Psychology

• Certificates (Not Applicable)

   

• Associate Degrees (Not Applicable)

   

• Bachelor Degrees

  Bachelor of Science in Psychological Science

  Goal 1: Knowledge Base in Psychology

  • 1.1 Describe Key concepts, principles, and overarching themes in psychology
  • 1.2 Develop a working knowledge of psychology's content domains
  • 1.3 Describe applications of psychology

   

  Goal 2: Scientific Inquiry and Critical Thinking

  • 2.1 Use scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomena
  • 2.2 Demonstrate psychology information literacy
  • 2.3 Engage in innovative and integrative thinking and problem solving
  • 2.4 Interpret, design, and conduct basic psychological research
  • 2.5 Incorporate sociocultural factors in scientific inquiry

   

  Goal 3: Ethical and Social Responsibility in a Diverse World

  • 3.1 Apply ethical standards to evaluate psychological science and practice
  • 3.2 Build and enhance interpersonal relationships
  • 3.3 Adopt Values that build community at local, national, and global levels

   

  Goal 4: Communication

  • 4.1 Demonstrate effective writing for different purposes
  • 4.2 Exhibit effective presentation skills for different purposes
  • 4.3 Interact effectively with others

   

  Goal 5: Professional Development

  • 5.1 Apply psychological content and skills to career goals
  • 5.2 Exhibit self-efficacy and self-regulation
  • 5.3 Refine project-management skills
  • 5.4 Enhance teamwork capacity
  • 5.5 Develop meaningful professional direction for life after graduation

The Psychology department is committed to excellence in undergraduate training in the science of psychology. We do so by offering students not only the highest caliber of classroom instruction but also extensive opportunities for professionally-authentic experiences in research (see list of 2013-2014 conference presentations by WSU Psychology students) and community engagement.  We are dedicated to training students to be psychologically literate citizens who can engage in scientifically- and ethically- informed judgments, decision-making, and actions.  As such, our curriculum emphasizes students acquiring knowledge about the discipline, applying that knowledge to real world situations, adopting scientific and ethical values, attitudes, and beliefs, and gaining interpersonal and communication skills.  

Students report having very positive experiences in their classes, and psychology majors report being extremely satisfied with the quality and breadth of their instruction. WSU psychology student have had next step success in graduate school in the discipline (with recent acceptances to graduate programs at Harvard, Michigan, Texas A&M, University of Kentucky, University of Utah, and Utah State University, among many others), related disciplines (Social Work, Education, Marriage and Family Studies, and Criminal Justice) and other professional schools (Medicine, Law, Business, and Pharmacy).  Psychology students are hired in a wide range of employment positions and do so at rate above the employment rate for the state.  

Psychology faculty members are actively engaged in the discipline, the community, the university, and the department. Counted among them are a number award-winning teachers and researchers. They were early adopters and continue to be leaders of the university initiative for undergraduate research and community-based scholarship. They are also involved in a variety of interdisciplinary initiatives on campus, including Neuroscience, Linguistics, and Women’s Studies. The faculty members are excellent campus and community citizens serving in leadership positions both on campus and off.  The recent reviews of the department by outside experts have been extremely positive and department members continue to aspire to become a model for the university and the discipline of innovative and effective undergraduate training in psychology.

Psychology Department Website

The assessment program of the Psychology department has two components. The first is an ongoing research program into the general abilities of psychology students and how they learn the discipline3. These student assessments are indirect, meaning they are based on non-classroom measures of and changes in students’ disciplinary attitudes, beliefs, values, knowledge, skills, etc. These assessments are aligned to department goals and the learning outcomes for those goals. This work has been ongoing over the past several years and generally contributes to the assessment of overall program goals. However the indirect assessment data are included in those courses specifically targeted by the research (see Amsel et al., 2014 for an example).

The second component assures the alignment of courses in the psychology curriculum to the department goals. This involves assessing direct measures of student learning outcomes in each class. These assessments used to grade students in the class and are developed by the faculty teaching the course. Only those assessments used for grading that are aligned to SLOs are reported. Faculty members were not required to coordinate on the same assessments to grade the same courses.

