Psychology
Allison Baker and Sarah Mathews present their St. Mary's Projects to the campus community
Psychology has proved to be one of the most popular majors at the College, year after year. Small wonder, when you consider the variety of possible careers, the internships and independent projects along the way, and the range of cross-disciplinary study opportunities.
Psychology students study behavior and mental processes and examine the connections of psychology to biology and the social sciences. Psychology is a broad field, encompassing child and adult development, clinical and counseling, social psychology, human perception and cognition, and animal behavior and the neurosciences. Regardless of the students' interests, their study emphasizes hand-on experiences in the field or laboratory.
Students often choose a secondary academic focus to complement their major, including in anthropology, biology, chemistry, neuroscience, and sociology. Many students participate in one of the five cross-disciplinary study programs such as African and African Diaspora studies and Women, gender, and sexuality studies.
St. Mary's Project (SMP)
Psychology majors complete their SMP in a variety of areas, often seeking connections to disciplines outside of psychology. Recent examples include:
- Anger management for early elementary school children
- Behavior effects of infusion of 8-OH-DPAT into the orbitofrontal cortex of rats
- Ethnic identity Among U.S.-born and Puerto Rican born
- Understanding the process of identity formation in adopted children
- The weight of a race: an analysis of perceived pressures affecting African-American achievement
- Adolescent females : Creating the perfect body image
- Altruism, volunteerism, and personality
- Child art therapy in the public school system
- Investigation into spatial working memory and task-switching
- Development of a cognitive-behavioral program to reduce adolescent depression and enhance emotional well-being
Travel Abroad
Psychology students are encouraged to study abroad as a part of their general education or in conjunction with an internship or SMP in psychology.
"Before going to The Gambia, I wondered why it may be harder to institute the ideas of Western psychology and the institution
of talk-therapy into this culture. . . In America, people love to talk, and they love to talk about themselves. It seems there is
not a person in America who does not constantly wonder what the others around him think of the way he acts, dresses, or lives his life.
I believe it is partially for this reason that people are drawn to talk-therapy. They enjoy the confidentiality of being able to talk
to an unbiased party about all their innermost thoughts and feelings. This is the complete opposite of the social dynamics I observed
in Gambian culture. There were many times when I sat with a group of Gambians for as long as an hour in a completely comfortable silence.
They are content
to just sit and be."
-- Leonie Pickett '98
Life After St. Mary's
Psychology majors love research, often continuing their passion for psychology in graduate school or applying their knowledge in closely affiliated fields such as medicine, social work, or education. Majors have studied at:
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Many psychology majors choose to begin their careers upon graduation. Examples include:
- neuropsychologist at the National Institutes of Health
- counselor for a mental health clinic
- chief of staff for a U.S. Congressman
- researcher at a children's hospital
- social worker
Special Opportunities
A prominent feature of many psychology majors' study is an internship. Internships give students "real-world" experience and often lead to their first job upon graduation. Recent "test drives" include:
- Neurobehavioral Unit of Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore
- Children's Hospital, Philadelphia
- Veterans Administration Medical Center, Baltimore
- University of Maryland School of Medicine
- Hospice of St. Mary's
- Sheppard-Pratt Psychiatric Hospital
- Univ. Maryland Hospital for Children
For more information, visit the Psychology Department
http://www.smcm.edu/Psyc/