Suggested Progress through the Psychology Major
Freshman Year
Psychology 201:
General Psychology (3 credits)
Psychology 202:
General Psychology (3 credits)
Biology 102 (or Biology 213):
General Biology (4 credits)
Biology 103 (or Biology 212):
General Biology (4 credits)
Scientific study of behavior and experience. Biological bases of behavior; sensation and perception;
conditioning, learning and memory; thinking, problem solving, language, and consciousness; cognitive,
personal and social development.
Motivation and emotion; personality; measurement of human differences; adjustment, psychopathology
and psychotherapy; attitudes and social behavior.
Mendelian genetics, molecular genetics, human genetics, genetic engineering, evolution, and behavior. An
introductory course in the principles and methods of biology, intended for majors in fields other than the
biological sciences.
Human anatomy and physiology, and human diseases. An introductory course in the principles and
methods of biology, intended for majors in fields other than the biological sciences.
Sophomore Year
Philosophy 121:
Reasoning and Writing (3 credits)
or
Writing 327:
Technical Writing (3 credits)
Statistics 351:
Descriptive Statistics (4 credits)
Statistics 352:
Intro to Statistical Methods (4 credits)
Develops critical thinking skills to increase clarity and effectiveness of student writing; uses writing
experiences to teach critical thinking skills. Subjects include identifying and evaluating arguments,
analyzing assumptions, justifying claims with reasons, avoiding confused or dishonest reasoning, applying
common patterns of reasoning in everyday contexts, and writing cogent complex arguments.
OR
Continued practice in writing with an emphasis on the rhetorical and critical thinking demands of writers in
scientific and technological fields.
Descriptive statistics, random variables, normal distribution, sampling distributions, confidence intervals
and hypothesis tests for means using one and two samples.
Simple and multiple linear regression, correlation, analysis of categorical data.
Junior Year
Psychology 301:
Research Methods in Psychology (4 credits)
300 level Survey course (4 credits)
300 level Survey course (4 credits)
300 level Survey course (4 credits)
Study of scientific methodology in psychology, including experimental and observational techniques. Topics
include problem identification and hypothesis formation, research design, application of statistics, collection
and interpretation of data, computer usage, and research report writing.
Choose between: PSY 330 or 340
Choose between: PSY 350 or 360
Choose between: PSY 370 and 381
Senior Year
300 level Survey course (4 credits)
400 level Advanced Elective (4 credits)
400 level Advanced Elective (4 credits)
400 level Advanced Elective (4 credits)
400 level Advanced Elective (4 credits)
Psychology WIC : (4 credits)
Choose one additional 300 level course.
Choose four courses from the 400 level offerings.
Choose either PSY 434, 440, 460, 470, or 480.
Suggested Progress through the Psychology Major
Students who want to graduate in a timely manner will pay close attention to the following sequencing:
Statistics 351
This course must be taken prior to either Statistics
352 OR Psychology 301.
This course is only offered:
Fall, Winter and Summer terms.
It is available online, but students tend to do better
taking the course in person.
Statistics 352
This course must be taken after Statistics 351, but is not
a pre-requisite for either Psychology 301 or the
Psychology WIC.
This course is only offered:
Winter, Spring and Summer terms.
It is available online, but students tend to do better
taking the course in person.
Psychology 301
This course must be taken after Statistics 351, but before
the Psychology WIC course. It can be taken before or
after Statistics 351. It is not recommended to take PSY
301 and ST 352 concurrently as they are both rigorous.
This course is only offered:
Fall and Spring terms.
It is not available online.
Psychology WIC
This course must be taken after Psychology 301,
and after Statistics 351. It can be taken before
Statistics 352.
This course is only offered: Fall, Winter, and
Spring.
It is not available online and must be taken on the
Oregon State University campus. It cannot be
transferred in.