Major

Construct an understanding of human behaviour that integrates both environmental and biological/cognitive influences by majoring in psychology at UBC.

BA Psychology Program Outcomes

  • Apply foundational and current knowledge from at least three areas within psychology to predict behaviour
  • Use psychological research and theory to deepen insight into one’s own and others’ behaviour
  • Synthesize peer-reviewed research literature in psychology to answer questions about behaviour that are relevant personally or professionally, and/or to deepen knowledge of a topic in psychology
  • Critically evaluate claims about psychological topics presented in non-scholarly sources including the media
  • Conduct a basic experiment with human participants collaboratively with peers, including design, ethical approval, data collection, basic statistical analysis, and presentation
  • Interpret and create graphs and tables that summarize numerical data from various research designs used in psychology’s various subfields.Interpret and use basic descriptive and inferential statistics to solve problems.

Curriculum

In your second year after having completed PSYC 101 and 102, enrol in PSYC 217 and PSYC 218 by declaring your major (specialization) on the Student Service Centre. Students must be declared psychology majors in order to take PSYC 217 and 218, which are required for the major. Arts students who have declared majors in either cognitive systems or speech sciences are also eligible to take PSYC 217 and 218.

In third year, you’ll begin to specialize by selecting courses in a number of topic areas including:

  • Behavioural Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Science
  • Clinical, Forensic, and Health Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Foundations and Psychometrics
  • Personality and Social Psychology

The Department of Psychology requires at least 30 upper-level PSYC credits for the major program. None of PSYC 340, 388, 440, nor 488 may count towards this minimum.

Thinking about graduate studies or other research activities in psychology? Consider taking PSYC 359 in addition to the above-minimum requirements for your Bachelor of Arts degree.

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