Best Psych Classes for Interdisciplinary?

[Lox26]

Greetings, GradCafe-ers!

While I am still nailing down a career path, I am confident that I will pursue a masters (fingers crossed) within the next 3 years. What classes would you recommend to put me on solid ground for such a program? I am interested in an interdisciplinary program--such as cognitive science, cognitive neuroscience, systems neuroscience, decision theory, or game theory--that will enable me to study/model how we make various choices. Nebulous as this list may seem, I am refining my interests periodically with more research and coursework. (Admittedly, I'm a ways from my goal!)

Current and future relevant coursework include: Stats, Econometrics, Linear Algebra, Game Theory, Behavioral Economics, Intro Psych, Behavioral Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuroscience, Computational Neuroscience, Learning and Memory, Social Psych, and Psychopathology. I have also done some imaging research (not fMRI yet, no publications).

What other psych, bio, and neuro courses would you recommend? I have one year left (one semester of undecided classes) and plan to pursue an informal post-bacc to supplement my undergraduate work.

Looking forward to your responses!

Lox

[PsychGirl1]

Psych- you seem pretty set, just make sure you are covered with the basics like psych 101, developmental, social, abnormal, cognitive, and research methods

Neuro- you seem set

Decision sciences- I think game theory, behavioral economics is good. As an undergrad I also took system dynamics, if you can find a course like that I'd go for it.

Math- I'd make sure to take as much statistics and probability as possible. I took lots of math including a basic statistics, multivariable calc, differential eq, linear algebra, etc. in undergrad and I still find myself struggling with advanced statistics since I haven't yet taken advanced stats classes.

I'd also maybe look at someone who does similar things (like Dan Ariely maybe?) and look through the types of courses he teaches or things like that. Or find some potential programs and see what types of classes they require and/or have in their curriculum. Good luck!

[3point14]

Not really sure what sort of classes you need to take, but I took an interesting Artificial Intelligence class in undergrad. It was technically a CS class, but I took it as an elective for my neuroscience minor.

[Lox26]

@Lisa,

Thanks for your rundown. Would a course in Developmental Cognitive Psych cover developmental psych? My school has a course on neural/social/etc. networks and systems. Is that similar to System Dynamics?

**Would you take the probability courses alongside Calc and Diff equations or after? My major stats course went into integration and moment generating functions (was so lost with the latter). I want to be sufficiently prepared.

@3Point14,

The AI classes available to me all have 3-4 engineering pre-reqs . Could you describe the course you took?

Some other questions for you both (and the forum):

How do you feel about upperlevel neuro courses like Perception or Language? I think I would be interested in visual perception only, but would I be limiting my knowledge of necessary topics? Also, did you find the development of language relevant to how we represent/encode concepts and therefore to how we make choices; or, is it overkill (stay in such a course only if you really like it). Both also seem like core MA classes for psych/neuro that I would need to take anyway. Better to take at the undergrad level to familiarize myself with the concepts, or to wait till MA level?

Thanks!

Edited August 10, 2012 by Lox26

[PsychGirl1]

First: I'm definitely not an expert in what you want to study and the requirements/best course of action... it's just what I would think, so please take with a grain of salt :-)

I'm not sure exactly what Developmental Cognitive Psych covers. I mostly just included Developmental becaus it's considered one of the core areas of Psychology, plus if you ever take the GRE psych, you will be asked questions on it. It's probably a bit out of the area you want to focus on, so maybe Developmental Cog Psych would be a good compromise- I'd look for sample syllabi for the two courses and compare. As far as system dynamics, I'm not really sure- it's hard for me to know without seeing a course description. Our system dynamics course was based in the management science department and basically focused on modeling interactive and complex systems. It was one of the best classes I've taken and it really changed the way I think about and approach things. It sounds like your class would be similar, and if so, I'd recommend it.

As far as probability/stats, I'm thinking more of a Psychology or research-specific class. While advanced statistics/probability theory can get complicated, I consider the stats you'll need in most grad programs to be more of a trade- knowing what tests to use when, what post-hoc tests to use when, etc. While my general stats and probability classes gave me a good knowledge foundation, it didn't give me the tools to actually sit down at SPSS and know what sorts of tests to run and how to inerpret the output. Of course, things may be different in areas like computational neuro, which is really out of what I study (which is more clinical/health focused).

As far as language and sensation/perception, I think only take them if they are related to what you want to study. I took a linguistics class and hated my life. On the other hand, I found sensation/perception interesting. Ask the professor for a course syllabus from a previous year, read through, and figure out if you get excited or not. If you get excited, take it. I wouldn't consider those psychology/decision sciences core classes, but I'd probably consider them cog/neuro core classes. Maybe people actually in those specialties could chip in? I could be way off base.

So, again, I'd go back to the programs that look interesting to you and have areas you want to study, and look at their admissions requirements and curriculum. That should give you a good idea of what you should be focusing on.

[PsychGirl1]

Better yet, find a professor at your school who is studying what you want to study, and ask them if they can take out 30 minutes and give you some guidance on how to prepare yourself and your application for your career goal.

[3point14]

My AI class only had other CS and Math prereqs. I didn't have the math, but I talked with the professor before signing up for the class and explained my situation. He allowed me to take the class as "Independent Study in CS" (or something like that). I didn't have to take all the exams or do all the labs, but I had to write a few short papers about how some of the topics we were discussing were relevant to psychology/neuroscience.

I also agree with everything LisaLisa86 has said, especially about contacting professors at your university as well as checking out course requirements for programs you might be interested in. If you can get into a Research Methods type stats course, that would be really helpful (and is often a requirement). With regard to linguistics, I would say it might be a little bit of overkill unless you're interested in psycholinguistics.