Forensic Psychology/Legal Psychology/Psychology and Law

Forensic Psychology studies the influence of psychological processes on the legal system. As you will learn in this class, many social, cognitive, clinical, and developmental psychological processes affect actors of the legal system, and therefore legal decision making. We will study how these processes affect people in the criminal legal system in the U.S., specifically, and focus on how we could bring about change within this system using the knowledge from this field. Among (many) other things, you will learn about witness memory, suspect interviewing, lie detection, competency to stand trial, and many more interesting topics. 

Currently teaching PSY 482 at Chapman University

The goal of this course is to introduce you to research design and methods that are commonly used in psychological research studies. In this course, you will learn how to conduct and critically analyze experimental and non-experimental research in psychology. By conducting research of your own, you will learn how to develop and test a research question, analyze data using statistical software, and prepare an APA-style scientific manuscript. By the end of this course, you will have learned how to critically evaluate empirical research and claims resulting from it, and apply these skills in your everyday life when you are presented with research claims in the media. 

Currently teaching PSY 204 at Chapman University

Do you ever think? Or try to remember things? Or make important decisions? Everyone does! Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes including perception, attention, memory, and decision-making. A lot of research has been conducted to explain how the human brain works to do these cognitive processes. We will examine these fields of research throughout the semester. By the end of this course, you will have a better understanding of how psychological research contributes to our knowledge of how the human mind works!

Social psychology is an area of discipline of scientific psychology that seeks to understand how people feel, think, and behave in social situations. A social psychology class is arguably the most important class taught at any university. After all, we do not exist on this world all alone – we are usually surrounded by other people. Social psychology research has found that our emotions, behaviors, and thoughts (or Affect, Behavior, and Cognition – ABC!) are indeed affected by the real or even imagined presence of others.

Psychology is the scientific study of human mind, brain, and behavior. This course will provide an overview of what psychology is, its many different fields, and what psychologists study. Principles learned in this course may help you become a better thinker, consumer of goods, student, and friend. Learning how your brain functions, how people interact with each other, how memory works, how learning happens, and how nature and nurture influence who you are (to name just a few) can all help you better understand yourself and improve your life.