Departmental Brochure

If you are interested in the content and methods of the science of psychology and a career in a psychology-related field, the major at Fairfield University offers you a strong foundation in either a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science program. You will be offered varied paths to specialized interests in upper-level seminars, and ample research and internship opportunities to test your true interests as you advance. The Department has many internships in Applied Psychology available to its students at the Fortune 500 corporations located in the region, at government agencies and nonprofit corporations, and an internship in the teaching of psychology. Faculty members and alumni offer significant help to students seeking to qualify themselves for the great variety of opportunities available to psychology majors in research, teaching, therapy, and business.

Course of Study

As a psychology major at Fairfield University, you can earn a Bachelor of Arts or a Bachelor of Science degree, the latter requiring additional science courses. Required for all psychology majors are the following:

• General Psychology
• Biological Bases of Behavior
• Developmental Psychology
• Statistics for the Life Sciences
• Research Methods in Psychology
• Senior Seminars (Choose at least one):
  • Modern Psychology Senior Seminar: History and Current Issues
  • Seminar on Aging
  • Seminar: Psychology of Race and Ethnicity
  • Abnormal Child Psychology Seminar
  • Psychosocial Problems of Childhood and Adolescence Seminar
  • Behavioral Neuroscience

Choose one course from each of the following groups:

• Social Psychology
• Psychopathology
• Theories of Personality

and

• Sensation and Perception
• Conditioning, Learning, and Applied Behavior Analysis
• Cognitive Psychology

Choose two additional electives in psychology. Some are:

• Industrial/Organizational Psychology
• Psychology and the Law
• Environmental Psychology
• Psychosocial Problems of Childhood and Adolescence
• Drugs and Behavior
• Human Factors
• Human Neuropsychology
• Internships (Teaching and Applied)
• Independent Research

Description of concentrations

Students who wish to develop their interests within a specific concentration have the opportunity to follow one of four distinct tracks: Mental Health Research and Practice; Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience; Social/Developmental Research and Policy; and General Psychology. These concentrations are described below:

• Mental Health Research and Practice: For psychology majors who wish to concentrate on the fields of clinical psychology, school psychology, counseling, I/O psychology, or clinical social work.
• Social Developmental Research & Policy: For psychology majors who wish to concentrate on issues related to child and family studies, social justice, multiculturalism, and law.
• Behavioral/Cognitive Neuroscience: For psychology majors who wish to concentrate on the biological mechanisms of behavior and cognition.
• General Psychology: For students who wish to develop their own programs by mixing concentrations or by taking advantage of Fairfield's liberal arts curriculum, filling electives with courses from other disciplines.

With guidance from their advisors, students develop a program of study relevant to their concentration from a list of courses both within and outside of the Psychology Department.

The Faculty

Members of the Psychology Department are actively engaged in original research, have published books and articles on their studies, and involve students in their work. Their interests are listed here:

John F. McCarthy, Chair
Ph.D., Catholic University
Personality theory, chaos theory applications to psychology, sports and aggression, language and cognition.

Dorothea Braginsky
Ph.D., University of Connecticut
The mentally ill, the unemployed, children, the social psychology of surplus populations.

Elizabeth Gardner
Ph.D., McGill University
Cognitive, psychology of race and ethnicity, aging, service-learning, homelessness.

Shannon Harding
Ph.D., Mt. Sinai School of Medicine/New York University
Behavioral neuroscience, hormones and behavior in animal models.

Timothy J. Heitzman
Ph.D., University of Rhode Island
Developmental neuropsychology, developmental disabilities, clinical assessment and interventions.

Linda Henkel
Ph.D., State University of New York at Stony Brook
Memory errors and distortions, cognitive aging, intentional forgetting, and eyewitness memory.

Judy Primavera
Ph.D., Yale University
Psychosocial problems of children, family literacy, prevention, social policy.

Susan Rakowitz
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Preschoolers' understanding of mental states, adult processing of false information.

W. Ronald Salafia
Ph.D., Fordham University
Human factors, research design and analysis, neural mechanisms of behavior, applied behavior analysis.

Life after Fairfield

A survey of Fairfield alumni who majored in psychology indicates that most seek an advanced degree at institutions including Yale, New York University, UCLA, and Columbia. The largest number have sought that degree in psychology and allied fields but many have gone to medical, law, education and business schools. About half of those in business are employed in public relations, human resources, investments, advertising, and marketing.

As a student, you will have many choices but you can find help in making these, not only from faculty, but from a network of alumni mentors who can offer counsel based on their own experience.

The centerpiece of department facilities is a new state-of-the-art addition to the Rudolph F. Bannow Science Center. For the first time, the entire Psychology Department is housed on its own floor with ample space for faculty-student research. Individual interview rooms are available for student research, as well as a group dynamics room that provides an excellent setting for small group. Laboratory facilities are available for the whole range of animal and human research.

Research and Internships

You can serve an internship for one or two semesters of credit in Applied Psychology. The wide range of opportunities includes: work with autistic children, assisting probation officers and guidance counselors, work in advertising and human resources, assisting in psychiatric facilities, and more, all allowing students to spend ten hours a week using knowledge acquired in their classes. The Adrienne Kirby Family Literacy Project provides opportunities to be involved in preventive intervention that helps low-income preschoolers and their parents in language and reading. As a senior, you can undertake independent research; as a junior, you can apply, as many have done successfully, for summer research opportunities at other institutions, as well as supervised research and summer opportunities at Fairfield University.

Internship sites (a sampling):

• CRN International (radio marketing)
• People's Bank (human resources)
• YWCA (domestic violence unit)
• Superior Court (adult probation, family court, juvenile center)
• Legal Services of Connecticut
• Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (children's unit)
• Family and Children's Agency, Norwalk
• New England Center for Children
• Giant Steps
• National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
• Fairfield Preparatory School (counseling)
• The United Way (organizational)

Real-world education

The analytic and communicative skills developed by psychology majors in the liberal arts context of a Fairfield University education prepare them for graduate study in psychology, medicine, law, education, neuroscience, social work, or for business careers. As a student, you are encouraged to do original research and to acquire "real-world" experience in applied psychology through the abundant internship opportunities that are available. The combination of classroom and hands-on experience enables you to sort out your interests as you move along in your studies.

 For further information, please contact:
Dr. John F. McCarthy, department chair
Bannow Science Center 462
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06824-5195
(203) 254-4000, ext. 2429
E-mail: jmccarthy@mail.fairfield.edu