Psychology is the science of mental life and behavior. Psychologists study humans and other animals from a variety of perspectives, seeking knowledge about how we perceive, think, remember, decide, feel, act, create, and relate to the physical and social world around us. The focus of psychological research ranges from the biological substrates of mind to environmental and social influences on behavior. Psychology is a very broad field that overlaps with many other disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics, speech and hearing sciences and computer science on one side; physiology, psychiatry, neurology, pharmacology, neuroscience and biology on another; family studies, sociology and communication on a third, and management, marketing, economics and policy planning as well. It is no surprise that Psychology is always among the most popular fields of study at undergraduate and graduate levels. In the Fall Semester of 2002, Psychology at The University of Arizona had the largest number of majors (1,621) in its history, and in comparison to any other department at the university.

The Psychology Department offers an undergraduate major leading to either a B.A. or a B.S. degree, plays a major role in both Tier I and Tier II of the university General Education curriculum, and provides a graduate program leading to the Ph.D. with a concentration in one of six distinct program areas and two sub-program specializations.

Because human behavior is multiply determined, the study of psychology necessarily draws on many disciplines and on many levels of explanation to achieve an understanding of its content. Our undergraduate curriculum reflects this multidisciplinary focus at all levels. The Psychology department holds the view that the discipline of psychology includes knowledge about ourselves and others, and methods for deciding upon effective approaches to solving human problems that every educated person should understand, regardless of his or her chosen career path. We have thus also taken an active and leading role in the new General Education curriculum developed in the last five years at the University.

Our undergraduate major focuses on providing students with a solid grounding in research methods, and broad exposure to two domains: (1) Cognition and Neural Systems and (2) Individual and Social Processes.

Students can pursue either a B.A. or a B.S. degree in Psychology. The two programs are identical with respect to their psychology requirements. After completing the lower-division requirements, students take eight additional psychology courses while meeting the distributional requirements noted above. The department also offers a minor in psychology, in which students take four courses in addition to the introductory and statistics courses.

Our graduate Ph.D. program provides concentrations of study in six distinct (although interacting) program areas: Clinical Psychology; Cognition and Neural Systems (CNS); Cognitive Psychology; Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology (EEP); Psychology, Policy and Law (PPL); and Social Psychology. In addition, we offer two sub-program areas of specialization: Environmental Psychology, and Program Evaluation and Research Methods (PERM). These graduate programs and specializations vary in specific contents and research methods, but all share basic goals that are compatible with our philosophy of training and the mission of our University as a Research I institution.

Our faculty members are engaged in leading edge research in a large number of areas, as indicated by the volume and impact of their publications and their prominence in other ways. Our research activities are fully integrated with our instructional activities, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels.