Academic Culture & Values

Supporting an Academic Culture of Excellence and Success in the Curriculum

Our curriculum provides majors with a strong foundation in Psychological Sciences by offering Introduction to Psychology as a year-long course. All majors develop foundational quantitative skills in Elementary Statistics and complete two research projects, one at an introductory level in Research Methods and an advanced research course. We require that students develop content breadth by taking courses in natural and social areas of psychological sciences. Students also take depth courses on specific topics, with offerings in a range of areas.

Faculty promote respect and open inquiry by all students in the classroom. Students are encouraged to ask questions in classes, attend office hours or interact through alternative methods of communication such as discussion boards. All full-time faculty contribute to pre-major and major advising, providing crucial mentoring to students throughout their time here. Prospective students must contact the department co-chair to be assigned a major advisor. This helps students who would otherwise be intimidated reaching out to professors they may not know well. Faculty are encouraged to attend workshops held by STLI (or other relevant offices) regarding best practices for promoting open inquiry and share materials that are designed to promote open classroom inquiry (e.g., syllabus language).

Our department is housed in the Integrated Science Center (ISC), which was built with accessibility and mobility differences in mind. All spaces are accessible. The faculty and graduate students work with Student Accessibility Services (SAS) office to accommodate student accessibility needs related to our campus spaces and the curriculum. We are committed to ensuring that audiovisual material is as accessible as possible (e.g. videos have captions). This is done using online tools and we continually work with STLI and SAS to increase our awareness of accessibility and inclusion tools. We also host department workshops to promote tools that help the success of all students. For example, during a hands-on workshop led by members of STLI and IT, Psychological Sciences faculty made suggested changes to their course materials in order to make course materials more digitally accessible. Moreover, faculty members with more experience making materials accessible are willing to assist faculty who are less familiar.

Supporting the Success of All Students

Students, majors and minors have various opportunities to connect with faculty, professionals and other students. Typically, using ISC digital signage and individual faculty outreach, all students are encouraged to collaborate with faculty and attend our community events.

In our department, students learn research skills inside and outside the classroom. We share a research access road map with our majors during advising and in classrooms, particularly in core classes for our major (statistics and research methods), so that all students have an understanding about how to get involved in research. All tenure-eligible and tenured faculty have active research programs and almost all faculty regularly work with undergraduate students in research. If students plan to present their research at a conference, our department offers supplemental funding to all undergraduate and graduate students (pending availability of funds).

Through mentoring and coursework, students are also taught about career opportunities outside of research and academia. They learn ways to apply research skills in various “industry” settings. We have been highlighting researchers, particularly current students and alumni from underrepresented groups, via our alumni newsletter, the digital signage in the Integrated Science Center, and through events during Homecoming Weekend. These efforts support the success of our students by offering the opportunity to engage in more high-impact practices through engaging with faculty in research.

Our department regularly participates in events that promote the major to current and prospective students. We have an honor society, Psi Chi, and are exploring developing a Psychology Club that would be open to all Psychological Sciences majors. All full-time faculty participate in major advising, offering an opportunity for critical academic and career mentoring. We periodically assess the climate of our major by conducting focus groups and developing strategies based on the findings. 

Supporting the Success of Faculty and Staff

The department provides professional development funds to all full-time faculty, regardless of appointment type, to support excellence in professional development and research activities. This funding can be used to support undergraduate or graduate student research projects. For example, research supplies may be needed to complete an undergraduate or graduate student research project. These funds can also be used to provide some graduate student summer funding.

The department offers core research facilities (e.g., a Cognitive Science laboratory, shared EEG and eye tracking equipment). These core facilities offer a cost-efficient opportunity for all faculty to engage in research using this equipment. These core facilities also support novel research collaborations without taxing any one faculty member’s own research laboratory.

To facilitate professional development of teaching, faculty are regularly informed of opportunities on campus offered by STLI or other offices. Many of these opportunities help faculty find ways to promote excellence, curiosity and a sense of belonging in the classroom. Engaging in campus events also promotes a sense of belonging within the W&M community. Professional development funds can also be used to attend conferences where faculty can attend workshops and presentations on teaching and research. This also allows faculty to engage with members of the broader psychological sciences community and industry professionals. Several Psychological Sciences faculty have served as CLA teaching fellows and have been able to offer their expertise to our department.

Our department is also engaged with the community. One example is an annual “Diaper Drive” led for many years by a Psychological Sciences faculty member.

We value our staff for the work they do in supporting all of the students in our classes. The department makes available resources to support staff professional development. Most commonly, this includes affording time for staff to attend professional development events on campus and occasionally attend relevant conferences.