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A while back I asked for information about BSc
degrees in psychology. I intended
to give a summary but there were too few replies.
Instead I have combined the 5
replies below. A big thanks to all who
replied.
Ron
Ron Apland
Department of Psychology
Malaspina Univeristy-College
Nanaimo, BC, Canada
________________________
We've just made the shift. What we've had for 11
years stays as the BS; a
watered down major is the BA. We just don't have as many students who are graduate school potential. That, and the College decided to offer both. All Majors Take: General Psyc 3-hrs Psyc in Context 3-hrs (What Psyc is; how to use computerized search engines; how to summarize research of others and maintain academic honesty) This is new and the crown jewel in my opinion. Stat 4-hrs -- includes computer lab History & Systems 3-hrs as capstone course. BS Experimental 4-hrs -- lab course; design "true" experiment Either Lrng & Cog 4-hrs -- ditto or Social 4-ditto Sr. Thesis 6-hrs Electives Total hrs not to exceed 54 BA Research Methods 3-hrs -- survey of research methods Applied Beh.Analysis 3-hrs -- very nuts & bolts BeMod Applied Psyc 3-hrs -- survey (being developed) Electives Total hrs not to exceed 54 Sorry, but I don't have the Gen.Ed. differences between BA and BS, but BAs do take some watered down "science" things like _Ecology and Man_; BS do have to take some "humanities" but they are from a "chinese menu" rather than a good solid survey course. Al L. Cone, Ph.D. Professor & Chair Department of Psychology 701.252.3467 X 2604 Jamestown College 6019 College Lane [EMAIL PROTECTED] Jamestown, ND 58405 _________________________________________________ I've just finished four years of service
on
committees that have designed a new general education program for my institution. this curriculum is scheduled to go into effect in Fall 2000. Some of the gen/ed courses are freshman and sophomore seminars that target critical writing and reading skills. The gen/ed course requirements I mention below are specially designed courses within a discipline rather than any course in the discipline. Ron Apland wrote: > > What Science courses are _required_ for BSc psychology? Six courses in the sciences (biology, physics, chemistry, math, computer science). We recommend that students take at least the introductory biology sequence of two courses. The six total courses must be courses that count toward the major in the departments in which they're offerred. (No physics for poets!) > > What are the elective science requirements for the BSc psychology? Students are required to take two courses in the sciences as part of their general education requirements. For science majors (including psych), the six courses mentioned above can be double counted as fulfilling both major and gen/ed requirements. > > What are the Social Science and Humanities courses _required_ for > BSc psychology? > The BS candidates must fulfill all the requirements of a BA including a gen/ed requirement of two social sciences. Humanities is also part of the gen/ed requirements rather than major requirements. Two courses are required. > Do the _psychology_ requirements differ for the two degrees? > BS students must take Psychological Statistics and one laboratory course in psych. We have four of these - Perception & Learning, Social, Animal Behavior and Behavioral Neuroscience. They must also fulfill all the major requirements of the BA. As you can see the BS is the BA plus additional requirements. > Are there science courses _required_ for BA psychology? For general education requirements, all students must take at least two sciences and one math. There are special science courses designed for non-majors that can fulfill the requirements for the BA. > > What do you think of the BSc psychology option? It does offer some evidence that students have enrolled in relatively demanding courses and provides some measure of their success in these areas. As such, it might provide helpful information for psychology graduate programs in experimental fields, cognitive or neuroscience programs. Having served on the admissions committe of our clinical PhD program, I can say that clinical and research experience were far more heavily weighted than type of degree. I advise my own students who are interested in clinical to choose clinical placements, internships or honors research over the BS when they don't have time to do it all. For students who do not intend to go to graduate school, there are some advantages for certain kinds of jobs. One student, who worked in my lab and took the BS option, landed a job with the state environmental protection agency. I'm sure he got the job as a result of his familiarity with SPSS and his science background. Another of my students works in an audiology lab. Some of our faculty recommend the BS to all graduate school oriented students. However, if you're not interested in physics, it's awfully hard to do well. For most students, who are not bound for grad school, psych is a liberal arts major like history, political science, or english. It's career related in only the broadest sense. A further question:
> You seem to imply that physics is required > but you state that the student must take six courses from biology, > physics, chemistry, math, and computer
science. Is that one from each
> and two from biology or does the student
select and six courses from
> this group?
