Program Review Psychology

Mission Statement

Westmont's psychology department provides a comprehensive undergraduate education in scientific psychology emphasizing basic research and applied practice. As a part of a larger Christian liberal arts community, we are committed to integrating psychology with a wide variety of academic disciplines and Christian faith traditions in order to promote the health and well-being of our communities, churches, and world.

Program Learning Outcomes

The links below lead to information about the department's most recent assessment of student learning relative to our program learning outcomes.

As a result of what they have learned in their psychology program, graduates in psychology will be able to do the following:

  • Knowledge Base. Our students will be able to articulate both
    • the structure of the academic discipline of psychology and
    • the key elements of content within a wide variety of areas within psychology, integrating them with each other. Students will also be familiar with career/vocation options in psychology and psychology-related fields.
  • Scientific Research Methods and Skills. Our students will be able to recognize, describe, and implement a variety of research methods and skills common to the psychological sciences.
     
  • Written and Oral Communication. Our students will be able to write and speak in genres appropriate to the academic discipline of psychology.
     
  • Values and Character. Our students will value, appreciate, and welcome, through understanding and demonstrative action,
    • Scientific methods. Students will see empirical, evidence-based methods as essential and as complementary to other methods of knowing.
    • Ethics. Students will be committed to high ethical standards, including professional, discipline-specific domains and their own personal lives.
    • Faith. Students will be able to articulate the interactions between psychology and faith.
    • Openness to experience. Students will understand the importance and desirability of a diversity of experiences, perspectives, and backgrounds (including ethnic, sociocultural, and gender diversity). They will embrace ambiguity, being comfortable without closure or black-and-white answers, and valuing questions as much as answers.
  • Applications. Our students will apply psychological principles, knowledge, and skills to their own lives and to the transformation of their worlds. Domains to which these are applied include:
    • Personal (personal development, relationships, personal experience, etc.)
    • Community and societal/global concerns and issues
    • Integration with other academic disciplines

Program Review Resources

Curriculum Map
A curriculum map is a visual representation of the structure of program curriculum. The map charts program courses, syllabi, and assessments as they relate to the intended program learning outcomes. In other words, a curriculum map is the intellectual linkage that presents twenty plus courses as a story of learning.

Multi-year Assessment Plan
A multi-year assessment plan shows what program learning outcomes will be assessed in what years.

Annual and Six-Year Reports
2021 2020 2018 (6-year) 2017 2016 2015