Bard College Catalogue 2009-2010
2009-2010

Psychology

http://psychology.bard.edu

Faculty

Overview

The science of psychology is a quest to understand the human mind and behavior. Bard psychology faculty and students seek to answer questions about the workings of the brain; the interactions of brain, mind, and behavior; the person in social context; the development of the person throughout childhood and adulthood; the nature of thinking and language; and the problems and pathologies that people develop, along with methods of helping them. The Psychology Program is rooted in the idea that mind and behavior are best understood from multiple, intersecting levels of analysis, ranging from biological mechanisms and individual psychological processes to social, cultural, and other environmental influences.
The Psychology Program offers all students the opportunity to learn how the unique perspectives and empirical methods of psychology can illuminate human thought and behavior. The language and analytical approaches of psychology have become a common basis for many professional endeavors, making students who concentrate in psychology well equipped for graduate study in this field, as well as in a variety of related career pursuits.

Areas of Study

The program of study provides grounding in the areas of clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, counseling psychology, developmental psychology, neuroscience, and social psychology. It provides a thorough foundation in empirical methodology and analysis, and offers opportunities to participate in meaningful research and laboratory experiences.
In brief, clinical psychology is both an applied discipline and a research-oriented science that pertains to the study of psychopathology (i.e., psychological disorders), personality, and psychotherapy. Cognitive psychology seeks to understand how the human brain governs action, imagination, decision making, and communication. Developmental psychology in-volves the study of change (both growth and decline) over the life span, including changes in cognition, social interaction, and brain development. Neuroscience focuses on understanding the structure and function of the central and peripheral nervous systems as it investigates questions of brain and behavioral development, normal brain function, and disease processes. Counseling psychology studies the needs of persons undergoing normal developmental problems throughout the life span. Finally, social psychology is the scientific study of people in their social contexts, emphasizing the empirical study of behavior and social thought, preferences, and feelings about oneself, one’s social groups, and others. Course sequences appropriate for each area of study are available at the Psychology Program website.

Requirements

Prior to Moderation, students are required to take Introduction to Psychology, Psychology 103, preferably in the first year (although a score of 5 on the AP psychology exam fulfills the requirement), and a sophomore sequence of Introduction to Statistics (Psychology 203) in the fall and Research Methods in Psychology (Psychology 204) in the spring. Additionally, at least one 200-level course should be taken prior to Moderation. In the Upper College, moderated students are required to take at least one additional 200-level course and two 300-level courses (seminars and/or laboratory courses).

Opportunities for Additional Learning:Students are strongly encouraged to pursue opportunities for research or community-based practicum experiences that complement their regular course work and that connect academic learning with practical applications. The program offers independent laboratory courses in clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, and neuroscience under the direction of program faculty that provide ideal opportunities for learning how to conduct research in each psychology discipline. In addition, opportunities exist in local communities for students to pursue interests in developmental, clinical, and counseling psychology. Students are also encouraged to gain experience through summer research opportunities in the Bard Summer Research Institute. Students have also been successful at obtaining summer research positions at major universities.

Recent Senior Projects in Psychology:

“Full of Ourselves: An Extension and Evaluation of an Eating Disorder Prevention Program for Adolescent Girls”
“Moral Development: An Exploration in Competing Theoretical Typologies”
“Scents of Things Past: A Naturalistic Investigation of the Proust Phenomenon”
“The SSRI Sertraline Decreases Locomotor Activity but Has No Effect on Learning in Zebrafish”

Courses

The course descriptions that follow are listed numerically, from introductory 100-level courses to 300-level Upper College courses and seminars.

Introduction to Psychology
Psychology 103
A survey of the academic discipline of psychology, organized around five main questions: How do humans (and, where relevant, other animals) act? How do they know? How do they interact? How do they develop? How do they differ from one another?

Introduction to Social Psychology
Psychology 115
Social psychology is the study of the social world and how it influences people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It covers a broad range of topics, such as prejudice, aggression, persuasion, attitudes, group dynamics, and the ways we try to understand others and ourselves. This team-taught course is designed to emphasize both the “classic” findings and the newest developments in social psychology, and to explore the pathways between them.

Introduction to Statistics for Psychology
Psychology 203
An introduction to the concepts and methods of statistics, aimed at helping students gain a fundamental grasp of the tools needed to understand and conduct research in psychology. Topics include frequency distributions and probability, descriptive statistics, simple correlation and regression, sampling distributions, t-tests, and basic analysis of variance. This course is the first of a two-course sequence in statistics and research methods that is required of all prospective psychology majors.

