Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of all forms of human and animal behavior. The Department of Psychology at Saint Joseph’s University offers students an exciting and challenging curriculum. The broad range of courses provides opportunities for understanding how psychological research is conducted, as well as how psychology is applied in clinical and business settings. The full spectrum of activities and concerns of psychologists are covered, with consideration given to ethical issues.

University students with a wide range of interests find Psychology personally appealing and professionally relevant. Students use the Psychology major as a gateway to a diverse range of employment opportunities, in the health and legal professions, human resources and management positions, education and school counseling, and other social, industrial and organizational situations. Students wishing to pursue careers in the mental health professions can take advantage of our Clinical Concentration. For those students interested in pursuing graduate study in Psychology, the Department offers training in the areas of behavioral neuroscience, clinical psychology and neuropsychology, behavioral pediatrics, social psychology, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology.

Our graduates are currently college professors, researchers, school psychologists, clinical psychologists, counselors, developmental psychologists, personnel managers, educators, learning disability specialists, social workers, physicians, attorneys, and successful businessmen and women.

Departmental Mission

Few abilities are more central to a person’s successful and productive functioning in modern society than the sophisticated, insightful appreciation of human behavior. The psychology curriculum provides a theoretical and scientific framework for students to understand and measure human behavior, in ways that benefit individuals and organizations.

The Department promotes excellence through the teacher/scholar model and provides an atmosphere for students to be intellectually curious, socially responsible, to reason well, and to become independent learners. This academic experience will change the way they conceive of their world and themselves and will promote a life-long commitment to social justice and learning.

The Department serves its academic discipline and the larger community through faculty scholarship and the preparation of future scholars, as well as providing students with the intellectual, interpersonal, and communication skills that promote success in a variety of career paths.

The Department of Psychology supports the University’s mission by:

• Excelling in teaching, scholarship, and service.
• Making a vital contribution to the general education of the University’s students.
• Modeling cura personalis through advising, mentoring, community and professional service, and assuming positions of leadership within and outside the University.
• Preparing courses that reflect the historic roots of the discipline as well as contemporary thought, and making explicit the connections between basic science and real world applications.
• Emphasizing professional ethics of psychology as a discipline.
• Conducting and disseminating high quality research, in partnership with students.
• Providing students with experientially based learning.
• Preparing students to contribute to the common good.