Psychology

Congratulations, 2011 psychology major graduates!

The Grinnell College Psychology Department thrives in the science division of the college, a source of natural science methods that we employ to learn from and learn about biological organisms living self-consciously in a social habitat.

The psychology faculty are part of the community of learners in our department. We endeavor to find the general in the particular - in social psychology, cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, physiological psychology, abnormal psychology and behavioral psychology - and to find unity in our pluralistic discipline. Along the way, we encourage students to investigate the particulars. We call these investigations labs, independent studies and internships.

Psychology students are difficult to characterize. Our environment seems to select for variability. Some follow the curriculum like a map to goals of differentiated success in clinical psychology, experimental psychology, neuroscience, education, medicine and law. Others pursue their curriculum by broadly sampling our offerings to reveal emergent goals. We try to empower all these students with liberal arts values and to create conditions that set the occasion for the release of a variety of personal achievements and the pleasure that comes from learning.

Our Mission Statement

Psychology contributes to students' education in the liberal arts. Students who participate in the psychology curriculum are trained in close reading of text, active experience in laboratory technique, precise composition of empirically based arguments, and the critical, empirically grounded assessment of propositions concerning human and nonhuman behavior. Progressive engagement with the curriculum, as in the case of the psychology major, permits students to refine their skills to achieve the learning goals of the department.