Psychology

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It encompasses a diversity of specializations including clinical, child developmental, gerontology, learning, social, motivation, physiological and industrial/organizational. Psychologists work in academic settings, independent practices, hospitals and clinics, as well as government, business and industry.

A bachelor's degree in psychology does not make one a "psychologist." American psychology has clearly made the decision that the doctorate - and the master's degree in school or industrial/organizational psychology - is the entry-level qualification. To obtain a license for independent practice, the great majority of states require that an individual have earned a doctoral degree.

Planning for College

The University of Scranton encourages a strong college preparatory program in high school with a minimum of four years of English, three years of mathematics, social science and science, and at least two years of a foreign language with additional units taken in acceptable academic areas.

Psychology at The University of Scranton

A look at the following components will give you a clearer idea about the Department of Psychology at The University of Scranton.

Faculty

Our nine faculty members all hold doctoral degrees in psychology and are actively involved in research spanning the following disciplines: clinical, cognitive, developmental, industrial-organizational, learning, physiological, perception, psychometrics and social. In 1992 and 1995, members of our department have been named as the CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) Professor of the Year for the state of Pennsylvania.

All faculty members are exclusively committed to undergraduate education. Like many small institutions with a national reputation for excellence, we focus all our energies on the undergraduate population, which fosters a close mentoring relationship. In addition to their teaching commitments, faculty members supervise research, publish regularly, review for journals, and coordinate grants.

Students

We encourage our students to get involved in departmental activities, research and community service.

The three department student organizations are the Psychology Club, Psi Chi and the American Psychological Society Student Caucus (APSSC). The Psychology Club is open to any student interested in psychology. Annual events include picnics, community service projects and employment workshops.

Psi Chi is the National Honor Society in psychology. Each year Psi Chi organizes a workshop on applying to graduate school, provides a Graduate Record Examination (GRE) test review, and plans a trip to a regional convention.

APSSC coordinates the annual University of Scranton Psychology Research Conference, a meeting that typically draws over 200 registrants and more than 50 paper presentations. In addition to an address by a prominent psychologist, more than 20 institutions from 4-6 states are represented.

Facilities

Research - The department contains over 3,000 square feet of research space. This includes a complex for audio-video recording, a computer-based cognitive/perception laboratory, space for general research, environmentally controlled animal facilities and separate areas for automated operant research, and physiological recording.

Computers - The department is at the forefront of computer applications. We have over 40 Pentium-based personal computers connected through a high-speed network to the University's main computers, laser and color printers, and other devices.

Affiliations - The psychology department is a charter member of the Council of Undergraduate Psychology Programs (CUPP). We are also a liaison institution of the Eastern Psychological Association (EPA) and a member of the Council on Undergraduate Research (CUR).

Outcomes

We've found that:

• a notable proportion of our graduates go on to doctoral programs in psychology. In fact, the number of University of Scranton graduates who have received doctorates in psychology ranks in the top 10 percent of comparable institutions nationally.
• our psychology majors continue to conduct and present research at a rate far exceeding national norms. In 1998, for example, 16 current and past psychology undergraduates co-presented a paper or co-authored an article with psychology faculty members.
• our students' knowledge of psychology, as measured by standardized tests, is well above the national average. This is reflected in their performance on the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) Psychology Subject Test and the Educational Testing Service (ETS) Major Field Achievement Test in Psychology, in which they've scored at the 70th-75th percentile on average.
• fully 90% or more of psychology graduates surveyed over the past few years gave The University of Scranton's psychology program a grade of A or B.

Finding out More

You can obtain more information about our department and the field of psychology from our web site. You are particularly encouraged to read the department's Psychology Handbook, which is linked to this page. If you wish to discuss the psychology major further or wish to arrange to take a tour of the department, please contact J. Timothy Cannon, Ph.D., Associate Chair, Department of Psychology, The University of Scranton, 204 Alumni Memorial Hall, Scranton, PA 18510. He can be reached at (570) 941-4266, or you can e-mail him at cannon@scranton.edu.