People want to understand one another. We are curious about human behavior and why people think, feel, and act the way they do.
Middlebury’s Department of Psychology focuses on the scientific study of these issues. We offer a broad range of courses that encourage students to understand mental processes, emotions, and behavior from a variety of different perspectives, spanning social, cognitive, neuroscientific, developmental, and clinical approaches.
Are you curious about the human condition and what motivates people (and other living organisms)? Are you interested in human development, mental health, cognition, emotion, and behavior? Here you’ll learn to confidently apply theory, research methods, and data analyses across a range of real-life situations and problems.
What causes people to be assertive or passive? Why can’t this child learn to read? What makes a mob dangerous? How does memory work or fail to work?
Psychology attempts to find objective answers to these and other questions about human behavior through the scientific study of emotions, behavior, and mental processes
Our students and faculty explore psychology from social, cognitive, behavioral, cultural, clinical, biological, developmental, and applied perspectives. You will learn to apply methodologies to identify and evaluate factors that control or influence human and nonhuman behavior. You’ll become comfortable working with data—an important component in psychology—because figures, results, and statistics form the basis for our theories and explanations about behavior.
Students actively engage in research as part of the psychology curriculum and may also choose to engage in research projects in faculty laboratories. A sophisticated collection of technological tools promotes teaching and research within the department.
See Research