Psychology
Photo: Tamara Thatcher
Psychology is the science of mental life and of the relations between mind, brain, and behavior. It involves the systematic observation and analysis of human perception, cognition, and social interaction, and includes relevant study of other species. The Department of Psychology focuses on three broad areas of psychology: cognition and perception; social, personal, and clinical psychology; and cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. For those interested in scientific research, such tools as magnetic resonance imaging make it an exciting time to be an experimental psychologist. Psychology offers a broad liberal arts education, with important links to a wide range of other disciplines, including molecular biology, philosophy and cognitive science, linguistics, computer science, sociology, and public policy. The psychology major offers an excellent preparation for medical or law school. Other students pursue a career in psychology, either immediately or after graduate training. Psychology further has expanding applications in such areas as environmental control, community organization, biomedical engineering, education, health, social work, advertising, industry, and business.
What Students Say
• What is psychology?
• What can you learn from it?
• What is it like being a psychology major?
• What are common misconceptions about psychology majors?
• What kind of internships and international experiences have psychology majors had?
• How will psychology majors save the world?
• Why would anyone want to date a psychology major?
What is psychology?
• What can you learn from it?
• What is it like being a psychology major?
• What are common misconceptions about psychology majors?
• What kind of internships and international experiences have psychology majors had?
• How will psychology majors save the world?
• Why would anyone want to date a psychology major?
What is psychology?
Psychology is the study of mind, brain, and behavior. It can be divided into separate areas of study, such as social psychology, developmental psychology, cognitive psychology, neuroscience and clinical psychology. Princeton's psychology department divides professors and classes into three areas: social, cognitive and neuroscience. These divisions are not strict, however, and interdisciplinary research is common. Psychological researchers use techniques such as fMRI and EEG, as well as behavioral experiments, to try to explain our mental processes and behavior.
Back to Top
What can you learn from it?Psychology applies the scientific method to explore how people think, behave, and interact with others. Classes teach everything from the science of personality to how the brain processes music to how people make decisions in competitive environments. Independent work allows you to explore topics of particular interest within the field and to employ the methods of psychology yourself. Knowledge accrued during your studies can be put to use in research, medical professions, business and daily life.
Back to Top
What is it like being a psychology major?
One great thing about psychology at Princeton is that the course requirements are really broad. Beyond the required PSY101 (Introduction to Psych) and PSY251 (Stats),you have to take one social, one cognitive/developmental, and one neuroscience class at the 200 level and then classes in at least two subdivisions (social vs. cognitive vs. neuro) at the 300+ level, but beyond that you can choose what type of courses you want to take. You can also get courses in other departments, such as sociology or linguistics, to count towards your major if you demonstrate that they are applicable. This can be a particularly rewarding opportunity to get multiple perspectives on key issues.
As for independent work, you have the choice of doing either two JPs (one in the fall and one in the spring) or four JPs (three smaller papers in the fall and one in the spring). The former option is for students who already know who they want to work with, while the second gives you the opportunity to work with three randomly selected professors to see who you'd like to work with in the spring. Many people do their own experiments for their thesis, while some also use new research for their spring JP.
While many introductory psychology classes are quite large, class sizes shrink considerably in the upper division. Taking specialized seminars with around a dozen classmates is not uncommon during junior and senior years. Despite the demands of world-class research, professors in the psychology department tend to be exceptionally accessible. Professors are eager to share their wealth of knowledge with students. The department's graduate students, who run most precepts and labs, are extremely competent and personable. Working closely with a graduate student as a research assistant can greatly enhance one's understanding of the field and its ethos.
The Program in Neuroscience, which offers a certificate to undergraduates, is closely involved with the psychology department. Many psychology students choose to pursue this certificate, which involves certain required classes and a thesis involving neuroscience.
One common view of psychology at Princeton is that it's an easy major. Except for a few majors, such as math or chemistry, most majors at Princeton can be made either 'easy' or 'hard' — they're what you make of them. Yes, you can snake your way around requirements, slack on independent work, and have a pretty easy time being a psychology major, but if you really take advantage of the wonderful professors in the department and all the research going on, then psychology will not be easy. Many upper-level classes have a lab section, especially cognitive psych classes. Students interested in pursuing psychological research after graduation need a working knowledge of programming and many statistical techniques.
Another misconception is that theses in the Psych Department don't use “real research” and that students just do surveys. This is not true. Many students do use surveys as their primary research, but it is definitely possible to use other techniques for your research, such as fMRI, EEG, or behavioral designs using E-prime or other programming software.
Each year a few psychology majors choose to study abroad, usually in Australia at the University of Queensland or the University of Melbourne where there is a psychology program in place. But it is also possible to study abroad in any country you choose. While abroad, students work with both a Princeton adviser (over e-mail) and local advisers. The department is very accommodating of foreign study and sometimes changes deadlines for independent work based on foreign school schedules.
Back to Top
One could talk about how advancing our understanding of a huge variety of disorders (from schizophrenia to autism to depression), normal and abnormal behaviors, childhood development, and so forth will eventually lead not just to a better understanding of people but to better ways to treat and possibly cure a wide range of disorders. Or about how all that clinical psychology research will eventually find a way to make everyone happy.
But really, if the world was perfect, we wouldn't have anything to study.
Back to Top
Psychology majors make good conversation partners because they can turn interesting studies from class into amusing anecdotes.