Psychology students doing a lab

Psychology at Grinnell

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

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.

Why Study Psychology at Grinnell?

  • Students doing taste lab in psychology

    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.

  • Students laugh in psychology class

    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.

  • psychology poster session

    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.

Featured Courses

Developmental psychology class

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.

College student playing soccer with preschool student

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.

Nhi Vo in a beautiful garden

Nhi Võ ’22: A Passion to Help Others

Nhi Võ came to Grinnell with a desire to learn about resilience and recovery after trauma. She left with an enhanced understanding of her life experiences and a store of knowledge with the potential to take her farther than she had ever imagined.
Miho Tatsuki poses with her research poster

Miho Tatsuki ’20: Fascinated by Psychology

International student Miho Tatsuki discovered a passion for research at Grinnell College.
Sarah Beisner presents research poster

Learning to "Ask Answerable Questions"

Truman Scholar Sarah Beisner ’22 is contributing to the greater good by focusing on the needs of children in the welfare system.

Psychology Career Outcomes

First Destinations

  • 63% Employment
  • 25% Graduate School
  • 1% Post-Graduate Service
  • 2% Fellowships
  • 2% Continuing Education
  • 7% Other

Employment

94%
Positions related to Career Goals

Positions Related to Career Goals

This graph illustrates the extent to which our graduates' first job is aligned with their career goals. It's one thing to find a job; it's an entirely different thing to land the job you want!

Employer

  • Amici
  • Chicago ABA Therapy
  • Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
  • Fairview Hospital
  • Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes
  • Partner Forces
  • Seattle Children's
  • UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital

Graduate Schools

95%
95% Accepted to 1st- or 2nd- choice programs

Graduate School Acceptance Info

Of those who applied to and were accepted to at least one program, this chart illustrates the percentage of admitted students who were accepted to either their first or second choice program and institution.

Institutions

  • Columbia University
  • Northwestern University
  • Purdue University
  • UAG School of Medicine
  • University of Minnesota
  • Vanderbilt University
Explore More Graduate Outcomes

Learn More

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