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Running head: MOST FREQUENTLY LISTED COURSES

Continuing research with a 60-year history, we read 400 college catalogs and identified the most frequently listed undergraduate psychology courses for 4 institutional types. Results suggest ongoing segmentation in the research methodology and developmental areas, with an increasing number of courses listed in each. Experimental content courses (e.g., Experimental, Biological), Clinical (e.g., Abnormal, Personality), and Social/Developmental courses are listed with about equal frequencies, and no movement toward additional vocational content is evident. We note emerging subdisciplinary areas and courses.

The courses faculty teach define psychology's domains of study and knowledge. Because departmental curricula are finite, course offerings reflect a winnowing and sifting, bringing to students the information that faculty have decided is important for students to know if they are to understand the discipline.

As faculty, we base our knowledge of the curriculum on our experience as students, our own departmental offerings, and perhaps conversations with colleagues at other institutions, but we often miss the historical and national picture. Psychology's repeated study of its curriculum over several decades (Cooney & Griffith, 1994; Daniel, Dunham, & Morris, 1965; Henry, 1938; Kulik, 1973; Lux & Daniel, 1978; Sanford & Fleishman, 1950, Scheirer & Rogers, 1985) provides this curricular context.

Historical data on the 30 most frequently listed undergraduate psychology courses (Sanford & Fleishman, 1950, arbitrarily selected 30) paints an invaluable picture of undergraduate psychology education. These data allow conclusions about new pedagogical approaches, clinical and scientific advances, the job market, developing subdisciplines, and other factors in undergraduate psychology education. Knowing the curriculum and how it has changed over time allows psychologists to better understand its consistencies and trends, such as the balance between what Kulik (1973) categorized as (a) social science (e.g., Personality, Social/Developmental, Abnormal) and natural science content (e.g., Experimental, Biological) or (b) applied-vocational (the application of knowledge, e.g., Counseling, Educational Psychology, Vocational Psychology, Industrial/Organizational [I/O] Psychology) and non-applied curricula (e.g., Introductory, Methodology/Experimental, social science courses, natural science courses).

Henry (1938) wanted to learn the "plan of instruction" and the types of advanced courses offered beyond introductory. He sampled 157 liberal art college catalogs and reported the 25 most frequently listed courses. Sanford and Fleishman (1950) attempted to achieve a statistical definition of undergraduate education in psychology in America by sampling 330 1947-1948 catalogs of 8 institutional types (complex universities, technical schools [engineering, mining, polytechnical], theological seminaries, other professional schools, colleges of arts and science, teachers colleges and normal schools, junior colleges, and historically Black colleges). Daniel, Dunham, and Morris (1965) had the same goal as Sanford and Fleishman, sampling 207 catalogs of four institutional types (universities, liberal arts colleges, teachers colleges, and junior colleges). Lux and Daniel (1978) sought information for curricular planning, analyzing catalog entries for 56 universities, 53 liberal arts colleges, and 69 2-year colleges. They noted increasing numbers of courses offered, new areas of interest (e.g., Behavior Modification), "fragmentation" (segmentation) of subject matter (e.g., several titles for statistics), and combinations of courses (e.g., Sensation and Perception, Learning and Memory). One form of applied course was decreasing (e.g., industrial, personnel) whereas "human services" (applied clinical) and natural science (experimental content) courses were increasing.

These studies suggest great continuity in the curriculum. Thirteen courses that Henry (1938) listed appear repeatedly in later lists of the most frequent offerings (Introductory, Abnormal, Adolescence, Child, Comparative [dropped out in 1950, reappeared in 1965 and 1978], History, Learning, Personality, Personnel [dropped out in 1978], Physiological, Research, Seminar [dropped out in 1950, may appear as Problems in 1950 and 1965, reappeared in 1978], Statistics, and Tests and Measurement). Other trends are the slow evolution of content, a great increase in the number of courses psychology departments offer, and the rising popularity of the developmental area (listed by 8% of institutions studied in 1950, 23% in 1965, and 38% in 1978). Lastly, the increase in course listings for both natural science and social science course offerings has been comparable over time.

