Psychology

Psychology is the study of human behavior and mental processes, so if you’ve ever wondered about people’s motivations, tried to understand your own feelings, or discussed the actions of others around you, you’ve already explored this area, albeit in an informal fashion. As you learn how to formalize your inquiries into a scientific study, you’ll be exploring psychology’s historical underpinnings, as well as the influence of culture and social context. Our diverse programs of study, which concentrate on areas like neuroscience and clinical, developmental, and cultural psychology, will prepare you to work or pursue further study in a variety of fields where knowledge of human motivation, critical thinking skills, and sensitivity are valued. To become a practicing psychologist, students must prepare to pursue a degree at the Masters or Doctorate level.

The educational goals for this major are as follows:

• You will conceptualize the complex factors (biological, neuropsychological, cognitive, developmental, social, relational, cultural, and historical) that influence human psychology and comprehend the interplay between these forces.
• You will understand how culture and society influence basic psychological phenomena such as behavior, development, interpersonal relationships, thought, identity, memory, and emotion.
• You will develop an informed, and critical, stance toward psychological theory and practice.
• You will demonstrate knowledge of different psychological research traditions and methodologies and their advantages and limitations.
• You will employ psychological theory and research to construct sound arguments.

Your classes’ small professor-student ratio will allow you to collaborate with professors in their areas of research, while benefiting from their mentorship, and our commitment to the liberal arts tradition, as well as our location in Paris, will give you access to interdisciplinary perspectives, intercultural field experience, and resources from French and European scientific institutions, laboratories, and archives. As you consider human psychology from different analytical frameworks, while challenging the validity of any single one, our hope is that dialogue and debate will thrive in the classroom and across the AUP community, through hosted conferences and invited speakers from around the world. 

With every single one of our majors, you’ll find a carefully curated medley of core courses and electives, which will provide you with the tools you need to establish an unshakeable foundation in the principles and concepts fundamental to your growth within your disciplines of choice. Many majors also enable you to specialize further within the broader area of study.

BROWSE ALL MAJORS AND REQUIREMENTS

The Psychology core courses, which you must take as part of the major requirements, will provide you with the tools you’ll need to ground your present and future studies. Your introduction to the fundamentals of Psychology will help pave the way for your successful completion of other Psychology courses.