Undergraduate Admissions

Academics: Psychology

Psychology continues to be one of the most popular college majors across the nation, and there’s good reason for the program’s success at Western.

From entry level courses to internships and research opportunities, Psychology majors at Western gain the skills needed to pursue any number of different career paths.

As a Psychology major at Western, you can explore topics such as learning, motivation, perception, cognition, neuroscience, human development, social influence, personality and abnormal behavior.  No matter what your topic of interest may be, you will gain the critical thinking, problem solving, and investigative skills needed to excel at whatever career you choose.

 

What Will You Learn? What Skills Will You Acquire?

The psychology faculty at Western believes in a hands-on approach to learning.  Wherever possible, we have integrated experiential activities into the core of our curriculum. 

Want to learn about human development? Our students observe and record the behaviors of children in daycare centers.

Are you interested in clinical or counseling psychology? Our students conduct assessment interviews, record their own counseling sessions, and administer and interpret educational, vocational, and personality tests.

Do you have what it takes to be a forensic psychologist? Our students profile unknown suspects, evaluate custody disputes and develop treatment plans for criminal offenders.

Is neuroscience your true calling? In laboratory courses, our students prepare for graduate programs by training live rats, studying brain anatomy and collecting and analyzing the results of your own experiments. 

Beyond the Classroom

Psychology students at Western are a visible presence outside of the classroom.  We have several student organizations related to our discipline, including a chapter of Psi Chi, the international honor society in Psychology and Active Minds, a student group dedicated to improving awareness on issues of mental illness.

Psychology majors are active in multiple areas of research. Our students travel to national and regional conferences every year in order to present research on everything from risk taking to the psychological barriers to recycling.  Recently, students in Active Minds helped deliver a three-day conference on physical and mental health issues affecting rural communities.  This conference is now an annual event for regional healthcare providers.

After Graduation

Some of our students head straight into entry level careers in psychology or related fields following graduation with a Bachelor of Arts.  Some examples of these career paths include working in residential mental health treatment facilities, in domestic violence or sexual assault advocacy, in probation or corrections, law enforcement, wilderness therapy, shelter work and human resources.

Our alumni gain admission to MA and MS, PhD and PsyD programs in such diverse fields as marital and family therapy, clinical psychology, social and experimental psychology, school counseling, sport psychology, social work, organizational behavior, cognitive neuroscience, and forensic psychology/law. 

In addition, our grads have earned professional degrees in areas including law, physical therapy, medicine, occupational therapy, education and sports psychology.

Psychology as an undergraduate major can be as specific or as general as the individual student desires, but almost anyone can benefit from a solid background in understanding human behavior, and thus one can find psychology majors in almost any profession.