Welcome to the Department of Psychology

Why study psychology?

Psychology is the science of the mind; it explores the nature of human thought and behaviour.  Students who choose to study psychology will learn about how people relate to each other and the world around them, while also learning about themselves.  Psychologists tackle a staggering array of questions about what makes us human; the answers they uncover challenge our assumptions and help us to understand our ever-changing world.  Such questions may include:

• Do men and women naturally differ in intelligence, sports abilities, or in their attitudes towards relationships and politics?
• How does stress and trauma relate to mental illness?
• Why do juries and eye-witnesses sometimes make devastating errors that send innocent people to jail and set guilty people free?

This is just a small sample of the many timely and intriguing questions psychology students explore while pursuing a degree that will serve as excellent preparation for a variety of jobs or post-graduate training opportunities.

What will I study?

The department of psychology at the University of Regina and its federated colleges offers a wide variety of courses that cover a diverse range of subject areas.  Our students build a solid foundation in the principles of biological, social, developmental, personality, and cognitive psychology, and learn to critically analyze and design research studies.  With this preparation, students can choose among advanced courses that explore fascinating topics such as:

• the history and theoretical approaches to the study of psychology
• the origin and treatments of mental disorders (abnormal psychology) and health psychology
• child and adolescent development, and aging
• perception, learning, memory, and decision making
• neuropsychology, motivation, and emotion
• the psychology of women, inter-personal relations, and consciousness

What skills and experiences will I gain as a psychology student?

Psychology is truly interdisciplinary in its scope, and psychology students have unparalleled opportunities to develop an enviable skill set that serves as excellent preparation for entering the job market.  In addition to developing the traditional liberal arts skills employers value, such as critical thinking, analytical writing, oral presentation, and interpersonal skills, psychology graduates learn how to critically evaluate scientific research and appreciate the use (and recognize the misuse) of statistics. Students have the opportunity to become involved in world-class research through “hands-on” experience.  By participating in research studies or volunteering to work on a research team, undergraduate students can gain valuable experience that will prepare them for pursuing post-graduate studies.

What can I do with a psychology degree?

Whether your goal is to get an outstanding university education or to use your degree as a stepping stone to other opportunities, your education will lead to a competitive degree valued by employers in a variety of occupations. Psychology graduates are especially sought after in areas such as human resources, public relations, community services (e.g., child and youth worker, residential counselor, probation officer), and management. An undergraduate University of Regina psychology degree is excellent preparation for post-graduate and professional studies, such as law, occupational therapy, education, business, and speech pathology.

What some Psychology undergraduates are saying and doing:

“The BA in psychology that I received prepared me very well and enabled me to attain my position as a child-care worker.”

“I thoroughly value the time spend on my Psychology degree, the courses were fascinating, and the professors knowledgeable.  I could not have asked for better preparation for my graduate training.”

“The secretarial staff at the Psychology Department is extremely helpful and went above and beyond their job descriptions to help me get papers in, deal with outside associations, etc.”

“I enjoyed the diverse range of classes, especially neuroscience.”

Honours Program

Overview

The Experimental and Applied Psychology (EAP) programme is designed to train psychologists who will work in either academic settings or as researchers in industry or the public sector. Students in the EAP programme have the opportunity to specialize in Cognitive, Developmental, Forensic, Social, or Theoretical Psychology, or in Neuroscience.

Orientation

The EAP programme focuses on training students to become independent researchers who are capable of carrying out high quality, high impact research. Faculty in the EAP programme have research interests that address both basic questions of global importance and applied problems that impact our community, our province, and our country. To this end, student training takes place in traditional laboratory settings as well as in nonacademic community settings, such as in hospitals, schools, and law enforcement agencies. A key component of the EAP programme is strong mentorship, with students working closely with their supervisors at every stage of the development and implementation of research projects. Students also have opportunities to work with researchers in areas outside of their immediate area of specialization, and collaboration is encouraged. As part of their training, students are encouraged to present their findings at research conferences both at the University of Regina and around the globe. To this end, the Faculty of Graduate Studies provides travel awards on a competitive basis, in three competitions each year.

Areas of Specialization

Cognitive Psychology

Students choosing to specialize in cognitive psychology learn to design research studies to address questions of interest in both basic areas (including attention and perception, memory, learning, mathematical cognition, and decision making) and applied areas (such as goal pursuit, with application to pro-environmental and conservation behaviour; face recognition, with application to policing and security; investigative interviewing, with application to the law; risk-taking behaviour, with application to gambling and criminal behaviour).

Developmental Psychology

Students choosing to specialize in developmental psychology learn to conduct research related to characterizing developmental differences and tracking learning and change over time. Current topics of interest among faculty include how children learn and become skilled in academic domains such as arithmetic, how social cognition develops in infancy and early childhood, and developmental differences in children’s memory.

Forensic Psychology

Forensic psychology explores the intersection between psychology and the law. Faculty research interests include the psychology of policing, reliability of eyewitness testimony, issues related to child victims/witnesses, assessment of instruments used in forensic settings, predictors of criminal behaviour with emphasis on the role of risk-taking, and factors affecting decisions made by law enforcement officials in the field.

Neuroscience

Neuroscientists explore how the structure of the brain gives rise to its function. Faculty research in this area examines: the impact of acquired brain injury; the neural correlates of the expression and interpretation of emotion; sex differences in cognitive and visuomotor skills, and the effects of differential prenatal exposure to hormones on behaviour later in life.

Social Psychology

Students specializing in this area carry out research that examines social determinants of risk-taking; decision-making in police investigators, judges, and jurors; perceptions of credibility; and, ethical practices such as debriefing in social psychology research.

Theoretical Psychology

This specialization, one of very few of its kind in Canadian psychology programmes, addresses foundational issues in psychology, such as the history of the discipline, the history of ideas on psychological topics such as mind, emotion, thought, and action, how psychology relates to other sciences, and critical and theoretical considerations of topics frequently explored in other areas of psychology, such as interpretation, perception, the concept of the self and the meaning of consciousness.