Graduate Psychology Course Descriptions

5110. CURRENT TOPICS IN EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (1-0). A survey of contemporary topics in experimental psychology.  Prerequisite: admission to the graduate program in psychology or permission of the instructor.

5310. MATHEMATICAL MODELS IN PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Elementary probability theory, matrix algebra, and theory of linear difference equations applied to theoretical problems in learning, signal detection, decision processes, and social interactions.

5312. ANIMAL LEARNING (3-0). Survey of contemporary topics in animal learning.

5313. COGNITIVE PROCESSES (3-0). Includes topics such as concept identification, problem solving, reasoning, and knowledge representation.

5314. COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT (3-0). A survey of current theories of cognitive development.  Recent research within topic areas, such as physical reasoning, spatial cognition, memory, and symbol use, will be used to evaluate the theories presented.

5315. OPERANT PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Overview of operant theory with an emphasis upon contemporary problems.  Basic concepts that are covered include: reinforcement and stimulus control, punishment, compound schedules, response topography, and chaining.  Other topics include complex human operants, verbal behavior, behavior modification, and contingency management.

5316. HISTORY AND SYSTEMS (3-0). Consideration of the origins of psychology in the development of Western thought.  Early conceptualization of problems and their modification with changes in evidence emphasized.

5317. PHYLOGENY AND ONTOGENY OF BEHAVIOR (3-0). Selection contingencies as they operate to modulate behavior between phylogenic and reproductive cycles.  Topics such as learning, conditioning, reinforcement, foraging, imprinting, modeling, social behavior, group selection, and cultural behavior will be treated as varieties of phyletic adaptation in the evolution of hominids.

5320. BEHAVIORAL PHARMACOLOGY (3-0). Survey of the basis of behavioral pharmacology including mechanisms and theories of drug actions, techniques and strategies of pharmacological research, common psychoactive drugs, and the uses of drugs in clinical practice.

5321. PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). A survey of contemporary topics in personality psychology, including personality assessment, strategies for studying personality, temporal stability and cross-situational consistency in behavior, and personality influence on social behavior.

5322. SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). A survey of contemporary topics in social psychology, including interpersonal attraction, altruism and aggression, attribution and social cognition, social influence, group dynamics, and social motivation.

5323. GROUP PROCESSES (3-0). Survey of the major topics in group dynamics.  Among the issues covered will be performance, motivation, goal setting, decision making, creativity, social influence, memory, leadership, teamwork, and collective behavior.

5325. THEORIES OF MOTIVATION (3-0). Surveys the current literature and theory on emotion and the neural and physiological basis for motivation.  Material to be covered will include both biological drives, such as hunger and thirst, and interpretations of drives less immediately related to the underlying biological processes.

5331. PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES (3-0). Survey of methods and findings dealing with perception; emphasis will be upon behavioral rather than physiological considerations; particular topics include signal detection theory, form and pattern recognition, and attentional mechanisms.

5333. PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). A survey of biological and physical processes underlying behavior.  Emphasis on neural, hormonal, and genetic determinants of behavior.  Topics include regulatory behaviors, reward and nociceptive systems, differentiation and sociosexual behaviors, limbic and cortical functions.

5335. ANIMAL BEHAVIOR (3-0). Phylogenetic approach to some basic problems in behavior, with special emphasis on unlearned behavior.  Also offered as BIOL 5335.

5341. DECISION MAKING (3-0). Study of variables that influence judgments and choices.

5343. COGNITIVE NEUROPSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Surveys current experimental and clinical research and theory relating the brain and cognition.  Emphasizes selected areas i.e., perception, attention, memory, language, and thinking.

5344. PSYCHOMETRIC THEORY (3-0). Introduction to test construction.  Topics include reliability theory, test validation, and item analysis.

5345. HUMAN LEARNING AND MEMORY (3-0). Survey of current approaches to the study of human learning and memory.

5346. SOCIAL BEHAVIOR OF ANIMALS (3-0). Survey of research and theory related to nonhuman social behavior.

5347. ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Survey of the current literature on the impact of various features of the physical and social environment on human behavior.  Designed to be of interest to graduate students in architecture, urban studies, engineering, geology, sociology, as well as those in psychology.

5348. EXPOSURE TO CONTEMPORARY PC MICROCOMPUTERS (3-0). Operating systems, ACII editors, word processors, spreadsheets, graphics, data bases, programming languages, programming psychological experiments, statistical programming, using networks, the Internet, e-mail, Gopher, FTP, and Telnet.

5151, 5251, 5351. READINGS IN PSYCHOLOGY. Independent readings under the supervision of an individual faculty member.  Students wishing to conduct research should sign up for PSYC 5191, 5291, or 5391.  May be repeated for credit with consent of the Graduate Advisor.  Graded P/F/R. Prerequisite: consent of the instructor.

5353. PSYCHOLOGY EDUCATION I (3-0). Survey of the content of contemporary psychology.

5354. PSYCHOLOGY EDUCATION II (3-0). Survey of the methods of contemporary psychology.

5355. MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS (3-0). Application of general linear model to special cases such as factor analysis, multiple regression, and discriminant analysis. PSYC 5444 recommended.

5389. CONTEMPORARY PROBLEMS IN PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Topics vary; may be repeated for credit with consent of Graduate Advisor.

5191, 5291, 5391. RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY. Independent research under the supervision of an individual faculty member; may be repeated for credit with consent of Graduate Advisor.  Graded P/F/R. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

5405. ADVANCED STATISTICS I (3-2). Review of essential mathematical ideas and techniques, a survey of the basic concepts of probability theory, mathematical expectation, special distributions; parametric estimation theory.

5406. ADVANCED STATISTICS II (3-2). Statistical hypothesis testing, Bayesian inference, decision theory, linear regression and correlation; analysis of variance; distribution-free techniques.

5407. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN (3-2). Statistical aspects of complex experimental designs used in psychological research. Prerequisite: PSYC 5406.

5600. ADVANCED RESEARCH. Supervised research. May be repeated for credit. Graded P/F/R. Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

5398, 5698. THESIS. 5398 graded R/F only; 5698 graded P/F/R.  Prerequisites: 12 hours of advanced psychology and an approved thesis proposal. $15 lab fee.

6300. SEMINAR IN PSYCHOLOGY (3-0). Offered each semester.  Topics vary. May be repeated for credit.  Prerequisite: consent of instructor.

6399, 6699, 6999. DISSERTATION. 6399 and 6699 graded R/F only; 6999 graded P/F/R.  Prerequisite: approved dissertation proposal.  For students in the PhD program in Mathematical Sciences, see Mathematical Sciences entry. $15 lab fee.

"Field of Study:  Students who complete an approved field of study curriculum in whole or in part will receive academic credit for the equivalent courses within their selected field of study at The University of Texas at Arlington.  To view the field of study curriculums approved by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, please visit http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/ctc/ip/core11_00/index.htm"

"Core Complete:  Students who transfer from a Texas community college or university and are certified as core complete shall have satisfied the core requirements of The University of Texas at Arlington.  Academic Departments may, in some instances, require specific courses outside the major as prerequisites for major course work."