The major also provides elective courses that allow the student to focus upon an area of special interest. These specialty areas might include social, developmental, cognitive, clinical, or biological psychology. Students majoring in other disciplines such as the computer, health or clinical sciences, communication, business administration, or education will find that a minor or electives in psychology will provide them with knowledge of direct relevance to their chosen professions. Additionally, psychology has rich ties with other fields such as philosophy, history, literature, the arts, sociology, anthropology, linguistics, communication and biology. The psychology program at CSU San Marcos offers excellence in undergraduate and graduate education.
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior in both humans and animals.
The program emphasizes psychology as an empirical science with skills and competencies that include writing, computer literacy, quantitative and qualitative research methods, critical analysis of complex problems, knowledge of human behavior and characteristics, increased self-understanding and insight into the behavior of others. Psychology covers a wide range of topics in behavior, from the inner workings of the brain and body to the ways social environments exert their influences. In an emerging global community multicultural perspectives are seen as integral elements. Key to our instructional mission is a faculty composed of excellent teachers who are active scholars. Psychology faculty members regularly contribute to the corpus of scientific knowledge in their respective fields, in both basic and applied research areas.