Psychology is of fundamental relevance to society. The discipline addresses important questions about the nature of human thought, emotion and behaviour, such as: How do people perceive, remember and process information? How do these processes change over our lifespan? How are addictions and brain chemistry related? How are psychological disorders and traumatic brain injury diagnosed and treated? How do we cope with stress in a changing world? The core goals of the Ryerson's Psychology program are to:
- educate students in the science of psychology and its application to real-life situations;
- prepare students for careers in which they will confront, elucidate, and solve problems that have psychological components;
- provide the foundation for students who wish to pursue post-graduate studies in a variety of areas including Psychology.
After a general first year of courses, psychology students delve into experimental and clinical research methods and explore the programs core areas - cognition and neuroscience, development and social psychology, clinical and health psychology and the advanced research specializations. Students complete a combination of required and elective psychology courses that encompass topics from the many areas within the discipline.
There are many careers for a psychology graduate. The classic path leads to a variety of mental health care professions and roles such as rehabilitation counselling, psychogeriatric case management, addictions support, assessment and treatment of young offenders, learning disability support and others. This program also prepares students for post-graduate studies in psychology, eventually leading to careers in public or private settings, independent practice or academia. Other careers that benefit from a degree in psychology include sports science, media development, computer application design, human resources management, pharmaceutical development, training, policy analysis, conflict mediation, human-factors engineering and more.
