School of Arts and Sciences
Department of Psychology

BA/BS in Psychology

This major is intended for students interested in a general and flexible exploration of experimental psychology. Psychology majors may choose either a BA or BS.

Learning Objectives

Program Requirements and Policies

  • Eleven courses of at least 3 semester-hour credits are required to complete the major.
  • Courses taken to fulfill the major (including Related Field) normally may not be taken pass-fail (PSY 99 is an exception when used as an elective).
  • No more than two independent study courses (Psychology 91 and 92, 97 and 98, 99, 191 and 192, 199; note that 181 and 182 are not independent study) may be counted toward the major. Only one of the two courses used to fulfill the 100-level requirement may be independent study (i.e., an honors thesis student may use one semester of PSY 199 as an elective and one semester as a 100-level, but these would be the only two independent study courses allowed to count toward major requirements).
  • Students scoring 4 or 5 on the Psychology AP exam, 6 or 7 on the International Baccalaureate (Higher Level) exam, or A or B on the GCE A-level exam earn credit for PSY 1. In other words, the student earns 3 semester-hour credits and does not need to take PSY 1 for the major. Students may substitute Child Study and Human Development 1 for PSY 1 for prerequisite purposes, but they must take an additional psychology course in order to reach the 11 courses required for the major.
  • PSY 32 must be completed at Tufts.
  • As of the Fall 2019 semester, Psychology majors may fulfill their statistics requirement by taking PSY 31 or one of four other courses (BIO 132, CEE 6/CH 36, CEE 156, CSHD 140). Students who arrived on campus before Fall 2019 may also make use of the old policy, which permitted double-majors in Economics to count EC 13 as their statistics course and double-majors in Math to count MATH 162; these exceptions no longer apply for new Tufts students. The department does not accept the Statistics AP as a substitute for PSY 31.

Course Requirements

Eleven courses of at least 3 semester-hour credits are needed. They are distributed as follows: 

1. Psychology 1: Introduction to Psychology

2. One of the following 10-Level courses:

  • Psychology 11: Developmental Psychology
  • Psychology 12: Psychopathology
  • Psychology 13: Social Psychology
  • Psychology 15: Theories of Personality
  • Psychology 17: Industrial and Organizational Psychology

3. One of the following 20-level courses: 

  • Psychology 22: Emotion
  • Psychology 25: Physiological Psychology
  • Psychology 26: Animal Learning and Cognition
  • Psychology 27: Perception
  • Psychology 28: Cognitive Psychology
  • Psychology 29: Human Neuropsychology

4. & 5. Mandatory labs: 

  • Psychology 31: Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (or one of: BIO 132, CEE 6/CH 36, CEE 156, CSHD 140)
  • Psychology 32: Experimental Psychology

6. & 7. Two advanced Psychology courses numbered above 100

8. & 9. Two additional courses offered by the Psychology Department (i.e., any other Tufts courses with the PSY listing)

10. & 11. Two approved advanced Courses in Related Fields