The American Psychological Association's (APA) 1991 national conference on undergraduate education recommended an undergraduate curriculum with a broad knowledge base, representing the diversity of the discipline (Brewer et al., 1993). Current data are needed to allow department chairs, deans, and faculty to evaluate the status of national curricula and to assist them in curricular decisions, justifying and defining new and existing positions, and developing outcome and assessment measures. Faculty also should be aware of any unique course offerings contributing to the identity of their department's undergraduate curriculum. We do not argue that all departments should offer courses and structure a curriculum to approximate the national norm, but that faculty must know what this norm is to make informed curricular decisions. Finally, such data should be of interest to textbook authors and publishers and those--faculty, administrators, and students--concerned with preparation for graduate study.

We identified psychology departments' most frequent course listings, replicating Lux and Daniel (1978) and extending the series of studies begun in 1938. This methodology differs from Cooney and Griffith (1994), Kulik (1973), and Scheirer and Rogers (1985) who presented extensive curricular data and counted all psychology courses listed by each department, reported the percentage of all courses falling into major curricular areas, but did not report individual course frequencies. Perlman and McCann (1998) present data on courses required for the major, levels at which they are offered, and prerequisites.

We also looked at the constancy and change in the curriculum by course and by subdisciplinary category. We began with the subdisciplinary categories for psychology courses used by Kulik (1973) and Cooney and Griffith (1994). After reading the curricular literature and catalogs, learning how courses are described and defined, we developed seven course content areas that modify their groups somewhat. We created a new subdisciplinary area by removing three courses from their "social science" group and called them "Clinical" (Abnormal, Personality, Adjustment), relabeled the remaining social science courses as "Social/Developmental," placed the specific "Clinical" course in the "Applied-Vocational" subdisciplinary category, and combined Introductory Psychology and History and Systems into an "Overview" category. We shared our model with colleagues from various subdisciplines (e.g., cognitive, developmental, clinical), who agreed with its organization.

Sample

We read 400 college catalogs, 100 each for four institutional types, based on the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching taxonomy (Boyer, 1990): (a) Doctorate-Granting Institutions (Research Universities I & II, Doctoral Universities I & II; n = 236 nationally, sample = 42%), (b) Master's (Comprehensive) Colleges and Universities (I & II; n = 529 nationally, sample = 19%), (c) Baccalaureate Colleges (I & II; n = 637 nationally, sample = 16%), and (d) Associate of Arts Colleges (2-year institutions; n = 1,471 nationally, sample = 7%). The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1994) provided the number of institutions nationally. This sample size approximately duplicated past research and is large enough to allow data from the four institutional types to generalize. To avoid possible interdisciplinary or institutional idiosyncracies, we sampled only those four-year institutions with established psychology departments, not departments such as "behavioral or social sciences" or "human development." Because 2-year colleges often lack psychology departments, we included catalog data if they listed psychology courses.

Procedure

The data source was the continuously updated online college catalog collection "CollegeSource" (Career Guidance Foundation, 1997); almost all catalogs were 1996-97. We sampled every 10th institution until data collection was complete. Use of catalogs has two advantages: (a) return rate is 100% and (b) we did not rely on any respondent's memory or interpretation. This methodology also has limitations: (a) course titles may be deceptive, and (b) we do not know how often listed courses are offered, nor their enrollments or credit hours. We combined similar course titles whenever course descriptions were highly similar. We did not combine the courses Physiological and Biological Psychology as some entries were quite distinct.

Top 30 Courses For All Institutions Combined and Historical Trends

Table 1 presents current data. This table includes tabulations to indicate trends from past studies listed by year of data collection, not publication date. These historical data must be interpreted with care because institutional categories have changed over time. We included 100 doctoral and 100 comprehensive institutions; Lux and Daniel (1978) sampled 56 universities, type undefined. We compare doctoral research universities with their "university" data, assuming there were fewer comprehensive institutions in 1978.

