The Psychology Major

The Psychology major is open to students in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Students pursuing a Psychology major gain an understanding of Psychological Science broadly, and the range of processes that enable people, animals, as well as machines and forms of artificial intelligence, to make sense of, navigate, and respond to their social and physical environments. Majors learn theoretical and empirical foundations from biological (e.g., neural, endocrine, genetic), cognitive (e.g., learning, memory, perception), developmental (e.g., social and language development, aging), and social perspectives (e.g., judgments, attributions, relationships), as well as methodological and statistical approaches.

Admission to the major is granted to students in good standing in the College of Arts and Sciences who have passed three or more psychology courses with grades of C+ or better. Provisional admission is granted if a student completes two such courses. Once a student is admitted into the major (formally or provisionally), they are assigned a faculty advisor who provides guidance on fulfilling the major requirements. To apply to the major and receive an advisor, a major application form may be obtained by downloading it here: major form.  Forms should be completed and emailed to Timothy Snyder.

Students who entered the Major before Fall 2023, see section below.

1. Completing a total of 40 credits in psychology (including prerequisites). Students must earn a grade of C- or better in each course. Courses except for PSYCH 4700 and PSYCH 4710 must be taken for a letter grade. First-year Writing Seminars (FWS) or AP courses cannot be counted towards the credit requirements.
2. Demonstration of proficiency in statistics before the beginning of the senior year by passing PSYCH 2500 with a C- or better, by passing an approved course or course sequence in statistics in some other department at Cornell, or by passing an exemption examination by arrangement with Professor Thomas Cleland. Additional information about the statistics requirements for Psychology majors, including allowable courses in other Cornell departments, can be found here.
3. Demonstration of proficiency in research methods or scientific literacy before the beginning of the senior year by passing any of the following courses with a C- or better:

   HD 2830/PSYCH 2830 Research Methods in Human Development

   HD 2930/PSYCH 2930, Data Science for Social Scientists I

   PSYCH 3020, Methods in Neuroscience

   HD 4765 How to Think Like a Scientist

   COMM 2820 Research Methods in Communication Studies

   GOVT 3999 How Do You Know That?

   STS 2011 What is Science?

   BIOG 1500 Investigative Biology Laboratory

4. Achieving breadth by completing at least one course in three of the following four areas of psychology (The following classification is intended to help students and their advisors identify introductory courses that require few to no prerequisites):

   Perception and Cognition (P&C):

   PSYCH 1102  Introduction to Cognitive Science

   PSYCH 2050  Perception

   PSYCH 2150  Psychology of Language

   HD 2200  Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience

   PSYCH 2580/HD 2580  Six Pretty Good Books: Explorations in Social Science

   PSYCH 3140  Computational Psychology

   HD 3190  Memory and the Law

   PSYCH 3350  The Psychology of Attention

   PSYCH 3420  Human Perception: Application to Computer Graphics, Art, and Visual Display

   PSYCH 4150  Culture, Cognition, Humanities

   PSYCH 4270  Evolution of Language

   PSYCH 4331  Event Cognition

   Development (D):

   HD 1150, Child Development through Middle Childhood

   HD 1170, Adolescence and Emerging Adulthood

   PSYCH 1131/HD 1130, Introduction to Human Development

   PSYCH 2090, Developmental Psychology

   HD2180, Adult Development and Aging

   HD 3290, Self-regulation Across the Life Span

   HD 4550, The Psychology of Wisdom

   Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience (CBN):

   HD 2200, Introduction to Cognitive Neuroscience

   PSYCH 2230, Introduction to Behavioral Neuroscience

   PSYCH 3150, Obesity and the Regulation of Body Weight

   PSYCH 3220, Hormones and Behavior

   HD 3250, Neurochemistry of Human Behavior

   HD 3530, Risk and Opportunity Factors in Childhood and Adolescence

   PSYCH 4230, Navigation, Memory, and Context: What does the Hippocampus do?