Research Methods in Psychology
Psychology 204
cross-listed: cognitive science
This course is a continuation of Psychology 203. Its objectives are to extend the skills and abilities students have already acquired and to provide an introduction to research methods and data analyses through readings, lectures, class discussions, and hands-on laboratory experience. There is a strong emphasis on learning to present research results in different ways. Ethical issues are discussed at each stage of the research process, and students develop their ability to assess research critically.

Development and Psychopathology
Psychology 210
This course investigates the early and multiple factors contributing to psychopathology emerging in childhood, as well as the diagnostic and treatment standards now in practice. Students work from an empirically based developmental psychopathology perspective, with an emphasis on the risk and protective factors that shape abnormal and normal developmental trajectories. The course explores various models for understanding maladaptive development through the examination of current research and diagnostic practices in specific diagnostic areas.

Theories of Personality
Psychology 213
Although building grand theories of personality has gone out of fashion in contemporary psychology, these systems play an important role in understanding the history of psychology and continue to provide central, although often implicit, frameworks for clinical thinking. This course reviews the major theories of personality, including but not limited to those of Freud, Jung, Sullivan, Rogers, and Kelly. A central perspective is how the biography of the theorist and various historical and intellectual influences came to shape the theory.

Developmental Psychology
Psychology 216
This course explores the many ways in which humans grow and change across the life span, and the ways that cultures deal with these changes. The physical, motor, cognitive, intellectual, emotional, personality, and social changes from infancy and childhood through old age are examined. Textbook, research articles, and popular writings on the nature of growth and decline at different life stages are used to facilitate discussion and writing. Prerequisite: Psychology 103.

Intelligence Testing and the Struggle for Ideological Domination
Psychology 225
cross-listed: sre, sts
Scientists from disciplines as diverse as biology, psychology, and sociology have asserted that intelligence is genetically determined and unequally distributed, not only among individuals but also among races, social classes, and men and women. This “fact” has been cited to explain or justify social inequalities related to education, crime, income, and political power. This course evaluates the evidence for the above claim and explores various approaches to the testing of intelligence.

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Psychology 228
This course is about how people perceive, remember, and think about information. The major topics covered include object recognition, memory, concept formation, language, visual knowledge, judgment, reasoning, problem solving, and conscious and unconscious thought. The course also considers the neural underpinnings of these topics. Prerequisite: Psychology 103 or permission of the instructor.

Social Cognition
Psychology 229
This course explores how people reason about and understand both other people and themselves. Topics include memory about people, attitudes and stereotypes, and development of the social self, among others. Students consider whether thinking about people is an extension of more general modes of thought that are simply applied to people, or if it comprises a unique set of psychological processes. Readings include classic and current works in social cognition, including original empirical papers and work from the field of social cognitive neuroscience. Prerequisite: Psychology 103.

Introduction to Neuroscience
Psychology 230
The ability to express thoughts and emotions and to interact with the environment largely depends on the function of the nervous system. This course examines basic concepts and methods in the study of brain, mind, and behavior. Topics include the structure and function of the central nervous system, brain development, learning and memory, emotion, sensory and motor systems, the assessment of human brain damage, and clinical disorders such as schizophrenia, epilepsy, and Parkinson’s disease.

Counseling from a Multicultural Perspective
Psychology 235
cross-listed: africana studies, sre
While some mental health needs are commonly shared, how they are met often resonates in unique ways within and among diverse communities. This course explores the history, aims, and assumptions of traditional counseling; examines innovative approaches to diversity-sensitive practices with African Americans, Latino/a people, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and Caucasians; and expands the counseling repertoire with the attitudes, beliefs, knowledge, and skills needed to effectively and sensitively serve clients from diverse racial, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds.

Clinical Psychology
Psychology 238
Clinical psychology involves the integration of research, theory, and therapy/consultation to better understand, predict, prevent, and/or treat psychological illnesses and symptoms. It also promotes functional adaptation and “healthy” forms of coping. This course provides a broad overview and critical evaluation of various clinical approaches to assessment, research, and treatment. In addition, it considers current controversies in the field, addresses ethical issues, and discusses what being a clinical psychologist entails. Prerequisite: Psychology 103.

Abnormal Psychology
Psychology 241
A review of the principal forms of psychopathology, with an emphasis on clinical definition, formal diagnosis, etiology, and treatment. The system of psychiatric diagnosis offered by the DSM-IV is utilized in defining clinical syndromes including anxiety disorders, conversion disorders, psychophysiological disorders, antisocial and impulse disorders, schizophrenia, affective disorders, alcoholism, and eating disorders. Case descriptions are also included in the reading.