For all institutions combined, five courses dropped from the 1975 Top 30 list (Motivation, listed by 25% of sampled institutions in 1997; Educational, 24%; Exceptional Child, 17%; Perception, 16%; Applied Psychology, 16%). Cognitive, Biological, Human Growth/Development, Adult Development/Gerontology, and Psychology of Women moved into the Top 30. Introductory and Social Psychology remain frequently listed. Two clinical courses, Abnormal and Personality, have increased substantially in percentage of departments listing them (we defined substantial change as up or down at least 10%).

Top 30 Courses and 1975-1997 Trends by Institutional Type

There are Top 30 courses for each institutional type that do not appear in Table 1. Although a course may be frequently listed for universities, for example, it appears in Table 1 only if it fell in the Top 30 for all institutions combined ("All Four Types").

Doctoral Institutions. The doctoral Top 30 list differs from "All Four Types" in Table 1 by excluding Comparative/Animal Behavior and Adjustment (both listed in 1975) and Human Growth/Development and Counseling (not previously in university Top 30) and the addition of two natural science (experimental content) courses (Language/Psycholinguistics and Motivation). The courses Clinical and Drugs and Behavior/Addiction in the 1975 university Top 30 remain. Biological, Psychology of Women, and Adult Development/Gerontology replaced Perception, Individual Differences, and Exceptional Child from 1975.

History and Systems increased substantially as did one social/developmental course (Adolescent), two applied-vocational courses (Field Experience and Counseling), two advanced special topics courses (Special Topics and Seminar), Cognitive, and Research Methods. Doctoral institutions showed a substantial decrease in three natural science courses (Learning, Physiological, and Comparative/Animal Behavior); Cognitive and Biological may be replacing them. Tests and Measurement (a Psychometric Methods course with tests, measurement, and analysis of behavior), Child Psychology, Independent Study, and Psychology of Adjustment also were down substantially.

Comprehensive Universities and Colleges. For these institutions, the Top 30 differs from Table 1 in that Group Dynamics and Health/Sports replaced Comparative/Animal Behavior and Sensation and Perception. Because these institutions were not previously surveyed, no comparison with earlier data is possible.

Baccalaureate Colleges. The baccalaureate colleges' Top 30 differs from Table 1 by deleting Comparative/Animal Behavior and Adjustment (both listed in 1975) and adding Educational (listed in 1975) and Health/Sports Psychology.

Baccalaureate colleges showed relatively balanced movement in the types of courses added and deleted or those increasing or decreasing substantially in percentage of departments listing them. Cognitive, Biological, I/O, Human Growth/Development, Adult Development/Gerontology, and Psychology of Women appeared in their Top 30 list for the first time, replacing Comparative/Animal Behavior, Perception, Adjustment, Behavior Modification, Readings in Psychology, and Research Participation. Two applied-vocational courses (I/O and Counseling), Personality, Research Methods, and three advanced special topic courses (Seminar, Special Topics, and Research Participation) were up substantially from 1975. Down substantially was one applied-vocational course (Field Experience), one clinical course (Adjustment), two social/developmental courses (Adolescent Psychology, Child Psychology), one research course (Tests and Measurement), and Physiological.

Two-Year Colleges. Courses dropping from the 1975 Top 30 were Marriage and Family, Field Experience, Motivation, Research Participation, and Human Relations. Completing the Top 30 were four courses previously listed (Group Dynamics, Educational, Applied, and Behavior Modification) in 1975 but not in the 1997 Top 30 overall listing and three new Top 30 courses not listed in 1975 (Biological, Adult Development/Gerontology, and Comparative/Animal Behavior). Seminar, Health/Sports, and Death and Dying complete the list. These courses replaced Learning, History and Systems, Tests and Measurement, Field Experience, Cognitive, Research Participation, and Sensation and Perception as compared to Table 1.

Abnormal showed a remarkable increase (20% to 63%). Three developmental courses were up substantially (Human Sexuality, Human Growth/Development, and Developmental) as was Special Topics, whereas two applied-vocational courses decreased substantially (Adjustment, and Applied), as did Child Psychology and Experimental.

