Introductory psychology is one of the most popular undergraduate courses and often serves as the gateway to choosing psychology as an academic major. However, little research has examined the typical structure of introductory psychology courses. The current study examined student learning objectives (SLOs) and course content in introductory psychology syllabi (N ¼ 158). SLOs were mapped to the APA Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major. Content analysis was based on the principles for quality undergraduate education promulgated by the American Psychological Association. Over 50% of the syllabi contained objectives specific to the science and application of psychology (knowledge base, research methods, and application). Analysis of content coverage revealed instructors spent significantly more time on topics related to physiological and cognitive psychology and spent significantly less time on topics related to the history and scope of psychology, research methods, and developmental psychology. The current study also explored the influence of instructor specialty area on content coverage.

Adolescent identity develops across various domains (e.g., ethnicity, gender, religion). Although these domains share elements of identity (e.g., belongingness, self-categorization) there is a lack of continuity in the elements selected when measuring various domains of adolescent identity. This study tested whether an adapted version of Phinney and Ong's (2007) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised (developed to measure adolescents' ethnic identity) could also measure gender and religious identities. Participants (N = 247, 56% female, M age = 13.33 years) completed adapted versions of the MEIM-R measuring gender identity (which we call the Multi-Identity Measure for Gender) and religious identity (Multi-Identity Measure for Religion). Confirmatory factor analysis models for the MIM-Gender and MIM-Religion scales demonstrated modest to good fits. In addition, the MIM-Gender and MIM-Religion scales demonstrated preliminary validity. These preliminary results suggest the adapted MEIM-R scales have the potential to measure domains of adolescent identity beyond ethnicity.

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