Theoretical Exploration of Helping Skills
Psychology 242
cross-listed: africana studies
This course examines the basic helping skills that support the foundation of most psychological and interpersonal interventions, as well as the theoretical foundations from which they are derived. Using a three-stage, research-based process model of exploration, insight, and action, the course highlights and relates the facilitative skills of each stage to the theory or theories that inform them. Course work includes laboratory exercises, videos, and discussions. Prerequisite: Sophomore II or Upper College status.

Personality
Psychology 245
A broad overview of the major historical and contemporary psychological theories of personality and their applications. Theories covered include, but are not limited to, psychoanalytic, neoanalytic, existential, humanist, behavioral, cognitive, and trait. The applications of personality theory to the understanding of health and behavior (i.e., clinical applications) and Axis II personality disorders are also considered.

Human Memory
Psychology 248
This course is an overview of classic theories and current research in human learning and memory. Students evaluate models of memory, including debates on the cognitive representations of knowledge. They examine the role of awareness in memory, false memory, the biological bases of memory, diseases and disorders of memory, and methods for brain imaging. Prerequisite: 100-level course in psychology or biology, or permission of the instructor.

Drugs and Human Behavior
Psychology 252
cross-listed: sts
An exploration of the biological bases for the behavioral effects of several psychoactive substances including therapeutic compounds, such as antipsychotics and antidepressants, and drugs of abuse. The course focuses on mechanisms of drug action and physiological and behavioral effects. Broader societal issues such as drug addiction, drug policies and testing, and controversial therapeutic interventions are discussed in relation to selected compounds. Prerequisite: an introductory psychology or biology course, or permission of the instructor.

Introduction to Counseling Psychology
Psychology 253
This comprehensive overview covers the history of the field and addresses the four paradigms that comprise the fundamental approaches to counseling: psychoanalytic/ psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic/ experiential, and multiculturalism. It examines counseling techniques, assessment in counseling, career development, interventions, group procedures, and consultation.

Psycholinguistics
Psychology 256
cross-listed: cognitive science
An introduction to the field of psycholinguistics: the study of the relationship between language and cognition. The goal of the course is to develop a deeper understanding of this relationship, by examining how language is represented, processed, and acquired, and related issues. Research areas relevant to psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, and neuroscience are addressed.

Language Technologies
Psychology 260
cross-listed: sts
Why is language processing so difficult for a computer when an average 3-year-old child can do it comparatively easily? To demonstrate how the properties of different languages present special computational challenges, this course contrasts English and Japanese—in part because of the phonological and graphemic properties of these languages, but also due to the availability of software. Prerequisites: a course in psychology, experience with a second language, and consent of the instructor.

Theories of Counseling
Psychology 261
cross-listed: sre
An overview of selected counseling models. The attraction of these models is their potential for wide application to normal developmental issues by counselors and social workers and for teaching self-counseling skills. Students examine these models in the context of their historical or intellectual origins. The approaches explored include psychoanalytic (Freud), person-centered (Rogers), Adlerian therapy (Adler), reality therapy (Glasser), behavior therapy (Lazarus), cognitive behavior therapy (Ellis), and family systems (Minuchin).

Adult Psychotherapy
Psychology 264
This course examines various forms of adult psychopathology (i.e., psychological disorders) within the contexts of theoretical conceptualizations, research, and treatment. Etiology and pathogenesis of symptoms (both core and associated), diagnostic classifications, and treatment applications are addressed. Adult forms of psychopathology that receive the primary emphasis of study include anxiety, mood, psychotic, and substance-related disorders. Prerequisite: Psychology 103 or permission of the instructor.

Mind, Brain, and Religious Experience in the 21st Century
Psychology 266
cross-listed: cognitive science, sts, theology
This course examines modern approaches to understanding the role of neural systems in mediating conscious everyday experience and mind alterations during religious experience. Mechanisms of sensation, perception, and consciousness are discussed with an emphasis on their alterations during a variety of paths to religious experience, including prayer and meditation. The course also considers the locus of religious experiences within diverse religious systems, including the cultivation and interpretation of various states of consciousness.

Introduction to School Counseling: Multicultural Perspective
Psychology 267
The rapidly changing demographics of our schools and communities reflect a broadening of the cultural architecture of America. How education and psychology continue to handle the ramifications for this diverse landscape of children is the challenge of the future. This course examines the efforts of schools to make the existing K–12 school counseling programs more comprehensive, developmental, preventive, data-driven, and culturally responsive to the needs of all children.