Agreement Between 4-Year Institutions on Courses Listed

If the discipline agrees on important content areas there should be similar course offerings across 4-year institutions. Nine content courses are listed by 50% or more departments regardless of institution type: Introductory and History and Systems (Overview), Abnormal and Personality (Clinical), Learning and Physiological (Natural Science), Tests and Measurement and Experimental (Methodology/Experimental), and Social (Social/Developmental). Curricular similarity exists over time as well. Abnormal, Physiological, Social, and Tests and Measurement were offered by over half of the colleges Henry (1938) studied. The nine courses fall in five of the seven subdisciplinary areas, (Table 2) and this broad agreement and the fact that nine courses are listed this frequently provide evidence that curricular continuity exists across institutions. Cognitive and I/O are listed by 50% or more doctoral and comprehensive universities; they may not be so listed by baccalaureate schools due to smaller departments where fewer faculty must teach "mainstream" courses. Statistics also exceeds 50% for doctoral and comprehensive schools; perhaps baccalaureate colleges combine this content with experimental design in method or design courses. Conversely, doctoral institutions may frequently offer Developmental (infant and child), Language/Psycholinguistics, and Motivation (all listed by at least 50%) because of larger departments with specialists in these areas. Biological and Developmental are not listed by 50% or more of the comprehensive or baccalaureate schools as they are at doctoral institutions. Finally, only baccalaureate colleges offer Counseling at the 50% level.

Trends by Subdisciplinary Area

Grouping courses into subdisciplinary areas helps to understand curricular consistencies and trends. Methodology/Experimental courses have changed little in rank or percentage since 1961 except that Research Methods (up substantially) is reaching parity with others. Research Methods typically contains statistics and experimental design content and may be supplementing or replacing Statistics and Experimental courses at some institutions.

The Social/Developmental area has grown and segmented into more developmental courses which also are less child-oriented, adding Human Growth/Development as a life-span course. Child Psychology and Exceptional Child are less frequently listed, replaced by Human Growth/Development and Adult Development/Gerontology. The growth in the developmental area mirrors Cooney and Griffith's (1994) finding that of all subdisciplinary areas, developmental courses were the most commonly listed in 2- and 4-year institutions.

The Applied-Vocational area shows stability with Applied Psychology being replaced by or subsumed under I/O. About the same percentage of schools list Educational and Clinical now as in 1975, but the former's rank is plummeting. In the Clinical area, Abnormal and Personality are more commonly listed; Adjustment is much less frequent.

In the Natural Science area, some experimental content courses are being supplanted by others. Learning is down 22% for all institutions and we hypothesize that Cognitive is replacing it. Biological is beginning to supplant Physiological and is becoming the more common title (the content is often but not always highly similar). Perception is now offered as part of Sensation and Perception). Perhaps in response to the St. Mary's conference recommendation (Brewer et al., 1993) for integrative senior experiences, most Advanced Special Topic courses and History and Systems are listed more frequently.

Potential Top 30 Courses

Several courses show promise for future Top 30 listing. Drugs and Behavior/Addiction is listed by 21% of all institutions and more frequently by doctoral (45%) universities, and Health/Sports is listed by 19% overall (30% doctoral, 29% comprehensive). Two other courses also are being listed more frequently. Gender (Sex Roles, Differences) is listed by 12% of all institutions (27% doctoral) and Cross-Multi-Cultural by 11% (20% doctoral).

Baccalaureate, comprehensive, and doctoral curricula have the breadth recommended by the APA's national conference on undergraduate education. Doctoral universities, probably due to numbers of faculty and students, can offer a wider array of courses, including emerging areas and retain more specialized "older" courses (e.g., Motivation, Clinical, Perception, Language/Psycholinguistics).

Some segmentation continues, especially in the research methodology and developmental areas. The latter is growing into a major part of psychology, with five courses commonly found in the curriculum. Interestingly, Social remains a single course. The natural science curriculum remains a presence in the most frequently listed courses, although courses making up this area are changing (e.g., Cognitive, Biological) and combining (e.g., Sensation and Perception). The balance of natural and social science courses appears stable, and there are no signs of a swing toward vocationalism.

Many frequently offered courses have been listed for decades and 13 such courses first listed by Henry (1938) are in the present Top 30. Some courses are slowly being replaced. Thus, the curriculum reflects both continuity and slow change, perhaps due to the time it takes for theory, research, and discourse to define new subdiscipline areas, or perhaps due to department inertia and resistance to modifying the curriculum.

