Courses aim to foster scientific and critical thinking and to promote the application of research methodologies to understand how and why organisms do what they do. The major requires students to take courses that address several different areas in psychology and numerous different theoretical perspectives for understanding and explaining behavior.The psychology curriculum strives to prepare students to engage in effective critical thinking while being prepared for graduate study in an area of psychology or success in a wide range of professional work in areas such as social services, healthcare, business, and law.