Department of Psychology at Illinois State University
Required courses for the Major in Psychology must be taken for a letter grade. Courses taken as pass/fail or for credit/no credit will not count toward the Major in Psychology.
All of the following requirements must be completed for a total of at least 41 hours.
1. The following courses are required:
PSY 111 Introduction to Psychology
PSY 138 Reasoning in Psychology Using Statistics
PSY 200 Careers in Psychology
PSY 213 Lifespan Development
PSY 223 Social Psychology
PSY 231 Research Methods in Psychology
PSY 233 Psychology of Personality
PSY 253 Cognition and Learning
PSY 263 Physiological Psychology
PSY 331 Laboratory in Research Methods for Psychology
PSY 340 Statistics for the Social Sciences
Note:
1. See subsection 3a below about a course transferred from another college or university for PSY 111.
2. PSY 138 will fulfill the Quantitative Reasoning requirement for the General Education Middle Core.
3. Based on University policy, a maximum of three hours of General Education Middle and Outer Core courses in a student's major can count toward General Education credit.
2. Choose one of the following courses for a capstone experience:
PSY 390 Advanced Research Apprenticeship with the same faculty member after completing the prerequisite course PSY 290 Special Projects: Research Apprenticeship for 3 hours
PSY 391 Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Apprenticeship with the same faculty member after completing the prerequisite course PSY 291 Special Projects: Undergraduate Teaching for 3 hours
PSY 392 Senior Seminar
PSY 395 Professional Practice Seminar and PSY 398 Professional Practice in Psychology (3 hours) taken the same semester
IDS 395.03 Honors Thesis: Psychology (3 hours) and presentation of the thesis at the annual honors symposium
3. Six additional hours of 300-level PSY courses are required (excluding the courses identified above).
Note:
a. If a 3-hour course is transferred for PSY 111, a total of seven additional hours of PSY courses are required; six hours must be 300-level PSY courses.
b. No more than 16 hours of 100-level PSY courses or psychology courses transferred from community colleges may count toward the Major in Psychology.
Students may not register for more than 15 hours of any combination of the following courses: PSY 287, 290, 291, 299, 390, 391, 398, or IDS 395.03.
ENG 145 Writing in the Academic Disciplines
Two laboratory courses are required. This requirement can be met through the Inner Core General Education requirements at ISU because they are science courses that also have labs as part of the courses
One of the following four courses is required:
MAT 120 Finite Mathematic
MAT 121 Applied Calculus
MAT 144 Precalculus
MAT 145 Calculus I
Note: MAT 120 or MAT 145 fulfills the Mathematics requirement for the General Education Inner Core and IAI Mathematics. MAT 121 fulfills the Quantitative Reasoning requirement for the General Education Middle Core.
One Philosophy course is required.
Note: Several Philosophy courses are included in the General Education Middle Core and Outer Core.
Students should use the Major Checklist to keep track of their progress toward completing the Major in Psychology. Click on the link to download either version of the Major Checklist to the computer.
The Microsoft Word version is an interactive document that can be periodically updated and saved as a MS Word file. Adobe® Acrobat® is needed to access the PDF version. If the PDF version does not download to the computer, click on Adobe Reader to download a free copy of the software. The PDF version is not an interactive file. The checklist can be printed and the paper copy retained in order to update course information.