The lengthy series of studies describing psychology's Top 30 course listings has illuminated discussions of the discipline's curriculum and its contributions to a quality undergraduate education. We hope the data reported herein prove as useful and that continuing interest in the curriculum encourages extension of this rich disciplinary history.

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Boyer, E. L. (1990). Scholarship reconsidered: Priorities of the professoriate. Princeton, NJ: Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Brewer, C. L., Hopkins, J. R., Kimble, G. A., Matlin, M. W., McCann, L. I., McNeil, O. V., Nodine, B. F., Quinn, V. N., & Saundra. (1993). Curriculum. In T. V. McGovern (Ed.), Handbook for enhancing undergraduate education in psychology (pp. 161-182). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Career Guidance Foundation. (1997). CollegeSource. San Diego, CA: Author.

Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching (1994). Table 4: Enrollment in institutions of higher education and number of institutions, by type and control: 1994. Retrieved November 1, 1997 from the World Wide Web: http://www.carnegiefoundation.org/cihe/table4.htm

Cooney, B. R., & Griffith, D. M. (1994). The 1992-1993 undergraduate department survey. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Daniel, R. S., Dunham, P. J., & Morris, C. J., Jr. (1965). Undergraduate courses in psychology; 14 years later. The Psychological Record, 15, 25-31.

Henry, E. R. (1938). A survey of courses in psychology offered by undergraduate colleges of liberal arts. Psychological Bulletin, 35, 430-435.

Kulik, J. A. (1973). Undergraduate education in psychology. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Lux, D. F., & Daniel, R. S. (1978). Which courses are most frequently listed by psychology departments? Teaching of Psychology, 5, 13-16.

Perlman, B., & McCann, L. I. (1998). The structure of the psychology undergraduate curriculum. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Sanford, F. H., & Fleishman, E. A. (1950). A survey of undergraduate psychology courses in American colleges and universities. American Psychologist, 5, 33-37.

Scheirer, C. J., & Rogers, A. M. (1985). The undergraduate psychology curriculum: 1984. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

1. We acknowledge grant support from the APA Education Directorate and the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Faculty Development Program (grant R518). Marcy Lemieux and Robert Koumal assisted with data collection and analysis. Thanks to Charles Brewer, James Korn, and Thomas McGovern for their insights and to Jill Reich for her support and assistance.

2. This article is based on a poster presentation at the 1998 annual meeting of the APA, San Francisco, CA.

3. Tables of Top 30 Courses for each institutional type and the less frequently listed courses completing the curriculum are available from the authors.

4. Address correspondence to Baron Perlman, Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, Oshkosh, WI 54901; e-mail: Perlman@uwosh.edu.

Table 1	Percentage of Institutions Listing the 30 Most Frequent Undergraduate Psychology Courses		Table 5	Baccalaureate Colleges' Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses
Table 2	Most Frequently Listed Undergraduate Courses For All Institutions Combined		Table 6	2-Year Colleges' Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses
Table 3	Doctoral Institutions' Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses		Table 7	Courses Listed by More Than 50% of Institutions In Any One Institutional Type
Table 4	Comprehensive Universities and Colleges' Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses		Table 8	Percentages of Less Frequently Listed Psychology Undergraduate Courses in Institutional Catalogues

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Table 1

Percentage of Institutions Listing the 30 Most Frequent Undergraduate Psychology Courses in 1961, 1969, 1975, and 1997

