Psychology
What if you could research how family structure affects the onset age of adolescent substance use...
Psychology is the
scientific study of
behavior and the mind
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
How do you get people to do something that’s good for them? (It would seem to be easy, but no.) How does mental visualization help sports performance? What information is being communicated visually during a conversation? Psychologists work to understand why people think and act they way they do.
Imagine interning (as one of our students recently did) at MTV’s Comedy Central, helping figure out what attracts and keeps audiences. Choices in entertainment—like all of life—are determined by an amazing array of conscious and unconscious processes. Psychological research helps us to identify them.
You’ll get the classic core knowledge of psychology at Drew. But a lot of places stop there. We want you to master how we get that knowledge. You will learn how to ask the right questions and shape coherent arguments, the critical-thinking basics that will serve you well both with fellow clinicians and the scientific community.
Our double majors know no boundaries: psych/business, psych/theatre arts as well as the traditional psych/sociology. Because of our size we can craft close connections with students and help them customize their studies.
Students studying violence and reactions to violence have, as part of the course, a full-contact self-defense component. When we say we believe in full-impact learning, we mean it.
Careers Made easy
help wanted
Our emphasis on both theory and practice has resulted in our alumni building rewarding careers everywhere from private practice to counseling centers to university settings. Many go on to graduate school in clinical psychology, cognitive psychology and social psychology, to name a few.
Other graduates prove what we like to say: psychology is relevant to everything. We have clinical psychologists, social workers, plenty of teachers, including the Teach for America program, and a motivational trainer at a gym. One student came to us specifically because he knew he wanted to be a licensed funeral director.
We arrange opportunities that prepare you well for your first day on the job. Our students have interned in the court system, battered women’s shelters, psychiatric hospitals, neonatal units, even Sesame Street. If you want to pursue research, we can help you present your work at conferences and symposia.
Full-Impact Students
Jasmine Coleman
I’m working in a lab this summer at the Alcohol Research Training Summer School at the University of Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis and focusing on alcohol use of European-American and African-American adolescents from both high- and low-risk families.
Full-Impact Students
Nicole Donohue
I started pre-med and took a psychology course as a general education requirement. By the second class, I knew I wanted to change my major. All the professors are awesome and enthusiastic. I’m currently looking at graduate programs for psychology.
Full-Impact Students
Emy Monday
I never thought myself capable of some of the things I’ve accomplished until I set foot in Hannan House, the home of the psychology department. I have learned more than I can say and I’ve grown both as a student and as a person.
Passionate Faculty
Jill Cermele
Professor
I once had a student tell me she used the self-defense techniques she learned in my seminar to successfully fight off an attacker. Another told me he found my love of grammar and punctuation unsettling. In my work, I’m writing a commentary on the new diagnostic criteria proposed for the DSM-5 on gender identity disorder.
Ph.D., University of Delaware
Passionate Faculty
Graham Cousens
Assistant professor of psychology
I teach learning and behavior, cognitive neuroscience and introductory and methods courses in psychology and neuroscience. I’m also conducting research on neurobiological mechanisms of learning, memory and emotion.
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Passionate Faculty
Janet Davis
Professor
I’m working on a research project on perceptual organization, which may or may not be tied to going ballroom dancing, in my spare time, with my husband.
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Passionate Faculty
Patrick O. Dolan
Associate professor
My research interests include conscious and unconscious influences in human memory; attention and perception; cognitive illusions and how these change with increased age. I focus on all of these interests with students in Drew’s Cognition Lab.
Ph.D., New York University
Passionate Faculty
Hilary Kalagher
Assistant professor
I’m researching haptic (touch) perceptual development and its role in early tool use and object categorization. I’m a morning person; in my spare time, I enjoy hiking, running and laughing.
Ph.D., Indiana University
Passionate Faculty
Jessica L. Lakin
Associate professor & chair
I once had a student tell me that my empirically validated dating tips (which I teach in Social Psychology) had been successful. As for me, I’m exploring whether people are as likely to mimic the nonverbal behaviors of others when those behaviors are negative as they are when those behaviors are positive.
Ph.D., Ohio State University
Passionate Faculty
G. Scott Morgan
Assistant professor
I enjoy being stumped. Some of my favorite moments are when students ask thoughtful, creative and difficult questions about course material. In my research, I’m looking at what it means for people to see issues in a moral light, and how seeing issues in a moral light shapes people’s behaviors.
Ph.D., University of Illinois at Chicago
Passionate Faculty
C. Robin Timmons
Professor of psychology
A recent project I did with students in Drew’s bio psych lab looked at the effects of chronic nicotine and/or caffeine exposure on the behavior of young and aged rats. I am a biological psychologist specializing in behavioral pharmacology and limbic system mechanisms of behavior.
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Successful Alumni
- Psychotherapist
Fairleigh Dickinson University - Psychiatric nurse-in-training
Yale School of Nursing - Assistant professor
Hofstra University
We ask students to use their critical acumen to rate aptly-namedfaculty creations during the annualPsychology Department Bake-Off.
My Favorite Course
“This class led to my research on factors that contribute to erroneous eyewitness testimony. Professor Dolan made learning the material as fun as possible, calling exams ‘celebrations of learning.’”
Nicole Donohue on Cognition