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Psychology

Humans sit at the intersection of molecules, biology, our social environments, and broader cultures. As a psychology major, you work closely with peers and professors to learn how these systems interact to help explain human behavior. Starting in your first course, you will learn to think and communicate like a psychological scientist, and you will design and conduct research throughout our hands-on and lab-based curriculum. Because psychology is naturally interdisciplinary, you will solve problems that intersect across traditional disciplinary bounds. Finally, you will learn to give psychology away to help solve those challenges both locally and globally.

Studying psychology, you learn how to read texts closely, design and conduct laboratory research and use related technology, and analyze and interpret statistics. In courses you investigate the natural science and principles of behavior and learn how to ethically apply them to alleviate suffering. You can also participate in the Psychology Student Seminar Series, independent study, and internships. Majors can go on to graduate studies or careers in teaching, scientific research, clinical work, medicine, law, and more.

Research Opportunities

Put theory into practice with hands-on lab experiences.

Starting with your first psychology course, you will learn to think and communicate like a psychological scientist. In Grinnell’s hands-on, lab-based curriculum, you will design and conduct research while gaining experience with the methods and ethical responsibilities of research. You’ll have the chance to work in a laboratory, a behavioral neuroscience suite with a contiguous animal colony, and a freestanding preschool that offers an ongoing curriculum in parallel with its laboratory function — and these are just a few of the laboratory course areas Grinnell offers.
Interdisciplinary Study

Combine your interests and discover new ones.

Because psychology is naturally interdisciplinary, you will solve problems that cross traditional disciplinary boundaries. The requirements of a psychology major will leave time in your schedule for courses in science, social studies, and the humanities. You’ll be encouraged to discover the natural connections between psychology and many other disciplines and the creative thinking that grows out of multidisciplinary competence.
Career Opportunities

A liberal arts education prepares you for a variety of fields.

Situated in the liberal arts environment, the psychology curriculum will empower you with the tools for mindful inquiry. You’ll learn how to read texts closely, design and conduct laboratory research, and analyze and interpret statistics. A psychology education includes preparation beyond career paths toward helping individuals solve interpersonal challenges ranging from local to global. You’ll graduate with a well-rounded education, prepared for a variety of professional careers — almost all the major challenge we face as a society involve human behavior.

A woman in a green turtleneck and glasses looks intently off camera. In the foreground are the backs of students.

The Psychology of Collective Action

The Psychology of Collective Action coursetakes students through readings by psychologists alongside work by those scholars in a range of disciplines and activists involved in social organizing and collective action — the likes of Malcom X and the Combahee River Collective.

Science in the Service of Children

Developmental Psychology (PSY 233) brings together hands-on learning with reading and classroom discussion to study how children’s growing brains, minds, emotions, and behavior from the earliest point of life through adolescence interact with their experiences to make us who we are today.

child plays soccer with caregiver at preschool playground

An Innovative Approach to Psychology

Learn to think like a psychologist. Discover how to ask good questions (as all Grinnellians do) about the cognitive, behavioral, and social processes you study and turn these questions (and the answers) into productive hypotheses and theories and to evaluate research evidence.

Psychology Career Outcomes

First Destinations

59% Employment
25% Graduate School
2% Post-Graduate Service
4% Fellowships
2% Continuing Education
8% Other

Employment

94%

Positions related to Career Goals

Employer

Chicago ABA Therapy
Fairview Hospital
Just Like Home
Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
Mathematica Policy Research
Phoenix LLC
Residential Transitions, Inc.
Seattle Children's
University of Iowa
UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital

Graduate Schools

94%

94% Accepted to 1st- or 2nd- choice programs

Institutions

Bowling Green State University
Columbia University
Purdue University
University College London
University of Minnesota
University of Southern California
University of Wisconsin
Vanderbilt University

Explore More Graduate Outcomes

Department Chair

Ann E Ellis

ellisa@grinnell.edu

Department Information

Phone

641-269-3172

Fax

641-269-4984

Noyce Science Center
1116 Eighth Ave
Grinnell, IA 50112
United States

Psychology

From the personal to the global, the biggest challenges need psychology to solve them.

Why Study Psychology?

Put theory into practice with hands-on lab experiences.

Combine your interests and discover new ones.

A liberal arts education prepares you for a variety of fields.