						Comprehensive
		All Four Types		Doctoral Universities		Universities and Colleges		Baccalaureate Colleges		2-Year Colleges
Course Title Introductory Abnormalc Social Personalityc Learning Special Topicsc History and Systemsc Tests and Measurement Cognitived Statistics Childe Physiologicale Experimental Industrial/Organizationalc Independent Studyc Seminar in Psychologyc Developmental Research Methodsc Human Growth/Developmentd Adolescent Adult Devel/Gerontologyd Human Sexuality Counseling Field Experience Psychology of Womend Biological Psychologyd Adjustmente Research Participation Sensation and Perception Comparative/Animal Behavior	Yeara N	97 75 69 61 400 178 b 168 97 96 94 96 86 65 54 59 80 73 61 63 74 59 38 44 56 57 42 28 56 33 54 35 51 51 48 48 48 48 46 43 36 47 59 60 58 46 57 42 32 44 39 45 45 44 32 20 30 44 31 44 30 43 38 30 23 42 21 41 36 33 29 37 36 32 23 31 22 14 14 30 28 29 29 28 42 26 26 28 24 35 26 24 26 30 19		97 75 69 61 100 56 b 50 97 98 92 100 97 89 87 94 91 93 83 90 92 91 28 80 78 100 79 68 73 55 82 54 68 79 81 84 88 45 72 70 75 74 44 57 69 70 60 96 82 76 57 50 73 84 67 61 43 62 55 34 65 50 63 64 44 58 34 27 45 29 36 58 45 42 37 16 6 7 44 32 42 64 26 27 33 38 47 46 66 45 52 41 70 43 48		97 100 97 95 91 94 75 64 74 73 56 59 59 63 59 57 55 51 42 49 44 49 45 37 52 40 37 17 31 34 34 31		97 75 69 61 100 53 b 53 95 94 96 100 87 85 71 77 88 85 85 87 92 70 70 42 65 70 42 17 62 36 60 51 60 72 60 59 44 47 55 50 34 41 58 71 68 52 68 43 13 51 49 58 51 37 25 11 21 51 53 54 38 42 38 36 23 48 26 36 31 43 45 43 31 21 17 51 40 31 43 33 45 22 24 13 36 19 21 30 19 38 23 21 17 19 8		97 75 69 61 100 69 b 65 97 96 95 88 63 20 5 5 48 42 16 11 16 16 9 9 4 1 4 24 7 1 1 4 2 2 14 14 4 45 62 41 37 8 6 2 8 7 19 4 16 10 5 6 13 7 5 3 25 13 20 3 13 3 55 32 22 28 5 9 22 27 16 8 10 4 3 7 13 9 11 42 52 27 18 6 1 15

Note. Five courses in the top 30 in 1975 for all institutions dropped from the list. These are (with 1997 percentages) Motivation (25%), Educational Psychology (24%), Exceptional Child (17%), Perception (16%), and Applied Psychology (16%).

Note. Human Growth and Development is a life-span course; Developmental is typically an infancy and child course; and Child Psychology is an infant, child, and adolescent course. Industrial Psychology is now usually called Industrial/Organizational Psychology. Biological Psychology includes Brain and Behavior. Research Participation courses provide credit for student research activity.

a Year represents the dates of college catalogs from which data were gathered, not the publication year of the journal article or technical report.
b Ns in the Kulik (1973) report are not precisely stated, but are apparently much larger than in the other three studies.
c For all institutions, increased 10% or more compared with 1975 data.
d Courses (n = 5) new to the list of the 30 most frequently offered courses for all four institutions combined.
e For all institutions, decreased 10% or more compared with 1975 data.

Most Frequently Listed Undergraduate Courses For All Institutions Combined:
Subdisciplinary Area, Percentage of Departments Listing, and Overall Rank

	Percent	Listing		Rank
	1997	1975		1997	1975
Subdisciplinary Area Methodology/Experimental
Tests and Measurement	51	51		8	8
Statistics	48	46		9.5	9
Experimental	44	39		13	11
Research Methods	42	21		27.5	24
Social/Developmental
Social	80	73		3	2
Child	47	59		11	4.5
Developmental	43	38		17	12
Human Growth/Development	41			19
Adolescent	36	33		20.5	14.5
Adult Development/Gerontology	36			20.5
Human Sexuality	32	23		22	27
Psychology of Women	29			25.5
Exceptional Child	17	25		38.5	23.5
Applied-Vocationalism
Industrial/Organizational	44	32		14.5	16
Counseling	31	22		23	28
Field Experience	30	28		24	20.5
Applied Psychology	16	21		40.5	29.5
Clinical	24	20		33.5	31
Educational	24	28		33	20.5
Clinical
Abnormal	86	65		2	3
Personality	74	59		4	4
Adjustment	28	42		27.5	10
Natural Science
Learning	56	57		5.5	6.5
Cognitive	48			9.5
Physiological	46	57		12	6.5
Biological	29			25.5
Sensation and Perception	26	24		29.5	25.5
Comparative/Animal Behavior	26	30		29.5	18.5
Motivation	25	26		31	22
Perception	16	25		40.5	23.5
Overview
Introductory	97	96		1	1
History and Systems	54	35		7	13
Advanced Special Topics
Independent Study	44	31		14.5	17
Special Topics	56	33		5.5	14.5
Seminar in Psychology	44	30		14.5	18.5
Research Participation	28	24		27.5	25.5

