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Psychology

Available as a major or minor

Roanoke College has been ranked as one of the top 100 "great schools for psychology" by The Princeton Review. We focus on psychology as a science so our students are equipped to think critically about how and why people think and behave the way they do — a skillset with relevancy to any job that our students might pursue after graduation. 

Curriculum & Courses

Sample Course Offerings

PSYC 231: Child Development 
PSYC-332: Drugs and Behavior
PSYC-381: Abnormal Psychology
PSYC 251: Social Psychology 

student presenting in class

Student Experiences

  • Shields heads back to Germany with Fulbright stacked image

    Shields heads back to Germany with Fulbright

    Stephanie Shields has been selected for a Fulbright U.S. Student Award to Germany. She will be doing research at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München in Munich, Germany. Shields will contribute to work on vocal learning - the capacity to learn to produce new sounds through imitation - in the bat Phyllostomus discolor. Shields is a psychology major with a neuroscience concentration and a German minor. After her Fulbright work, Shields plans to earn a Ph.D. in neuroscience. Shields has been conducting research at Roanoke with Dr. David Nichols for several years, and her work resulted in one first-author publication and another first-author manuscript submitted for publication. One of her projects relates to facial attractiveness and emotionality in which she used EEG to investigate the timing of neural responses to faces.

  • Teaching passion drives student’s Fulbright work in Spain stacked image

    Teaching passion drives student’s Fulbright work in Spain

    Kristen Wicander '17 was awarded a Fulbright Student Award as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in La Rioja, Spain. There, she taught children ages 6-12 about social studies, science, and American culture. "I absolutely love working with children, so I really can't wait to be working with spanish children," Wicander said. She was also very active in the Spanish community and took classes in order to fully immerse herself in the culture. "My professors have always encouraged me to push myself and jump in head-first to every possible opportunity," Wicander said.

What Makes Roanoke Different?

We help our students present conference posters and publish research papers, something that greatly improves their chances of getting into well-regarded master's and doctoral programs.

Learn By Doing

Real-World Research: Examples of Projects Tackled By Roanoke Students

"The relationship between personality and film preferences," presented at the 25th annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science, Washington, D.C.

"Understanding the impact of technology use on academic performance in emerging adults," presented at the Symposium of the Association for Psychological Science, New York

"Examining the effects of agency, empathy, and mindfulness on prosocial behaviors," presented at the 17th annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Diego, CA.

"Understanding emerging adults' perceptions of children with clinical and developmental diagnoses," presented at the biennial meeting for the Society for Research on Child Development, Austin, TX.

"Mothers' Work Status Affects Expectations and Experiences Regarding the Division of Infant Caregiving Tasks," presented at the 27th annual meeting of the Association of Psychological Science, New York, NY.

"The Effects of Alcohol on the cTMT for Ascending and Descending Limbs," presented at the Central Virginia Chapter of the Society for Neuroscience, Roanoke, VA.

"Are electrode caps worth the investment? An evaluation of EEG methods in undergraduate neuroscience lab courses and research." Published in The Journal of Undergraduate Neuroscience Education, 15(1), 29-37.  

"I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else. It was a great experience. Professors were there for you 24/7 if you had questions. They were definitely there for the students when they needed to be."

Aaron Rogers '21

Careers & Outcomes

Psych students head to great graduate schools

Our graduates have gone on to prestigious programs to deepen their study of topics that include clinical psychology, speech-language pathology and human development.

Logos for graduate universities like Harvard, Xavier, Stony Brook, Colorado State, Loyola Maryland, and more

Interesting jobs for psychology grads

Collection of logos: Atlanta Braves, IBM, Wyeth, amazon, United Way, Salvation Army, Wells Fargo

Faculty

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News

  • Workshop: Communicating Your Research in a Nutshell

    This interactive workshop, the first of a two-part event, is intended to train researchers to better communicate their work with people outside of their field. Folks from all programs are encouraged to attend!

    Date:
    March 27, 2026
    Time:
    4 - 6 p.m.
    Location:

    Antrim Chapel

    Workshop: Communicating Your Research in a Nutshellevent image

  • Nutshell Games Competition

    Engaged in research? Consider competing in this year's Nutshell Games Competition for a chance to win an Amazon e-gift card.

    Date:
    April 21, 2026
    Time:
    6 - 7:30 p.m.
    Location:

    Antrim Chapel

    Nutshell Games Competitionevent image

Interested in studying psychology at Roanoke College?

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