Welcome to the Psychology Department
We're located in Bauder Hall at the top of campus behind the Clark Halls.
Distinctive Characteristics of the Department
The psychology major at Westmont College provides students with a thorough grounding in the scientific discipline of psychology and helps students seriously consider issues of faith and learning.
Our program is distinctive for the following reasons:
Christian
How psychological knowledge can inform one's faith and how a person's faith can inform his or her knowledge about the science and practice of psychology are examined. Students are provided with the necessary intellectual and methodological tools so they can understand psychological knowledge and integrate it with their faith.
Academic Rigor
The Westmont psychology department is regularly identified in Rugg's Recommendations on the Colleges as having a "recommended" undergraduate psychology program. This is Rugg's highest rating.
The Westmont College Psychology Department's Counseling class scored 4th of 30 U.S. colleges and universities for knowledge of counseling theories. This performance occurred on a national norming test that was being developed by the Educational Testing Service (ETS).
Westmont psychology majors are accepted for admission to a range of graduate programs at nationally-known graduate schools, and they are sought after by local employers.
Westmont psychology graduates have been awarded high honors: for example, a clinical post-doctoral internship at Harvard Medical School, the Ford Foundation Predoctoral Minority Fellowship, and semi-finalist for the Pew Predoctoral Fellowship.
Facilities
The psychology department has a well-equipped computer lab for work in sensation and perception and cognitive psychology, a motion tracking apparatus for research in motor control, a computerized operant conditioning lab and radial arm maze for work in animal learning, a physiological psychology lab, a vivarium for learning and research in physiological psychology and neuroscience, and a neuropsychology lab.
Application of Knowledge
Research. Students have many opportunities to work with faculty members in senior research, independent studies, and in major honors. Frequently, students present their research at regional and national psychological conferences. In 3 of the last 4 years, Westmont psychology students won the outstanding research award at the Western Conference for Undergraduate Research in Psychology.
Practica. Students choose from a variety of local sites where they can investigate possible careers and work settings. Students perform very well in these situations and are often invited to become employees once the practicum is completed.