Table 3

Doctoral Institutions' (N = 100) Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses

Year	97	75	69	61
	%	%	%	%
Course Title
Introductory	97	98	92	100
Abnormal	97	89	87	94
Personality	92	91	28	80
Social	91	93	83	90
Cognitive	88	45
History and Systems	82	54
Learning	78	100	79	68
Special Topics	73	55
Statistics	72	70	75	74
Tests and Measurement	68	79	81	84
Industrial/Organizational	67	61	43	62
Seminar	65	50
Biologicalaa	64
Developmental	63	64	35	44
Physiological	60	96	82	76
Language/Psycholinguisticsb	59	39
Research Methods	58	34
Experimental	57	50	73	84
Independent Study	55	34
Motivationb	53	61	40	38
Research Participation	47	46		66
Clinical	46	32	29	40
Adolescent	45	29	36	58
Sensation and Perception	45	52
Adult Development/Gerontology	45
Drugs and Behavior/Addictionb	45
Child	44	57	69	70
Field Experience	44	32
Human Sexuality	42	37
Psychology of Women	42

a Courses in the Top 30 for the first time are in bold print. 1969 and 1961 data are presented so trends can be easily seen.
b Courses in the Top 30 for Doctoral Institutions not appearing in Table 1.

Comprehensive Universities and Colleges'
(N = 100) Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses

Year	97a
	%
space keeper
Course Title
space keeper
Introductory	97
Abnormal	95
Personality	94
Social	91
Learning	75
History and Systems	74
Tests and Measurement	73
Special Topics	64
Physiological	63
Statistics	59
Child	59
Experimental	59
Industrial/Organizational	57
Cognitive	56
Independent Study	55
Counseling	52
Seminar	51
Research Methods	49
Adolescent	49
Adult Development/Gerontology	45
Human Growth/Development	44
Developmental	42
Field Experience	40
Human Sexuality	37
Psychology of Women	37
Research Participation	34
Sensation and Perception	34
Group Dynamicsb	34
Adjustment	31
Comparative/Animal Behavior	31

a Not previously studied, therefore, there are no historical data.
b Course in the Top 30 for Comprehensive Universities and Colleges not appearing in Table 1.
spThis course replaces Biological.

Baccalaureate Colleges' (N = 100) Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses

Year	97	75	69	61
	%	%	%	%
Course Title
Introductory	95	94	96	100
Personality	92	70	70	42
Social	88	85	85	87
Abnormal	87	85	71	77
Learning	65	70	42	17
Special Topics	62	36
History and Systems	60	51
Tests and Measurement	60	72	60	59
Seminar	54	38
Physiological	52	68	43	13
Counseling	51	40	31	43
Experimental	51	49	58	51
Independent Study	51	53
Research Methods	48	26
Statistics	47	55	50	34
Cognitivea	44
Developmental	42	38	36	23
Child	41	58	71	68
Industrial/Organizational	37	25	11	21
Human Growth/Development	36
Field Experience	33	45
Adolescent	31	43	45	43
Adult Development/Gerontology	31
Research Participation	30	19		38
Educationalb	27	43	40	66
Group Dynamicsb	27	28
Biological	24
Sensation and Perception	23	21
Psychology of Women	22
Human Sexuality	21	17

a Courses in the Top 30 for the first time are in bold print. 1969 and
sp1961 data are presented so trends can be easily seen.
b Courses in the Top 30 for Baccalaureate Colleges' not appearing in Table 1.

