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Core Curriculum

The ACBS curriculum is currently under revision. The following course list is only a sample.

First Year

Fall

  • PSY 512 Cognitive Psychology
  • PAY 610 Data Analysis in Psychology
  • PSY 812 Cognitive Neuroscience
  • PSY 560 Teaching of Psychology 1 Cr.

Winter

  • PSY 710 Data Analysis II
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology: Judgment and Decision Making (with permission of instructor only)
  • PSY 898 Masters Thesis Research.

Spring

  • PSY 612 Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction Design
  • 711 Data Analysis III
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology: Learning and Memory

Second Year

For the second year and beyond the student should plan on competing each of the following courses:

PSY518 Social Psychology,
PSY510 Research Methods I,
PSY511 Research Methods II, PSY 614 Psychology of Problem Solving and Creativity, PSY712 History and Systems of Psychology

The remainder of the student's academic schedule will be determined jointly by the student and their primary mentor(s)/advisor(s). A student’s Pre and Post Master's coursework will be partly shaped to suit the student's goals and may be drawn from the following list of courses. (Additional courses may be added as appropriate and with the approval of the ACBS program director.)

Sample Elective Course Menu. (all 3.0)

Psychology Courses

  • PSY 510 Research Methods in Psychology
  • PSY 511 Research Methods in Psychology II
  • PSY 516 Developmental Psychology
  • PSY 517 Social Psychology
  • PSY 530 Principles of Neuroscience
  • PSY 562 Consciousness
  • PSY 610 Data Analysis in Psychology
  • PSY 617 Empirical Foundations of Unconscious Processes
  • PSY 612 Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction Design
  • PSY 616 Motivation and Emotion
  • PSY 621 Theories of Personality
  • PSY 630 Psychopharmacology
  • PSY 632 Sensory and Motor Systems
  • PSY 648 Forensic Psychology/Forensic Assessment I
  • PSY 649 Forensic Assessment II
  • PSY 710 Data Analysis II: Multivariate Methods
  • PSY 711 Data Analysis III: Advanced Topics
  • PSY 712 History and Systems of Psychology
  • PSY 720 Health Psychology
  • PSY 730 Criminal Law and Psychology
  • PSY 840 Models of Memory
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology: Technologies in Psychology
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology; Judgment and Decision Making
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology: Multilevel Regression
  • PSY 865 Special Topics in Psychology: Computer-Based Research Methods
  • PSY 898 Master's Thesis in Psychology
  • PSY 998 PhD Dissertation Psych

Enrichment Courses from Other Disciplines

Computer Science

  • CS 510 Artificial Intelligence
  • CS 530 Developing User Interfaces
  • CS 630 Cognitive Systems

Information Systems

  • INFO 608 Human Computer Interaction
  • INFO 610 Analysis of Interactive Systems
  • INFO 611 Design of Interactive Systems

Biomedical Engineering and Sciences

  • BSES 551- Biomedical Signal Processing
  • BMES 710 Neural Signals
  • BMES 531 Chronobioengineering I
  • BMES 532 Chronobioengineering II

In years following successful completion of the Master's work and the comprehensive examination required for advancement to doctoral study (see description below), additional course credits required for completion of the PhD will be either research credits or appropriate courses negotiated by the student with their major advisor and plan of study review committee. Students will be encouraged to adopt an interdisciplinary perspective in the selection of such courses external to psychology.

Students who have already been awarded an MS or MA degree in any area of Psychology may be considered for entry into the ACBS concentration as part of the psychology PhD offerings, but will need to complete certain courses if required areas of course work (e.g., research methods, statistics) were not fully addressed during their MS or MA training. Existing policy is that students with a Master's degree are evaluated on a case-by-case basis by the program director. To get credit for a course, they must present the syllabus to the Drexel instructor of that course, who must contact the program director in writing that the course is essentially equivalent. The program director then makes the final judgment. By way of this process, students can get credit for up to (but no more than) one year of prior graduate-level training.

Under no circumstances will a student admitted to the ACBS concentration in Psychology be allowed to simply transfer to a PhD Concentration in Clinical Psychology at Drexel, and vice versa. Rather, students wishing to transfer from ACBS to a clinical concentration, or vice versa, must apply for admission as if they were new external applicants.