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B.S. or B.A. in Psychology

Begin your career in studying and understanding human behavior

A bachelor's degree in psychology from Saint Xavier University provides a knowledge base for understanding human behavior, broadly applicable to many fields, as well as skills that are critical in any occupation, current or yet to be identified, including skills such as statistical literacy, analytical thinking, scientific reasoning and writing, communication, and interpersonal and collaborative skills.

Why Earn Your B.A. or B.S. in Psychology?

A degree in psychology provides the foundation for a variety of career paths. While working in a psychology-related job, one can make a real difference in other's lives by helping them to understand their thought processes and improve their mental health. With a degree in psychology, one can expect to find work in fields like education, sales, marketing, social work, data analysis, administration, and many more. Earning a bachelor's degree in psychology can also position students for further study at the graduate and doctoral levels. 

B.A. or B.S. in Psychology

 

 

About the Program

The Psychological Association has four core classes that all students take: Introduction to Psychology, Psychology as a Science and Career Seminar, Statistics for the Social Sciences, and Research Methods. These courses build critical skills in analytical thinking, scientific literacy, statistical literacy, and scientific communication that are useful in a wide range of careers. 

In addition to the core courses, students in the psychology major take at least one course of their choice from each of the four domain areas (biological, cognitive, developmental, social), thus providing them with breadth across the main areas of psychology and the ability to pursue topics of interest to them in more depth.  

Students can also select from a wide range of elective courses, often taught by experts or practitioners in applied areas of psychology (e.g., school counseling, clinical mental health counseling), thus providing students opportunities for interacting with applied practitioners outside of academia and diversifying their educational experiences.  

Finally, students can select from multiple capstone choices that center content on real-world situations. Students can do an internship at one of multiple sites, each offering different experiential focuses, or students can do a research capstone, in which they design and execute their research project.  

The curriculum prepares students for careers and graduate programs inside and outside of psychology by emphasizing both knowledge and skills to be successful in the ever-changing workforce.  

Each full-time faculty member in the department is a doctoral-level expert with additional professional experience, including specialized graduate school and/or post-graduate training and publication history aligning with each of the core, domain, and capstone areas, ensuring that students will learn from experts in the field. Combined across the faculty, they have dozens of publications (including in high-impact journals) with over 1000 citations.  

Student-Faculty Research 

The department faculty actively mentor student research, through PSYCH-390, PSYCH-391, or honors theses. This high-impact practice helps students, in a one-on-one relationship, develop their scientific literacy and writing skills. Students regularly present at internal (e.g., SXU Research Expo) and local (e.g., Associated Colleges of the Chicago Area, Midwestern Psychological Association) conferences and some have even published research. These often lead to mentoring students through the graduate school application process and successful acceptance into graduate programs.

Internships

The department has ample opportunities for students to participate in internships, including social services, research, behavioral health clinics, and more. Interns can develop and strengthen new skills and receive valuable feedback and guidance from experienced employees. This experience allows students to further pursue their career interests, apply academic knowledge they have learned to psychology professional settings at the bachelor's level, and gain valuable real-world work experience. 

Formalized Professional Development

Early in their academic career at SXU, students take PSYCH-102, Psychology as a Science and Career, an introductory course to the major that introduces concepts and develops skills that students will utilize throughout the major and allows the department to scaffold these skills across the curriculum. This course provides the introductory concepts of scientific literacy that students will use in their core domain courses and PSYCH-301, Research Methods. This course also provides professional and career assignments that allow students to explore different career options, understand which steps they need to take to reach those career options, and develop a plan of action to follow over the next four years that will help them reach their career goals. 

Courses Utilizing Evidence-Based Best Practices for Teaching and Learning

Courses across the program are designed to maximize student learning and include many engaging practices, including hands-on activities, discussions, demos, labs, flipped classrooms, hybrid classrooms, and more.

Skills-Based Courses

Courses in the core series focus on developing skills through hands-on practice, such as by analyzing data or conducting experiments. Additionally, the courses are taken to maximize students' growth of key skills in critical thinking, scientific literacy, writing, data analysis, and collaboration throughout their time in the program.

Studets will be acquire:

  • Knowledge Base in Psychology: Describe key concepts, principles and overarching themes in psychology
  • Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking - Scientific Literacy: Demonstrate psychology information literacy. Be able to interpret basic psychological research.
  • Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking - Conducting Research: Design and/or conduct basic elements of psychological research.
  • Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World: Apply ethical standards to evaluate psychological science and practice.
  • Communication - Writing: Demonstrate effective writing.
  • Communication: Speech: Demonstrate effective presentation skills.
  • Professional Development: Develop meaningful professional direction for life after graduation. Specifically demonstrate career option awareness and build teamwork skills.

Why study psychology at SXU?

  • Small class sizes allow for close interaction with your professors and classmates.
  • Each full-time faculty member has a Ph.D. and professional and publication expertise that aligns with each of the core, domain, and capstone areas, ensuring that students will learn from experts in the field.
  • Elective courses are taught by experts or practitioners in applied areas of psychology (e.g., school counseling, clinical mental health counseling), thus providing students opportunities for interacting with applied practitioners outside of academia.
  • Students have the opportunity to work alongside faculty to participate in the creation of knowledge by conducting research, presenting their research at local conferences, and publishing their research findings.
  • The department has ample internship opportunities for students to apply their psychology knowledge to the real world and gain additional real-world experience.
  • Faculty are invested in highly effective and scientifically supported teaching practices and are committed to student success.
  • The curriculum includes both knowledge- and skills-based courses to ensure students are prepared to use psychological knowledge, analytical thinking, scientific writing and literacy, quantitative literacy, and more for careers to meet the requirements of the ever-changing workforce.

Psi Chi is an international honor society whose purpose shall be to encourage, stimulate and maintain excellence in scholarship of the individual members in all fields, particularly in psychology, and to advance the science of psychology. The mission of Psi Chi is to produce a well-educated, ethical, and socially responsible member committed to contributing to the science and profession of psychology and to society in general.

The SXU Psychology Club is an excellent place to meet students who have similar goals and aspirations; everyone is welcome regardless of major! We aim to be a great resource for networking opportunities and research options in the field of psychology. We host a multitude of events throughout the year to help both the community out as well as the Psychology student body.

Students planning to minor in psychology must complete, with a grade of C or better, five courses (15 credit hours) in psychology beyond PSYCH 101. At least three of the courses must be taken at Saint Xavier University.

Academic Plan

View a suggested four-year academic plan to complete your degree!

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