   Social and Personality (S&P):

   PSYCH 2450, Introduction to Moral Psychology

   PSYCH 2650, Psychology and Law

   PSYCH 2750, Introduction to Personality Psychology

   PSYCH 2800, Introduction to Social Psychology

   PSYCH 2820, Community Outreach

   PSYCH 2940, Better Decisions for Life, Love and Money

   PSYCH 3135, Psychology of Good and Evil

   PSYCH 3250, Adult Psychopathology

   PSYCH 3450, On Being Social

   PSYCH 3800, Social Cognition

   PSYCH 3850, The Psychology of Emotion

   PSYCH 4940, Moral Psychology in Action

5. To ensure depth, students are required to take at least one content course from the 3000 level and one course from the 4000 level.  Independent Study courses will not fulfill this requirement.
6. Students also are encouraged to take independent study or field work (PSYCH 4700 – Undergraduate Research in Psychology and PSYCH 4710 – Advanced Undergraduate Research in Psychology; research conducted under the supervision of a professor). Up to 12 of these credits may be counted towards the major. PSYCH 4700 and PSYCH 4710 may be taken S/U.

Notes

• Students should refer to the list of our current and upcoming courses
• With the permission of the faculty advisor, courses in other departments or at other universities (such as through Cornell Abroad) may be accepted toward fulfilling the major requirements. Students wishing to count courses from other departments or universities should be prepared to produce a syllabus.

These students have the option of following these requirements OR the new requirements described above.

1. A total of 40 credits in psychology (including prerequisites), from which students majoring in psychology are expected to choose, in consultation with their advisors, a range of courses that covers the basic processes in psychology. Students must earn a grade of C- or better in each course. Students also are encouraged to take independent study or field work (PSYCH 4700 – Undergraduate Research in Psychology and PSYCH 4710 – Advanced Undergraduate Research in Psychology; research conducted under the supervision of a professor). Up to 12 of these credits may be counted towards the major. No course other than PSYCH 4700 and PSYCH 4710 may be taken S/U. First-year Writing Seminars (FWS) or AP courses cannot be counted towards the credit requirements.

2. Demonstration of proficiency in statistics before the beginning of the senior year by passing PSYCH 2500 with a C- or better, by passing an approved course or course sequence in statistics in some other department at Cornell, by passing a course or course sequence in statistics at some other college, university, or college-level summer school and obtaining approval from Professor Thomas Cleland, or by passing an exemption examination by arrangement with Professor Cleland.

3. Unless otherwise approved by the advisor, at least one course in each of the following three areas of psychology:

Behavioral and Evolutionary Neuroscience

Perception, Cognition and Development

Social/Personality Psychology

Course classifications

The following classification of Department of Psychology offerings is intended to help students and their advisors choose courses that will ensure that such breadth is achieved:

1. Behavioral and evolutionary neuroscience (BEN): PSYCH 2230, 3220, 3240, 3260, 3320, 4200, 4230, 4240, 4250, 4260, 4350, 4390, 4400, 4410.

2. Perception, cognition and development (PCD): PSYCH 1102, 2050, 2090, 2150, 3140, 3160, 3350, 3420, 4120, 4180, 4270, 4280, 4331, 4320, 4360, 4370, 4650, 4770, 4780.

3. Social and personality psychology (S&P): PSYCH 1500, 2650, 2750, 2800, 2820, 2940, 3250, 3270, 3280, 3800, 3850, 4050, 4300, 4810, 4820, 4840, 4850, 4910.

4. Other courses: PSYCH 1101, 1650, 1990, 2500, 4700, 4710. The major advisor determines to which group, if any, these courses may be applied.

Are you a new student? Psychology advising will help you plan the years ahead.

Contact Lisa Proper or the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

Lauren Korfine, Director of Undergraduate Studies
Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Room G216
E-mail: psych-dus@cornell.edu

Timothy Snyder, Undergraduate Assistant
MVR Hall, Room G201
E-mail: tps78@cornell.edu
Phone: 607-255-3181