2-Year Colleges' (N = 100) Most Frequently Listed 30 Courses

Year	97	75	69	61
	%	%	%	%
Course Title
Introductory	97	96	95	88
Abnormal	63	20	5	5
Human Growth/Development	55	32
Social	48	42	16	11
Child	45	62	41	37
Adjustment	42	52	27	18
Human Sexuality	27	16
Developmental	25	13	20	3
Special Topics	24	7
Adolescent	22	28	5	9
Adult Development/Gerontologya	22
Educationalb	21	26	18	29
Industrial/Organizational	16	10	5	6
Personality	16	16	9	9
Comparative/Animal Behavior	15
Appliedb	15	28	14	26
Statistics	14	14	4
Independent Study	13	7
Research Methods	13	3
Psychology of Women	13	9
Exceptional Childb	11	7
Biological	11
Death and Dyingb	9
Physiological	8	6	2	8
Counseling	8	10	4
Group Dynamics	8	10
Experimental	7	19	4
Behavior Modificationb	7	6
Seminar	5	3
Health/Sportsb	5

a Courses in the Top 30 for the first time are in bold print. 1969 and
sp1961 data are presented so trends can be easily seen.
b Courses in the Top 30 for 2-Year Colleges not appearing in Table 1.

Courses Listed by More Than 50% of Institutions In Any One Institutional Type^a

	Doctoral Universities	Comprehensive Universities and Colleges	Baccalaureate Colleges	2-Year Colleges
Course Title	%	%	%	%
Introductory	97	97	95	97
Abnormal	97	95	87	63
Personality	92	94	92
Social	91	91	88
Cognitive	88	56
History and Systems	82	74	60
Learning	78	75	65
Special Topics	73	64	63
Statistics	72	59
Tests and Measurement	68	73	60
Industrial/Organizational	67	57
Seminar	65	51	54
Biological	64
Developmental	63
Physiological	60	63	52
Language/Psycholinguistics	59
Research Methods	58
Experimental	57	59	51
Independent Study	55	55	51
Motivation	53
Child		59
Counseling		52	51
Human Growth/Development				55

a Data were gathered in 1997, n = 100 for each of the four institutional types.

Percentages of Less Frequently Listed Psychology Undergraduate Courses in Institutional Catalogues

	All	Doctoral Universities	Comprehensive Universities and Colleges	Liberal Arts Colleges	2-Year Colleges
Coarse Title
Motivation	25	53	25	20	1
Educational	24	22	24	27	21
Clinical	24	46	28	21	2
Group Dynamics	23	21	34	27	8
Drugs & Behavior/Addiction	21	45	20	16	1
Health/Sports	19	30	29	11	5
Language/Psycholinguistics	19	59	7	8	1
Behavior Modification	17	26	24	12	7
Exceptional Child	17	13	23	19	11
Applied	16	23	15	11	15
Perception	16	39	18	6
Gender/Sex Role Differences	12	27	10	10	1
Cross (Multi) Cultural	11	20	11	10	1
Marriage and Family	10	11	14	9	4
Psychology and Law	9	24	6	5	1
Death and Dying	8	4	14	6	9
Environmental	8	21	7	2	2
Neurological	8	21	3	6
Religion	8	9	12	9	2
Readings	7	18	5	3
Individual Differences	6	12	5	3	2
Community	6	16	3	6
Consumer	5	7	6	6
Personnel	5	14	3	1	1
Advanced General	5	5	9	4	2
Advanced Experimental	4	5	7	5
Humanistic	4	7	3	6
Forensic	2	3	4	2
Othera	7	4	12	8	4

a Other courses offered include Applied Human Relations, Behavior Genetics, Behavioral Medicine, Behavioral Management, Careers in Psychology, Creativity, Ethics, Exceptional Person, Human Relations, Interpersonal Relations, Memory, Memory and Cognition, Methods in Behavioral Science, Personal Awareness, Psychology of Afro-Americans, Psychology of Men, Psychology of Minorities, Psychology Research and Writing, Self-Management, Stress Management.

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