The Department of Psychology offers minors in psychology, human diversity, and (coming soon) cognitive science. The undergraduate minor (15 credit hours) in psychology provides a broad canvas of behavior and mental processes to the students with other majors. Core courses provide a foundational appreciation of the areas and the electives provide a sample of how psychology may be viewed in its different domains. Students from different majors may select these electives based on their interests and careers.
Psychology Minor
Minor requirements for psychology include two core and three elective courses:
PSY1013 General Psychology (3 credit hours)
PSY2023 Abnormal Psychology (3 credit hours)
Psychology Electives (9 credit hours, including one junior or senior level course)
Total Minor Requirements (15 credit hours)
Human Diversity Minor
The undergraduate minor in Human Diversity (15 credit hours) provides students with a broad intellectual framework for understanding common human experience and differences. Courses fulfilling this requirement foster respect for the diversity in people and cultures within the bond of humankind. This minor examines differences and similarities in individual human behavior as related to issues such as race, ethnicity, gender, gender roles, creed, religion, culture, age, body type, physical conditions, sexual orientation, learning differences, social skills differences, intelligence level, regional differences, language, dialect, socioeconomic status, and other areas of individual and group differences.
The minor is jointly administered by the departments of psychology and sociology. Students are required to take 18 hours of coursework including Human Diversity (PSY 2373); Racial and Cultural Minorities (SOC 2193); Social Psychology (either SOC 3143 or PSY 3063—although we normally stress the deep differences between these two classes, for purposes of this minor either provides a useful foundation for considering interactions with diverse people); and nine hours of electives.
Core Required Courses:
PSY2373 Human Diversity (3 credit hours)
SOC2193 Racial and Cultural Minorities (3 credit hours)
PSY3063 Social Psychology or SOC3143 Social Psychology (3 credit hours)
Diversity Electives (9 Credit Hours, see Group A and B below)
Total Minor Requirements (18 credit hours)
Nine hours of electives from the following, including at least 3 hours from Group A:
Group A: Broader Diversity Issues
ANT4053/SOC4063 World Cultures (3 credit hours)
COM3413 Female/Male Communication (3 credit hours)
EDU4493 Global Studies (3 credit hours)
GEO2163 World Geography (3 credit hours)
PHI3023 Religions of the World (3 credit hours)
PSY2023 Abnormal Psychology (3 credit hours)
PSY3043 Cross-Cultural Psychology (3 credit hours)
SOC4263 Stratification and Poverty (3 credit hours)
SOC4293 Sociology of Gender Roles (3 credit hours)
SOC4383 Social Gerontology (3 credit hours)
Group B: Specialized Diversity Issues
ENG4483 Acquisition of English as a Second Language (3 credit hours)
FRE3223 French Culture and Civilization (3 credit hours)
GEO3153 Geography of Latin America (3 credit hours)
GER3223 German Culture and Civilization (3 credit hours)
HIS4333 American Women’s History (3 credit hours)
PSY2263 Developmental Psychology (3 credit hours)
PSY3113 Personality (3 credit hours)
SOC/HS4443 Human Services for the Aged (3 credit hours)
SPA3623 Civilization and Culture of Latin America (3 credit hours)
SPE 3013 Psychology of the Exceptional Child (3 credit hours) or
Any non-Western Culture course not in Group A
Classes used to meet the requirements of this minor may not also count toward major requirements. To promote exposure to a variety of perspectives on diversity issues, no more than 9 of the 18 hours may come from a single discipline without prior chair approval. Because studies in human diversity should include interaction with one’s fellow human beings, no coursework other than Multicultural Mental Health may be completed by distance learning (correspondence or Internet) for this minor. No course can count toward both the major and the minor for the same degree; for example, a Psychology student must take Abnormal Psychology as a core course and therefore cannot use it for this minor. When a course is required for both your major and your minor (e.g., SOC 2193 for a student majoring in Human Services and minoring in Human Diversity), you can only count the hours toward one of them and must take an additional elective for the other, subject to chair approval.
Cognitive Science Minor
This minor is designed to "enrich student understanding about many evolving ideas in cognitive sciences," where students will learn about how the human mind processes information. To complete the minor, a total of five courses are required. Philosophy of Mind (PHI4013) and Cognitive Psychology (PSY3153) serve as core courses; and any three electives from at least two groups below, such that two of them are not from the same department, will fulfill the rest of the course requirements.
Required Core Courses:
PHI4013 Philosophy of Mind (Philosophy)
PSY3153 Cognitive Psychology (Psychology)
Elective Courses:
Group A: Language and Formal Systems
CSC1104 Foundations of Computer Sci. I (Mathematics, Computer Sci. & Statistics)
MIS3153 Data Management (Manangment Information Systems)
ENG4663 Introduction to Linguistics (English)
PHI2133 Logic I (Philosophy)
PHI4143 Logic II (Philosophy)
Group B: Perception and Cognition
PHI4003 Special Topics: Mind Seminar (Philosophy)
PHI4233 Philosophy of Science (Philosophy)
PSY3003 Special Topics: Cognitive Neuroscience (Psychology)
Group C: Statistics*
GBU3133 Descriptive Analytics (School of Business)
PSY2143 Research Statistics (Psychology)
SOC3103 Statistics (Sociology)
STA2323 Statistical Methods (Mathematics, Computer Sci. & Statistics)
STA2054 Applied Biostatistics (Mathematics, Computer Sci. & Statistics)
*Students may take any one of these courses.