Bachelor of Arts Program
Program Code: BA-AS
Major Code: PYA

Psychology Department
Buckham Hall A238
(716) 878-6215
psychology.buffalostate.edu/

Students in the B.A. degree program receive a broad and comprehensive background in the science of psychology, which will qualify them to seek entry to graduate or professional schools, or to apply for jobs that require a liberal arts training. The department’s approach is both theoretical and empirical at all levels. The broad content areas represented include learning, perception, lifespan development and aging, animal behavior, industrial/organizational psychology, social processes, and normal and abnormal behavior.

B.A. Honors in Psychology

Departmental honors are for students who are performing exceptionally well in their courses. The honors designation is an adjunct to the B.A. degree with an added emphasis on independent work, and requires that students conduct a comprehensive original research project under the supervision of a faculty mentor. To be considered, students must have at least 24 credit hours in psychology from Buffalo State with a minimum GPA of 3.5, and a minimum GPA of 3.25 in all courses taken at Buffalo State. In addition to the required courses in the B.A. degree program, honors students must take PSY 496 and PSY 498. A 42-credit-hour sequence of psychology courses is required for a B.A. honors degree. This requirement is identical to that of the B.A. degree except that PSY 496 is used as a psychology elective and PSY 498 is an additional required course. Students should see their adviser no later than the junior year for more information about the honors option.

It is strongly recommended that all Psychology majors take BIO 101 Human Biology as part of their Intellectual Foundations coursework.

Program Requirements

¹

Prerequisite: At least sophomore status; Completion of the Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning General Education requirement – only a MAT course at MAT 114 or higher.

²

Prerequisite: PSY 101 with a Grade of C or higher and 3 additional hours of psychology.

Students will:

1. demonstrate an understanding of the major historical schools of thought and approaches in psychology.
2. demonstrate mastery of APA technical report writing.
3. be prepared for careers related to psychology or graduate studies.
4. be able to select and critically evaluate existing literature in a given topic area of psychology.
5. demonstrate the ability to generate a scientific hypothesis in a given area of psychology.
6. demonstrate the rudimentary skills to design and implement research to test scientific hypotheses.
7. be able to apply appropriate statistical techniques for a given research design.
8. demonstrate the ability to apply valid conclusions based on topic area, hypothesis, review of literature, and study outcomes.