This course is designed to be an introduction to psychological research methods by dividing experimental psychology and the scientific process into four core themes: the building blocks of scientific thinking, foundational competencies for scientific research, methodological considerations, and the social responsibility of dissemination. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the ethics of conducting research, formulating questions and hypotheses, writing scientific papers, and ultimately, becoming better, more critical consumers of scientific information. Students learn skills including how to critically approach and analyze a psychological research report. This is a writing-intensive course where you will also learn skills that you can use in the workplace, including oral and written communication skills, research and information literacy, and computer skills.

From self-help books to the latest task-tracking app, it can seem as though ample motivation is all that stands in the way of life’s successes. But is it really that simple? In this course, we will explore this dilemma and more by diving into the major theories of motivation and self-regulation. Taking an empirical approach, we will explore how we set goals, effortfully pursue them, resist temptations, break bad habits, and develop new ones. However, this isn’t the whole story. In the second half of the course, we will examine key drawbacks and limitations of human motivation, such as whether it is possible to have “too much” motivation, what happens when we give up on our goals, and the role of self-regulation in psychopathology. This course will outline the development, interrelations, and contradictions of the different approaches to understanding motivation and self-regulation, ultimately challenging and refining our understandings of human agency, self-directed behavior, and beyond.

This course is designed as an introduction to basic aspects of personality functioning and social behavior via empirical research. Although the course reviews some of the overarching theories of personality in part for historical context, the central aim will be to examine the interactive relationship between individual human qualities and societal/situational forces. The first half of the course centers on issues of measurement, conceptualizations of a person as stable, and challenges to static understandings of human behavior. In the second half of the course, we build on these foundational issues by understanding conceptions of the self, within broader cultural and developmental contexts, as well as when functioning is less-than-optimal.

Groan-worthy rom-coms, cheesy pick-up lines, and bad dates ranging from hilarious to perilous—navigating romantic relationships can be treacherous. This course critically examines how romantic relationships are affected by the social world. Drawing on diverse perspectives across psychology, sociology, feminist scholarship, and queer theory, we will investigate how relationships in contemporary western society are formed, maintained, and dissolved, as well as the ways in which relationship dynamics can become unhealthy or dangerous. We will place special focus on examining the ways in which society writ large (e.g., scripts, identities), interpersonal interactions (e.g., status, power), and psychological factors (e.g., self-regulation, self-concept) shape constructions of sexuality and romance. Ultimately, our collective goals are to interrogate how public discourse and mainstream culture shape understandings of intimate partner violence, to consider how we can all be agentic in challenging the systems of inequality embedded in romantic relationships, and maybe even to improve how we manage our own romantic endeavors.

This course aims to provide students with tools for evaluating data from quantitative psychological research. Students will gain familiarity with data description, significance tests, confidence intervals, linear regression, analysis of variance, and other related topics.

All new undergraduate and master’s students participating as research assistants in our research lab are required to take part in an informal, two semester long education sequence. Though not taken for credit or graded in any capacity, these readings and workshops are designed to provide additional hands-on training and guidance that students might not be able to receive in their other coursework. Lessons span a range of topics including professional issues for psychology majors, best practices in psychological science, hands-on writing & statistics workshops, and high-level discussions about philosophy of science, among others.