The six science courses requirement doesn't stipulate the discipline. Theoretically, a student could take all six in biology. Practically, this is impossible because biology courses beyond intro require prerequisites in other departments (e.g., chemistry). I used the example of physics, not because they're required to take physics, but because I thought it would be the most difficult for the uninterested, and unmotivated student. -- dennis l. byrnes psychology/umass@boston 100 morrissey blvd boston, ma 02125-3393 FAX: (617)287-6336 ___________________________
This question came up here at Fordham as we were
"integrating" the programs
on two campuses. One had a BS the other a BA. When I would ask faculty about the differences and what was required for a BS I got a different answer from each of them--more math, or more science or etc. Finally went to the AVP who deals with NY State higher education for the university. It seems that in NY at least it is not defined as we all thought. The requirements for a BA or AA degree are that at least 75% of the course work be _liberal arts and sciences_ and for the BS or AS only 50% needs to be liberal arts and sciences. There are no additional science or math of lab requirements but there may be. Liberal arts and sciences is defined negatively--it is course work that is _not_ studio, laboratory or "professional training." So in NY at least a BA in some way is a more demanding degree. (This finally made sense for a college who's brother had gotten an AS degree in music--too much of the work was studio and lab to qualify for an AA.) It seems that years ago we did have additional requirements such as calculus for the BS degree but not now, they do the same core as all students. We are now requiring stat, experimental and two other courses with a lab component but it really has nothing to do with BS requirements. David S Malcolm Fordham University _______________________________________
Concerning the B Sc psychology option:
* The B Sc psychology option is quite common in South Africa, and as far as I know, also in other countries where the educational system is based on the British model. * The science courses required for B Sc psychology vary from University to University. However, the courses are usually related to psychology, e.g. physiology and computer science. * There are usually no Social Science courses required for B Sc psychology, except psychology itself. In certain cases the student is given the option to also include a course or two from the Social Science track. * No, the psychology requirements do not differ for the two degrees. We feel very strongly about this. * No, there are no Science courses required for a BA psychology, although in some exceptional cases, there is a general statistics course (offered by the Department of Statistics) or computer science course (offered by the Department of Computer Science) that BA students have to attend. * I think the B Sc psychology option is great. A must. Although one cannot, of course, not generalize, the B Sc students are usually/often not only brighter than the BA students, but they are also a fresh academic breeze with new perspectives, etc. For example, it is wonderful to have (post-)graduate students with majors in Physiology, Statistics, Computer Science, etc. (to further questions)
* Maybe I should try to express myself
better this time! English
is my second language. (At one stage it was
my third). At
certain universities certain B Sc courses are
required for B Sc
psychology. For example, this is the case at
my University.
Other universities have no requirements. In
most cases, however,
there are recommendations.
* The faculty in my Department is a
mixture of social and natural
science graduates. However, I will not be
able to tell you off
hand who the social science faculty and who the
natural science
faculty are. It is because we have accepted
this as such a
natural thing that it is not important
anymore. This should also
answer your question: Neither the faculty nor
the students
experience a difference concerning whether the
lecturer is
qualified in the social or natural sciences.
We believe that a
person should be an expert in a specific field ---
including the
relevant aspects although they might fall in
another field. An
example is the two faculty in our Department who
teach
Stats/Methodology. The one is a full
professor, doctorate in
Science with a Ph D from Madison, Wisconsin.
The other one is a
Social scientist with an outstanding aptitude
for
Stats/Methodology. The student evaluations
every year show that
the students --- by far --- prefer the
last-mentioned person. This goes for
undergraduate and graduate students. I think, and believe my colleagues will agree with me, that there are other factors next to formal academic training that are also important. So Ron, although I firmly believe that it is a BIG plus to have a B Sc psychology option and to have a mix of social science and natural science faculty, it is equally important that this should not lead to conflict, arrogance, etc. in the department. (For example, there is a psychology department in South Africa where clinical psychologists firmly belief that they are better than the counselling psychologists in the department. This conflict has been going on for decades now and is doing unbelievable harm to the department). Regards from this side of the ocean. Dap Louw South Africa _________________ We offer both a BA and a BS in Psychology the
requirements for the major are identical however the requirements for graduation
from the College of Arts and Sciences is different.
The essential difference is a BA requires 4 semesters of a language other than English (can't say foreign since Lakota is offered). The BS requires one additional laboratory science (a total of 3 classes) and one additional math class (total of 3 classes) Both the science and math have a required sequence for he first two courses (e.g., if you start with BIO 101 you must also have Bio 103, or CHEM 112 must be followed by CHEM 114; the same is true for MATH in that the two sequence courses must come from a defined set such as College Alg and Trig followed by CALC I or CALC I and CALC II). Here is how we make up the difference in the Psychology department. Learning & Memory and Sensation & Perception are both taught with a laboratory component (a real lab that meets once a week and requires experiments and write-ups). Both of these courses count as the additional science at the College Level. We also offer Psychological Statistics which can be counted as the third math course. I should note that we require one of the two lab courses for the major (students chooses which one) and we require the stats course. Because of this most of our majors opt for the BS degree. We also require an experimental methods class; either Intro to Research Methods (targeted at non-continuing majors) or Experimental Methods and Design (targeted at those students planning on a graduate career in psychology). I would recommend that this a course such as this also be a part of the BSc degree if it is not already required. Doug Peterson, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Psychology University of South Dakota 414 E. Clark Dept. of Psychology Vermillion, SD 57069 Voice: (605) 677-5295 Fax: (605) 677-6604 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
