Psychology
Understand yourself and others.
As a psychology major, you'll develop your personal values and analytic skills, deepen your understanding of the humanities and sciences, and enhance your opportunities for employment and graduate school. Meredith emphasizes helping students acquire both research skills and practical skills in an applied setting. To that end, we offer numerous opportunities to conduct research studies throughout your four years. And, the majority of our students who do research present their studies at a regional, national or international conference in the field.
In addition to a variety of internship opportunities outside of campus, Meredith offers a unique learning experience through the Meredith Autism Program (MAP). You can receive course credit for working in MAP and can take this class as many semesters as you would like while at Meredith. This also fosters leadership development since you can become a team leader as you develop more experience working in the program.
Psychology is a popular major at Meredith. In addition to being a broad major that allows students to connect to any number of different interests and goals, Meredith's psychology program is set apart by a strong history of preparing students to do research, and by the unique experience of the MAP program. Most other programs in the country doing this type of intense work with clients diagnosed on the autism spectrum would require that the student be in graduate school. It is rare for students to receive this level of training at the undergraduate level.
Students are required to both complete an exit examination and student portfolio before graduation. Both experiences contribute to the student's self confidence and knowledge that she is well-prepared for future endeavors.
Meredith's psychology program offers numerous and varied research and internship opportunities:
The Meredith Autism Program is an early intervention program serving children 2-7 years old who are diagnosed on the autism spectrum. The program provides an intensive behavioral intervention where children with autism can acquire developmentally appropriate skills in each of the following domains: play skills, receptive and expressive language, social skills, self-help skills and pre-academics. It began in 1995 as a part of an NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) grant to replicate the work of Dr. Ivar Lovaas at UCLA. This is a unique experience available to few students at the undergraduate level and is considered one of the highlights of our program.
The psychology department also encourages students to get involved in research. In addition to the training and skill development that occurs within the research environment, students have the opportunity to share their work in a conference setting. Just a few of the recent conferences that our students have been a part of include:
- Association for Psychological Science (APS)
- American Psychological Association (APA)
- National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR)
- North Carolina Psychological Association (NCPA)
- Carolinas Psychology Conference (CPC)
The Carolinas Psychology Conference is an undergraduate conference that was started as a joint venture with NCSU. The Meredith College Psychology Department is now the sole sponsor of this conference, which just completed its 36th straight year of hosting undergraduate psychology students from around the country.
Internship locations from the past five years include:
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Wake County Public School System
- Dorothea Dix Hospital
- Department of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
- Tammy Lynn Center for Developmental Disabilities
- North Raleigh Ministries
- Pediatric Possibilities
- Duke Hospice
Approximately 20% of our graduates go directly to graduate and/or professional school of some type. Recent graduate programs to which our students have been accepted include:
- Marriage and Family Counseling, East Carolina University
- Community Counseling,Campbell University
- Social Work, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina and NC State University
- Sports Psychology, Springfield College
- Rehabilitation Counseling, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
- Art Therapy, Mount Mary College and George Washington University
- Dance Therapy, Pratt Institute
- Speech Pathology, Appalachian State University
In addition, a significant number of our graduates receive their teaching licensure while at Meredith and are now teaching in the North Carolina Public School System, and beyond.
Meredith’s student/faculty ratio of 11:1 and average class size of 17 ensure that students get to know their professors. In turn, our faculty know students by name and, just as important, are familiar with each student’s unique strengths and interests. This allows faculty to identify interesting research and internship opportunities for students, to write meaningful letters of recommendation, and to support students as they conduct in-depth undergraduate research. In fact, students and faculty frequently work together on such projects—more than 140 were conducted by student/faculty teams last year.
Faculty members in the psychology program enjoy working with students throughout their time at Meredith, from introducing them to the study of psychology to working closely with students on individual research projects. Psychology faculty members include:
- Lyn Aubrecht, Ph.D. – Animal Behavior, Neuropsychology, Intelligence
- Cindy Edwards, Ph.D. – Life-span Development, Cognitive-Social Networks, Leadership Development
- Doreen Fairbank, Ed.D. – Exceptionalities, Autism, Childhood Traumatic Stress
- Caroline Mann, Ph.D. – Clinical Psychology, Mood Disorders, PTSD/Trauma, GLBT issues
- Gwynn Morris, Ph.D. – Life-span Development, Childhood and Young Adult Autobiographical Memory
- Mark O’Dekirk, Ph.D. – Perception, Visual Selective Attention, Memory, Intellectual Disabilities
For more detailed information about the psychology major, please go to the program website.
For information about other majors at Meredith, return to the Admissions majors page.
