Early study of the curriculum focused on the ideal array of experiences that should comprise the psychology major. We developed a standardized coding scheme to identify common curricula and course titles across institutions and current implementation of the curriculum. We compared psychology major programs in 2005 to programs described a decade earlier to evaluate the progress that has been made toward implementing published curriculum design recommendations. These data will aid departments in curriculum development and serve as a benchmark for common curriculum practices at this point in the evolution of the undergraduate psychology major in North America.

Scholarly writings provide guidance for delivery of an undergraduate program in psychology (e.g., APA, 2007;Halpern, 2010). Much of the emphasis in this literature has been on examination of the curriculum (e.g., McGovern, 1993;Stoloff et al., 2010), yet minimal research has been conducted to empirically link the overall undergraduate psychology major experience with outcomes. This article relates program characteristics (including curriculum, resources, and faculty engagement) to student success and satisfaction among students completing psychology major programs at 110 institutions in North America. It provides evidence that important factors that correlate with student success are an institutional focus on undergraduates, frequent experiential learning, and faculty engagement outside of the classroom. Students are more satisfied with programs in which they have more laboratory experiences and where they interact with faculty at student events. Adequate staffing of the psychology major program is important; beneficial activities may suffer when faculty are overwhelmed with too many students or competing obligations.Keywords undergraduate psychology curriculum, student satisfaction, experiential learning, faculty engagement Are the experiences that faculty provide to psychology majors leading to successful and satisfied students? If so, which experiences are the most valuable? Scholars of our profession have discussed best-practices recommendations for the undergraduate psychology major for some time. Buxton et al. (1952), along with McKeachie and Milholland (1961), suggested that any psychology degree should begin with an introductory course and should contain a common core of content courses from the subdisciplines and courses that are applied in nature. Brewer et al. (1993) maintained that the undergraduate degree in psychology is fundamentally a liberal arts degree with an emphasis on psychology as a scientific discipline. Courses should be sequenced to promote critical thinking and scientific understanding of the discipline and to sequentially move students from elementary to advanced topics. Brewer and colleagues specified that the curriculum should include an introductory course, a methodology course, and content courses, and it should conclude with an integrative capstone experience.Two recent documents offer additional support for psychology as a liberal arts degree that is grounded in the scientific foundations of the discipline, but they go further by suggesting that programs include active and experiential learning; develop co-curricular activities, such as advising, that enhance student learning; and have high expectations for student performance. The APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (American Psychological Association [APA], 2007) provides general guidance for quality programs in undergraduate psychology. Unlike previous documents, the Guidelines are less focused on what students should do during the major and more focused on what students should achieve as a result of completi...

We conducted a national survey of psychology department chairs, and, based on their responses, we concluded that psychology programs differ in the number of students enrolled in various types of classes; the degree of focus on each of the goals recommended by the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines for an Undergraduate Psychology Education; the frequency of student participation in research, study abroad, and field placement; and the frequency of student-faculty interactions. We describe the percentage of psychology majors who have these program-relevant experiences. We also demonstrate that there are relationships between key high-impact activities and graduate school attendance, assessment test scores, and program completion rate. Based on the findings, we suggest how psychology programs may be able to help students to maximize their success.Keywords undergraduate psychology curriculum, faculty engagement, student engagement, student learning, student success What experiences and activities, in addition to the psychology curriculum itself, help psychology students to achieve the highest level of success? Certainly the curriculum is critical (Brewer et al., 1993;Buxton et al., 1952;McKeachie & Millholland, 1961), but it is similar across many programs (Stoloff et al., 2010). Thus, differences in student success among programs are not likely to be solely attributable to the curriculum. Our previous study demonstrated that programs vary in a variety of ways beyond course requirements, and these factors correlate with some measures of student success (Stoloff, Curtis, Rodgers, Brewster, & McCarthy, 2012). In that study, we did not find any relationship between the frequency with which students completed particular courses and the percentage of students attending graduate school. In contrast, we found that more students attended graduate school from programs that (1) focused greater faculty attention on undergraduates, (2) had more experiential learning opportunities, including opportunities for students and faculty to collaborate on research projects, (3) had more academic advising, and (4) had more frequent informal student-faculty interactions. This study had two purposes, that is, to develop national benchmarks for the percentage of psychology majors who have various experiences within or outside of courses and to demonstrate that there are significant relationships between the intensity of these experiences and several indicators of student success.There is a wealth of literature regarding activities that faculty members believe should be promoted within the psychology curriculum. We chose to focus on several skill domains that have been addressed in the literature. The perceived importance of activities that promote skill development is clear in the American Psychological Association (APA) Guidelines (2007), which suggested that psychology students should develop specific skills in scientific and critical reasoning, oral and written communication, information literacy, technology, and career p...

Preference for nutritive versus nonnutritive suckling was investigated in 10-21-day-old albino rat pups in a spatial discrimination task. Pups preferred nutritive to nonnutritive suckling on their anesthetized mother at 17 and 21 days of age, but no preference was apparent in 10-and 12-day-old pups. Rearing in isolation from the mother during Days 11-16 did not impair the development of preference for nutritive suckling in 17-day-old rats. Thus, the appetitive component of suckling of infant rats, like the consummatory component, appears to come under the direct control of nutritional factors at the start of the weaning period.

To help identify determinants of rat appetitive behavior during the weanling period, rat pups 17-32 days of age were studied in a Y-maze. One arm of the maze provided pups with the opportunity to suckle a lactating or nonlactating anesthetized female. The other arm always contained a familiar food, either liquid diet or ground laboratory chow. In some experiments the dam was separated from the food compartment by a thin gauze screen. In other tests maternal contact could be maintained in the feeding goal but suckling in that compartment was prevented by nipple involution. Age was the major determinant of choice, with more older animals choosing the food arm. Availability of maternal contact in the feeding compartment increased the percentage of rats that chose to feed by about 20% at all ages studied. Food quality, but not quantity, affected choice at each age, as did lactational status. Prior food, water, and maternal deprivation (2 or 24 hr) did not affect choice behavior at any age but did influence behavior in the goal box. These findings are discussed within the context of the changing demands faced by the rats during the weaning period.