Learning Goals for Undergraduate

The undergraduate Psychology program at the University of Washington helps students develop a scientific understanding of human and animal behavior. Through coursework, research, and experiential learning, students build skills in critical thinking, scientific inquiry, and communication. The following learning goals guide students’ development in both the BA and BS programs and prepare them for careers, further study, and lifelong learning.

Students will demonstrate the following knowledge and skills:

Critical Thinking

Students will consider behavior through a psychological lens, i.e., using empirical information to understand the causes, correlates, and consequences of behavior. They will be able to:

• Demonstrate scientific fluency by gathering information from scientific and/or popular sources, evaluating it (the validity, authoritativeness, relevance and usefulness of sources), synthesizing it, and applying it;
  
  
• Describe the tentative nature of knowledge; tolerate ambiguity and use skeptical inquiry;
  
  
• Explain how psychologists produce knowledge;
  
  
• Reflect on information from the discipline and apply it to their lives.

Content

Students will demonstrate familiarity with major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in psychology. They will be able to: 

• Characterize the scientific and applied nature of psychology;
  
  
• Contrast major perspectives of psychology (e.g., behavioral, biological, cognitive, developmental, humanistic, and sociocultural);
  
  
• Explain how psychologists study behavior at different levels of analysis (e.g., biological, intrapersonal, environmental);
  
  
• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding representing appropriate breadth and depth across different domains of psychology (e.g., clinical psychology, neural systems and behavior, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, social/cultural psychology).

Diversity and Multicultural Awareness

Students will recognize, understand and appreciate the ways diversity, perspective, culture, and family affect individual behaviors. They will be able to:

• Understand the ways culture and experience affect how knowledge is constructed;
  
  
• Demonstrate tolerance of varied individual perspectives;
  
  
• Understand how privilege, power, and oppression may affect prejudice, discrimination, and inequity;
  
  
• Understand aspects of human behavior that are shared and differ according to cultural, ethnic, gender, geographic, or other boundaries.

Communication

Students will be able to communicate effectively in a variety of formats. They will be able to:

• Locate, select, read, evaluate, summarize, and synthesize relevant scholarly sources effectively;
  
  
• Formulate written and oral arguments that are logical and coherent, rely on scientific evidence, and draw appropriate conclusions from that evidence;
  
  
• Demonstrate professional writing conventions (e.g. grammar, audience awareness, and style) appropriate to the purpose and context;
  
  
• Provide clear and appropriate interpretation of, and communication about, the information conveyed in data summaries, charts, tables, and figures;
  
  
• Actively participate in discussions drawing on scientific theory and evidence;
  
  
• Engage in active listening to effectively learn from presentations and discussions;
  
  
• Give formal and informal presentations (using appropriate technology) on topics in the field.

Methods

Students will use scientific research methods. They will be able to: 

• Pose a scientific question, select an appropriate research design to address the question, consider how to operationalize variables, propose an appropriate data collection strategy, manage data, conduct basic statistical analyses, generate graphical display of data and results, and correctly interpret their statistical results;
  
  
• Understand the roles of hypothesis testing and interval estimation as statistical methods used to draw inferences from data;
  
  
• Draw on and evaluate research evidence, including evaluating quantitative and graphical evidence to assess the status of scientific claims;
  
  
• Use statistical software for data analysis, summary, and presentation;
  
  
• Understand and comply with ethical guidelines in the process of carrying out and reporting the results of psychological research.

Personal and Professional Development

Students will understand and demonstrate professional ethics and social responsibility.  They will be able to:

• Apply ethical standards to conduct and evaluate psychological science and practice;
  
  
• Demonstrate professional integrity in written and in-person communication;
  
  
• Collaborate effectively on team-based projects, including communicating with other team members, exercising leadership, and strategically addressing personal limitations;
  
  
• Display effective self-regulation and judgement in professional interactions;
  
  
• Self-monitor their learning progress to take ownership of their own learning;
  
  
• Practice metacognition to improve learning and collaboration skills;
  
  
• Apply psychological principles to strengthen community and improve quality of life