The Structure of the Psychology Undergraduate Curriculum

A review of 500 college catalogs for 4 institutional types found the modal undergraduate psychology program follows the traditional model. It is taught in the liberal arts tradition as recommended by the St. Mary's Conference (Brewer et al., 1993), balancing natural and social science content. The major typically requires 34 credits including introductory, statistics, and a capstone course (either a senior seminar, colloquium or history); at least one content course; and limited laboratory experience. It neither necessarily requires the integrative capstone course nor psychometric methods courses recommended by the St. Mary's Conference. Prerequisites for methodology and capstone courses are limited.