Seminar in Cognitive Science
Psychology 308
cross-listed: philosophy
Juniors and seniors studying cognitive science are strongly urged to take this two-credit course. Each student presents research in progress or a significant paper from the current literature. The purpose of the seminar is to help students become familiar with a cross-section of current cognitive science research, including topics from cognitive psychology, neuroscience, computational modeling, philosophy of mind, linguistics, music cognition, and artificial intelligence. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

Current Treatments of Psychological Disorders
Psychology 319
Clinical psychology and psychotherapy have undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Classical approaches to treatment, although contributing much to our understanding of how therapeutic relationships work, have been replaced by newer approaches that emphasize cognitive and behavioral processes and the development of more efficient, evidence-based approaches to behavioral change and the resolution of symptoms. This course uses David Barlow’s Clinical Handbook of Psychological Disorders to examine a number of these newer approaches. Prerequisite: a previous course in psychological disorders or abnormal psychology.

Anxiety and Its Disorders
Psychology 325
Everyone feels anxious at various points in their lives. For some, however, such anxiousness becomes extreme, incapacitating, and perceived as beyond the person’s control. Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent, and the most treatable, of all psychological illnesses. This course provides a detailed overview and critical analysis of anxiety disorders with particular focus on the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment of such disorders. Recent psychological and cognitive-behavioral models and approaches, and related empirical findings, are emphasized. Prerequisites: Psychology 241, 245, or 264.

Psychology of Prejudice and Stereotyping
Psychology 337
cross-listed: sre
This course focuses on the empirical study of intergroup relations. It is designed to provide an overview of the social psychological study of issues in prejudice and stereotyping. The bulk of the course examines the cognitive, affective, and motivational origins of stereotyping and prejudice, but students also explore the experience of being a target of prejudice. A broad range of social groups are considered, including gender and ethnicity, as are scientifically based means of prejudice reduction.

History and Systems of Psychology
Psychology 338
Theoretical insights and conceptualizations of human behavior are traced from the speculations of the ancient Greeks to current advances in psychology and other social science disciplines. Because a discipline is also about the people who advance it, students review the lives, times, and ideas of individuals who have made significant contributions to the field, among them James, Pavlov, Freud, Skinner, and Asch. Critical analyses and integrations of current conceptual understandings of thought, emotion, and behavior are juxtaposed with historical renderings.

Brain Mechanisms and Addictive Behavior
Psychology 347
Rapid strides have been made recently in our understanding of the neurological underpinnings of addiction. This research conference provides a brief history of our understanding of the mechanisms of brain reward systems and how findings have led to modern concepts of addictive behavior. Students analyze contemporary theoretical and neurobiological approaches to conceptualizing and treating addictive behaviors, particularly drug abuse, and examine the extension of the addiction concept to such behaviors as gambling, eating, and sexual activity.

The Work and Legacy of Stanley Milgram
Psychology 348
cross-listed: sts
It has been more than 40 years since the work of Stanley Milgram demonstrated that large numbers of individuals, in multiple samples of men and women studied, were willing to punish another person when ordered to do so by an experimenter. This seminar considers the prominence of Milgram’s work and its continued relevance to the study of social psychology.

Developmental Neuroscience
Psychology 349
This course explores the neurobiological and neurobehavioral aspects of animal and human development. Processes of normal brain behavioral and cognitive development are discussed, with an emphasis on understanding vulnerabilities of the developing nervous system to insults such as drugs and environmental stressors. Primary source journal articles and excerpts from texts are used to investigate how animal models, including zebrafish, are used to understand processes of human development and psychopathology. This course satisfies the research conference requirement.

Eating Disorders: Clinical and Cultural Perspectives
Psychology 354
cross-listed: gss
This course reviews clinical conceptions of eating disorders and research and cultural issues relating to them. A clinical discussion of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa is supplemented by classic accounts by master clinicians such as Hilde Bruch and Arthur Crisp, as well as research articles covering the biology and genetics of eating disorders, the question of whether such disorders are on a continuum with “normal” dieting and body image concerns, and other topics.

Psychological Research on Sex and Gender
Psychology 355
cross-listed: gss
What does it mean to be “male” or “female?” This course explores these and other questions about the psychology of gender, using empirical findings as the basis of discussion. Topics covered include gender identity, gender stereotypes, real vs. perceived sex differences, and the biology of sex and gender. Prerequisite: moderated status in psychology or consent of the instructor.

Social Support and Social Isolation
Psychology 357
Social support is one of the most effective ways of coping with stress—it can lower blood pressure, strengthen the immune system, and prolong life among cancer patients. In contrast, social isolation has been linked to psychological maladjustment, poor health, and increased death rates. This course explores the continuum from social support to social isolation, and examines why our relationships with others (or lack thereof) can have such profound effects on physical and mental health. Prerequisite: moderated status in psychology or consent of the instructor.