The assessment plan requires that each class be reviewed every four years or less. The four year rotation is designed to minimize the burden on faculty for the number of courses they are reviewing in a given year and to ensure that many faculty members are involved in the review each year. The plan involves the two-step processes beginning in the fall and ending in the spring of an academic year. During the Fall semester, faculty review the classes targeted for that year, including a) revisiting student learning outcomes (SLOs) defined for their course and assessing whether that class’ assessments and grading rubrics are optimally aligned to those outcomes, b) tracking students’ performance on:

• 3 Amsel, E., & Kay, T. (2008). After Introductory Psychology: The next course preparing psychology freshmen and sophomores for undergraduate research. In R. Miller, B. Beins, B. Rycek, M. Ware, E. Balcetis, R. Smith, & S. Burns (Eds.) Promoting the undergraduate research experience in psychology.
• Amsel, E., Johnston, A., Alvarado, E., Kettering, J., Rankin, R., & Ward, M. (2009). The effect of perspective on misconceptions in psychology: A test of conceptual change theory. The Journal of Instructional Psychology, 36, 289-296.
• Amsel, E. (2009a). Teaching psychology students to think like psychologists. Proceedings of the Fifth Annual Science Education at the Crossroads Conference.
• Amsel, E. (2009b). Three pedagogical themes. Psychology Teachers Network (a newsletter for the APA Education Directorate).
• Amsel, E., Baird, T., & Ashley, A. (2011). Misconceptions and conceptual change in undergraduate students learning psychology. Psychology Learning and Teaching, 10, 3-10
• Amsel, E., Ashley, A., Baird, T., & Johnston, A. (2014). Conceptual change in psychology students’ acceptance of the scientific foundation of the discipline. Psychology Learning and Teaching 13, 232-242
• selective assessments which aligned best to the outcomes, and c) retaining examples of student performance on targeted assessments which span the grade range.

The process of revisiting learning outcomes and assessing their alignment to class assessments will occur early in the fall semester for a course that is being reviewed. The tweaking of a course’s outcomes and assessments may result in a revision of the course evaluation in the curriculum grid above. Faculty are encouraged make editorial changes in the outcomes for the classes they are reviewing so that they can be better align to assessments and to change their assessments to better align them to the outcomes for the class. We consider this tweaking a key part of the philosophy of continual assessment.

To minimize the workload and maximize the reliability, faculty members were invited to code only a subset of items which they believe are the best exemplars of a given SLO learning outcome. However, motivated faculty members were free to code and assess all aligned assessments. The assessments coded included:

• multiple choice items aligned to student learning outcome from Chi Tester or Canvas tests which students were given over the course of a semester
• graded written assignments across the various different written exam questions (essay or short answer), online discussions, homework, or papers which students completed over the course of a semester
• other graded assessments (e.g., in-class group work, discussions, etc.) which tap additional outcomes not otherwise covered.

Finally, for each class reviewed, faculty members were asked to retain examples of student performance on assessments (likely of the b category above). Ideally, the assessments selected will be illustrative and representative of the grade range of the class. Student identification information will be redacted and the assessment will serve as artifacts available to those evaluating the department assessment.

• 2021-2022

   

• 2019-2020
   
• 2017

  1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • The department is currently working to revamp our assessment protocol to provide more comprehensive, reliable, and valid data. However, based on the current assessment data, it appears as if the department is strongly meeting our programs goals. It does seem as if we are only barely meeting our Values/Ethics and Communication goals in some classes. As such, we will discuss mechanism through which we can better assist students with these specific learning outcomes.

   

  2) We are interested in better understanding how departments/programs assess their graduating seniors or graduate students. Please provide a short narrative describing the practices/curriculum in place for your department/program. Please include both direct and indirect measures employed. Finally, what were your findings from this past year’s graduates?

  • The psychology department utilizes a graduate questionnaire focused on student evaluation of the department. The questionnaire (included below) is designed to measure student satisfaction with their experience with the department. Students are questioned regarding their perception of the department and their career preparation. As can be seen, students expressed satisfaction with their major choice, and would make the same choice again. Additionally, student found their experiences with the department positive. And found the curriculum prepared them for their career choice. 

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2015-2016

  The Psychology Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2016. Those results are presented in place of the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2015/16academic year.

• 2014-2015

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?  To answer this question, compare evidence from prior years to the evidence from the current year. Discuss trends of evidence that increases your confidence in the strengths of the program. Also discuss trends of concern (e.g. students struggling to achieve particular student outcomes).

