Major: Psychology
Minor: Psychology

Related Majors: Human Services, Neuroscience (Starts Fall 2011)  Related Minor: Neuroscience

Program Director: Michele T. Martin Associate Professor of Psychology

Facilities | Scholarships | Opportunities | Clubs/Organizations | Funding | Outcomes | Faculty

Psychology is typically defined as the study of behavior and mental processes. Objectives of the study of psychology include understanding, predicting, and controlling behavior and a variety of approaches are used in these endeavors. The faculty of the department provide clinical, developmental, social and experimental approaches of exploration, with majors being assigned an advisor according to area of interest. Psychology is one of the most popular majors at Wesleyan College. For information about specific courses offered, please see our Academic Catalogue.   



Facilities

Wesleyan's psychology classes are taught in the Munroe Science Center, a dynamic new campus centerpiece that opened in August 2007. The new state-of-the-art science facility will serve an increasing number of Wesleyan students enrolled and majoring in one or more fields of science while also addressing the great need throughout our state and nation for women who are skilled in medicine, scientific research, computer technology, and mathematics. Through its eleven teaching laboratories and nine research laboratories, the new facility encourages faculty/student collaboration on research projects, contains interactive laboratories for specific experimentation, and offers individualized instruction in an environmentally efficient and safe setting.

State-of-the-art laboratories include cell biology, ecology, physiology, immunology, and instrumental analysis labs as well as general biology, physics, and chemistry labs. While teaching laboratories serve as classrooms, a small seminar room and two technologically advanced classrooms also are used for instruction. Among its many specialty science spaces, the 42,000-square-foot facility includes an astronomy observation deck, a greenhouse, a vivarium, and a community learning center.

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Scholarships and Awards

Psychology students at Wesleyan may be supported by federal, state, and college scholarships, grants, and loans, as well as work-study monies administered by the Financial Aid Office.  The Findlay Scholarship Program supports special academic scholarships awarded by the college on a competitive basis. These provide tuition support, academic year research funds, and summer research stipends to outstanding students in the Social and Behavioral Sciences.


Special Opportunities

Students engage in individual and group research projects as requirements for the major. Often students present papers or posters at regional psychology conferences such as SEPA (Southeastern Psychology Association) convention. An internship in a community agency (psycho-education center, psychiatric hospital, crisis line, battered women's center, etc.) is also an integral component of the psychology major.


Clubs & Organizations
Psi Chi National Honor Society

Psychology Interest Group (PIGS)


Funding

National Institutes of Health
Program: EARDA; Grant: 1G11HD32814-03
Title: "Research infrastructure development at Wesleyan College: Phase 2"
Project Director: James D. Rowan, III
Award Dates: 7/98 - 6/02
Award Amount: $97,200

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Post-graduate Outcomes

A major in psychology provides a student with a foundation for graduate and/or professional study. About half of Wesleyan psychology graduates enter graduate school. There are numerous fields and specialties available in this discipline, including physiological, developmental, psychology of personality, industrial/organizational psychology, clinical, consumer psychology, social psychology, school psychology, and forensic psychology. Interdisciplinary specialties such as psycholinguistics and speech pathology are also options. Some of these require more than a four-year degree, and some require graduate work at the doctoral level. But a major in psychology also enables one to enter the world of work without advanced study.

Recent Wesleyan psychology graduates have entered graduate programs at Stanford, Yale, the University of Illinois, Emory University, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Tufts University, the University of Georgia, and Auburn University. More on Wesleyan Women working in the fields of behavioral science.

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Faculty

James D. Rowan Professor of Psychology. B.A. (Biology and Psychology) Malone College, 1988; M.A. (Experimental Psychology) Kent State University 1990: Ph.D. (Experimental Psychology with Biopsychology Concentration) Kent State University 1993. My area of interest is comparative cognition, more specifically, how humans and animals learn lists of information. I am also interested in the effects of early exposure to drugs on list learning in adulthood. MSC 108. jrowan@wesleyancollege.edu

Michele T. Martin Associate Professor of Psychology and Psychology Department Chair. B.A. (Psychology) Michigan State University 1987; M.A. (Psychology) University of Virginia 1992; Ph.D. (Psychology) University of Virginia 1995. My area of specialty is child, family, and adult clinical psychology. My research interests are the effects of family factors on child and adolescent adjustment. I have examined the effects of family variables on the management of juvenile diabetes and explored family functioning in divorced and single-parent families. Tate 207. smartin@wesleyancollege.edu

Brooke Bennett-Day Assistant Professor of Psychology. B.S. (Psychology) Valdosta State University; M.S. (Psychology) Florida State University; Ph.D. (Psychology) Florida State University. My primary interests involve the effect that race may have on an individual's face recognition ability, as well as the developmental differences in child and adult memory for faces.  Additional interests include interracial attitudes and stereotype formation, juror interpretations of legal proceedings, and best teaching practices.  My general teaching interests include social psychology, research methods, and psychology in the legal system. Tate 227. bbennettday@wesleyancollege.edu

Besangie Sellars White Assistant Professor of Psychology. B.A. (Psychology) Hampton University, 2003: M.A. (Developmental Psychology) University of Michigan, 2005. My areas of interest include lifespan development and aging, how social support is related to healthy aging, health disparities within the U.S., and older African American men's perception of manhood. Taylor 132. bwhite@wesleyancollege.edu.  

Lisa Rouleau Visiting Assistant Professor of Psychology B.S. (Psychology) Troy University 2001; M.S. (School Counseling) Troy University 2003; Post-Graduate Studies (School Psychology) University of Central Oklahoma. OSP Learning Commons. lrouleau@wesleyancollege.edu.   

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