Cognitive Development between 2 and 5 Years of Age
Psychology 358
cross-listed: cognitive science
The primary focus of this course is the cognitive developmental underpinnings of children’s burgeoning concepts about the social and biological world around them. A large amount of research has targeted children’s “theory of mind,” or the understanding that outward behaviors are caused by internal states, and not necessarily the actual state of affairs. When do children realize that thoughts and dreams can’t be touched, the way a toy can?

Cognitive Psychology and Psychophysiology: Conceptual and Lab-based Approaches
Psychology 361
cross-listed: cognitive science
This course studies the processes of perception, attention, learning, memory, emotion, language processing, and decision making. Its focus is to examine closely the methods used to investigate cognition, including how the physiology of the body can reflect concurrent cognitive processes. In addition to lectures and discussions, a significant component of the course includes supervised laboratory research work, and each student conducts an independent research project. Prerequisite: moderated students or permission of the instructor.

Racial and Cultural Considerations in Counseling and Psychotherapy
Psychology 362
cross-listed: sre
This course explores a typology that handles race and culture as psychological variables. Some of the areas it examines are the integration of racial and cultural material into existing theoretical orientations; the effects of differences in the ethnic identities of client and therapist; strategies for moderating differences in cultural values and assumptions; and the development of culturally appropriate interventions. These issues are engaged through an examination of research studies, the writing of papers, and experiential activities.

Independent Research in Cognitive Psychology
Psychology 374
This course provides an opportunity for guided research in psycholinguistics. Students contribute to ongoing studies of language comprehension, including preparing stimuli, working with participants, analyzing collected data, reviewing recently published empirical papers, and developing independent projects.

Classic, Contemporary, and Continuing Study in Social Psychology
Psychology 381
This conference is designed primarily for moderated psychology majors. Assignments pair classic and contemporary studies compiled from the array of topics investigated within the domain of social psychology, including social influence, prosocial behavior, attitude change, and many others. Enrollment is strictly limited to eight students. Admission is by permission of the instructor and dependent on both experience with and interest in reading primary works in the social sciences.

Psychology of Social Influence: Conformity, Norm Formation, Obedience, and Resistance
Psychology 382
Half a century has passed since the pioneering works of Solomon Asch and Muzafer Sherif, and 40 years since the profound and controversial investigation of Stanley Milgram. This conference is designed primarily for moderated psychology majors who have considerable background in reading original contributions to the social science literature. Students make multiple class presentations drawn from the body of research on each topic and from attempts at theory designed to understand social influence processes. Prerequisite: permission of the instructor.

The Psychobiology of Stress and Mental Illness
Psychology 391
Recent advances in the understanding of the neurobiology and physiology of stress have changed the way stress is viewed, both as a primary phenomenon and as a secondary factor that precipitates or causes a variety of psychiatric disorders. This research conference examines recent findings on the mechanisms and biological consequences of stress and explores links between these effects and psychiatric disorders as reported in journal articles.

Perspectives on Racial Identity
Psychology 392
cross-listed: africana studies, sre
Psychologists are now urged to learn about cultural, ethnic, and racial groups and biracial and multicultural identity development as these relate to practice, research, education, and theory. This seminar aims to enhance this awareness and knowledge of ethnic/racial identity development through readings, discussions, critiques of seminal works, and recent formulations, reformulations, and controversies. Prerequisite: Moderation in social studies or permission of the instructor.

Independent Research inDevelopmental Psychology
PSY DEV
In this course, students participate in laboratory research in child developmental psychology. Special emphasis is placed on 3- to 5-year olds’ social cognition, perspective-taking, and memory in the context of games. The bulk of the course is taken up by independent laboratory work and research, and students work with young children, parents, and members of the community to initiate research protocols.

Independent Research in Neuroscience
PSY NEU
Students participate in laboratory research in developmental psychopharmacology, neurochemistry, neuroanatomy, and/or neurobehavioral teratology using the zebrafish as an animal model. Within these general fields, specific roles of neurotransmitter systems in normal behavioral development and the neurobehavioral effects of chemical insults during early development are investigated.

Independent Research in Social Psychology
PSY SOC
This course provides an opportunity for guided research in social psychology. Students participate in laboratory research on stress and social relationships and conduct an independent project. The majority of time in this course consists of independent laboratory work and research. Requirements include participation in a weekly laboratory meeting, readings, assignments, two short papers, and student presentations.