  • This year’s departmental assessment provides evidence for confidence in the department’s continued commitment to student learning by focusing on assessment both at the course level and at the program level. Review of the current EOLs and comparison of previous assessments suggests the students matriculating in courses within the Psychology Department are successfully meeting department learning objectives. We will continue to focus of assessment and refine measurement techniques.
  • It is also interesting to note the increase in multiple forms of assessment in all courses within the department including both direct and indirect measures. The department continues to develop innovative and creative ways to assess student learning in both theoretical ways.

   

  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The department members have reviewed all of the data collected for the 2014-2015 assessment report.  Adjuncts will also receive a copy of the document.
     

  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • Following a thorough evaluation of the data gathered last year, a new program for course evaluations will be developed. It is the opinion of the department that a more comprehensive assessment plan be implemented over the next few years which will ensure that every course offered in an academic year is assessed and evaluated.

   

  The full report is available for viewing.

• 2013-2014

  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence? 

  • This was the first time discussing the core statistics-methods sequence of the curriculum. The data confirmed students’ success in learning the material as supported by both direct evidence of student learning outcomes from the classes and from indirect evidence based on self-report, objective, standardized measures of methodological knowledge and skills. However, direct evidence also revealed troubling limitations of students in the statistics classes. Without the background or understanding of how statistical knowledge is integrated with research, a significant minority of students were below threshold in a) fully grasping statistical facts, concepts, and skills, b) applying such knowledge, c) understanding the attitudes and ethics necessary to effectively use the knowledge, and) communicating the knowledge professionally. A newly designed courses (PSY 3615 – PSY 3616) alleviates the problem we think by presenting the relevant statistical and methodological knowledge together over the course of two semesters. The new course is set to be taught Summer 2015 or Fall 2015.

  
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?

  • The department members were presented all of the data that were described in the report and discussed it at length in a Fall 2014 at a monthly Faculty Development lunch. 

  
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?

  • As noted above, the department has passed a new statistics – methods course sequence (PSY 3615-316) to address the issues. The faculty will agree to share assessment items to compare performance on the two class sequences. Also faculty teaching PSY 3605 would also share lectures and assessments to ensure consistency.

  
  The full report is available for viewing 

• 2012-2013
  1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?  To answer this question, compare evidence from prior years to the evidence from the current year. Discuss trends of evidence that increases your confidence in the strengths of the program. Also discuss trends of concern (e.g. students struggling to achieve particular student outcomes).
   

  • I reiterate last year’s response to this question. Faculty members were encouraged to hear that the multi-dimensional assessments of SLOs, including all forms of disciplinary knowledge, values and skills, seem to be interrelated and form a single dimension which is affected by students’ exposure to and engagement in the discipline.  This finding is consistent with faculty members’ overall impression of their impact on students, which can be summarized as helping them to think as “scientists of behavior.” That is, they believed that their impact is broad and deep on students, despite the assessments being narrow and somewhat superficial. So they have become more confident about their role and impact on students particularly the success we feel we have had in students’ scholarship, outreach, and grantsmanship documented in Appendix C.
  • Moreover, the measure of Psychological Literacy was shown to be related to students exposure to (year in school) engagement by (major status) the discipline, a process made easier by engaging in authentic activities (research, practicum, etc.). Faculty members are more convinced than ever of the importance of their out-of-class work with students and have recommitted to a curriculum that promotes students engaging in serious application of disciplinary knowledge in research and community service. This confidence faculty have their about their role, impact, and the curriculum has been made stronger from the results of this assessment.
  • The concern about student performance in Psy 1010 is being addressed by two initiatives documents in the report:  Student Tutors and a psychology Module.  Also, faculty members are now armed to collect artifacts of their students’ work.  Recommendations are forthcoming from Psy 2000, including modules, new assignments, and guest speakers are also being worked on and are committed to collect artifacts for in-class and other assignments.

   
  2) With whom did you share the results of the year’s assessment efforts?
   

  • The department members have reviewed all of the data collected for the 2013-2014 assessment report.  Adjuncts will also receive a copy of the document.

  
  3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
   

  • As noted above, the department is pursuing implementation of the ideas for Psych 1010 and Psy 2000. 
     

  To access the full report, select this link: Psychology 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report

2016-17

2011-12