Psychology Transfer Articulation Pathway and Degree Program
The Psychology Transfer Articulation Pathway provides the pathway from all
12 community colleges to all five of the 4-yr institutions.
Justification for Designated General Education Courses
Within the Psychology Transfer Articulation Pathway and Degree Program,
there are two courses that must be designated within the Framework30.
1) MAT*16X /201, Principles of Statistics for the Quantitative Reasoning
competency. This is offered as MAT 167 or 165 at most of the community
colleges and as MAT 201 at Norwalk Community College. Psychology majors
at two gaining institutions (CCSU and CO) are required to take an equivalent
Statistics course for the Gen Ed Quantitative requirement, and it is a
prerequisite for required Psychology courses. It is not a requirement for
Psychology majors at ECSU, SCSU, and WCSU, but many students do take it
to fulfill their Gen Ed Quantitative requirement, and the representatives from
these schools all support making MAT16X/201 a designated requirement in the
Framework30 for Psychology. Additionally, most of the Community Colleges
already require or strongly recommend MAT 16X/201 for students planning to
obtain a bachelors degree in Psychology, so requiring it as the designated
Quantitative Reasoning Competency course in the Psychology pathway is
consistent with current practice.
2) ENG 101, English Composition for the Written Communication I
competency. This is already a standard requirement in Liberal Arts degree
programs at the community colleges. It is also a pre- or co-requisite for PSY
111, a required course in the Pathway, at some of the schools.
Explanation of Pathway30 Courses
Additional General Education Courses
General Education Electives 1 & 2:
We included these on the recommendation of Ken Klucznik and Candace
Barrington. The rationale is to have students complete as many of the Gen Ed
requirements as possible at the community college, giving them more flexibility
in course selection at the four-year school. This is especially important for
CCSU, where students are expected to complete an 18-credit minor in addition
to the Psychology major.
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Major Program Requirements
PSY*111, General Psych I:
PSY*111 course is required for Psychology majors at all five of the four-year
schools, and we considered listing it as a required course for Social
Phenomena in the Framework30. We did not, for two reasons:
1) It has not yet been vetted as a Social Phenomena course at all
Community Colleges, and we've gotten indications that some schools are
not including it;
2) At ECSU and SCSU, PSY 100 (the PSY*111 equivalent) is taken by
Psychology majors to fulfill a Gen Ed requirement, and is technically not
part of the major. In contrast, at WCSU, it is part of the major and is not
taken as a Gen Ed course by Psychology majors.
Our hope is that students who are (1) at a CC where PSY*111 is an
approved Social Phenomena course, and (2) are transferring to a school
(e.g. ECSU) where Psychology majors take PSY 100 as a Gen Ed course,
will be able to count PSY*111 as their Framework30 Social Phenomena
course.
Additional 9 – 12 credits in Psychology:
After PSY 111, our goal in selecting the remaining Major Program
requirements was to ensure that any selected combination of courses would
all count toward major requirements at all five of the four-year schools. This
was a challenge, because each of the four-year schools has a different set of
course groupings within their major requirements, and some have specific
course requirements that the other schools don't have.
We were also constrained by differences in course offerings at the different
community colleges.
• All of the community colleges regularly offer PSY*245 (Abnormal Psych), so
we made it a required course in the Pathway.
• All community colleges regularly offer at least one development-oriented
course (PSY*200 – 208, Child, Adolescent, Lifespan, and Adult Psychology
courses) but the selection varies greatly across schools; therefore, we simply
require one course from the entire group of courses.
• Finally, almost all of the community colleges offer at least one, and usually
two, of PSY*240 (Social), PSY*243 (Personality) and PSY*247
(Industrial/Organizational Psychology), so we required one or two from this
group. The only exception is Northwestern CT Community College, which
has limited Psychology offerings.
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As it turns out, any given selection of courses from the Pathway will map onto
major requirements at all five four-year schools, although exactly how they
align will differ substantially across schools and course selection.
Unrestricted Electives:
PSY*112 (General Psychology II):
Students in the Pathway are strongly encouraged (but not required) to take
PSY*112. Some background information: Almost all of the community
colleges have split General Psychology into a two-semester sequence,
consistent with UConn. However, all of the four-year colleges in our system
have a one-semester Intro course; there is no equivalent to PSY*112.
At many of the community colleges, PSY*112 is essentially a requirement for
students on the Psychology track, and is a prerequisite for several Psychology
courses (including some in our Pathway). At other community colleges,
though, PSY*112 is offered on a limited basis (if at all) and is not part of the
standard Psychology sequence.
In some cases, PSY*112 can be transfer in as a Psychology elective within the
major (e.g. CCSU, ECSU), but in other cases it transfers in as a general
university elective (e.g. at SCSU).
It may also be the case that PSY*112 will be approved as a Framework30 Gen
Ed course at some community colleges.
We struggled over whether PSY*112 should be required within the pathway.
We did not want to institute a rule that would require faculty at any community
college to change the way they deliver their courses. The wording we settled
on ("strongly encourage") is a compromise to allow community colleges leeway
in how heavily they emphasize PSY*112.
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