 21 26% 78 54%

4 Personality Abnormal Psychology

Personality Psychology/ Personality Theo

5 Learning Social Psychology Research Metho

6 Special Topics Personality Statistics

7 History and Systems

Independent Study

Cognitive Psychology/ Human CognitioCognition

d h i l i lChild Psycholog

f d

Selected References

Future Directions

• Phase II will involve evaluation of course offerings from Universities Nationwide

• Phase III requires all data as compared to the new APA 2013 core guidelines

• Possible evaluation of availability of Capstone offerings across Universities

addition, there should be flexibility and room for variation to address the needs of the region and of faculty.

ory

ods

on/

gy/

remain in the most frequent offered coupsychology, as professional hub betweedisciplines, could be adapting to new community and professional demands, changing the relative weight that some professional areas have in the educationcurriculum.

•  With the recent re-emphasis on psycholas a science and it’s role as a hub scienc(Cacioppo & Freberg, 2013), there maymore statistics and research methods cooffered.

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urses, en

nal

logy ce y be ourses

Personality Theory 5 Research Methods 18 90% 116 Statistics 17 85% 11

7 Cognitive Psychology/ Human Cognition/ Cognition

19 95% 15

8 Child Psychology/ Infancy and Childhood Development

14 70% 8

9 Human Sexuality 12 60% 6

10 Special Topics/Survey of Current Topics 19 95% 4

1 55% 22 81% 18 22% 69 48% 1 55% 17 63% 17 21% 62 43%

5 75% 17 63% 8 10% 59 41%

8 40% 17 63% 25 30% 64 44%

6 30% 14 52% 31 38% 63 44%

4 20% 11 41% 16 20% 50 35%

8 Tests and Measurement

Physiological psychology

Infancy and Childhood Development

9 Cognitive Psychology

History and Systems Human Sexualit

10 Statistics Practicum or Field Experience

Special Topics/Survey of CurreTopics

Selected References American Psychological Association. (2013). 2014 Undergraduate Study

in Psychology: Curricula and Outcomes. Survey. American Psychological Association.

American Psychological Association. (2013). APA Guidelines for the

Undergraduate Psychology Major V 2.0. . Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/undergrad/index.aspx Cacioppo, J. T, & Freberg, L. A. (2013). Discovering Psychology: The

Science of Mind, Briefer Version (1st Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Perlman, B. & McCann, L. I. (1999). The Most Frequently Listed

Courses in the Undergraduate Psychology Curriculum. Teaching of Psychology, 26:3, 177-182.

Stoloff, M., McCarthy, M., Keller, L., Varfolomeeva, V., Lynch, J.,

Makara, K., &…Smiley, W. (2010). The Undergraduate Psychology Major: An Examination of Structure and Sequence. Teaching of Psychology, 37(1), 4-15.

ty

ent