A major in Psychology can be completed as a B.A. or a B. Sc.  The Psychology component of the B.A. and B.Sc. major programs are identical.  The programs are designed to provide broad coverage of the major areas of psychology while allowing flexibility in pursuing particular topics in more detail.

Admission
Program Requirements
Course Descriptions
Suggested Course Sequence

Admission

There will be one intake of Psychology and Behavioural Neuroscience Majors each year. Admission to the Major programs is competitive and selective. Students who wish to enter these programs must submit a completed online application form by June 1 for Fall semester registration.  (Please note that the application link for Fall 2026 admission will be activated during the Winter 2026 semester).

As per clause 11.11.1. in the Calendar, students are considered eligible for admission if they have completed the 24 credit hours as listed below. A minimum average of 65% in PSYC 1000/1001, and a minimum average of 60% overall in PSYC/MATH/CRW is required.

a. Psychology 1000, 1001;
b. Six credit hours in Critical Reading and Writing (CRW) courses, including at least 3 credit hours in English courses;
c. One of Mathematics 1000, 1006 or Statistics 1500, or two of Mathematics 1090, 1050, and 1051;
d. Six credit hours of electives (9CH if Mathematics 1000, 1006 or Statistics 1500 is successfully completed).

Note: as admission is highly competitive, satisfying minimum course grade requirements does not guarantee a successful admission. These minimum averages are used to determine eligibility for inclusion in the applicant pool, from which admission to the major will be determined as follows:

To determine a student’s position on the list of students who are eligible for admission, academic averages will be calculated in 2 different ways:

1. The course grades that a student received in their last 2 full-time semesters will be averaged.
2. The course grades that a student received for all of their MUN courses to date will be averaged (i.e., a cumulative GPA).

The higher of these 2 averages will be used to determine a student’s position on the list of students who are eligible for admission.   Transfer credits for the above requirements are accepted. A student must have obtained at least three numeric grades in Memorial University courses in order to be considered for admission.

If one or more of the required courses is in progress at the time of application (i.e., it is being completed in the Intercession or Spring semester), a student may still apply for admission but a decision on admission will not be made until the final grades are received by the Department (normally, late August). Students in this circumstance may receive a conditional acceptance that will either be confirmed or denied prior to the start of the Fall semester.

A portion of seats (normally ~10- 15%) will be reserved to be considered for allocation to applicants who have exceptional circumstances, such as a required course(s) in progress, deferred exams, delays in confirmation of grades for transfer courses, etc. Applicants who are eligible for admission but not accepted initially will be put on a waitlist. Acceptance from the waitlist will be confirmed with students no later than the second week of classes in the Fall semester.

In order to be considered for admission, students must submit the online application form before June 1 (even if they are waiting on deferred exams or are finishing the required courses over the Intersession or Spring terms). We will not consider any applications received after June 1. Applicants who will be writing deferred exams and/or taking required courses at the time of application should note such in the Comments field.

Continuing for Fall 2025 Admission to the majors in Psychology and BHNR, we will be running a pilot project to allocate a specific number of seats for under-represented students, as described in the application form. Please direct any questions to psychdeputyhead@mun.ca

 

Suggested Course Sequence for Students

Year 1

Students interested in pursuing a major in Psychology should follow the Academic Advising Centre suggested first year courses.

Year 2

Science
Fall Semester	Winter Semester
Psychology 2910	Psychology 2911
Psychology 2930 or 2X21	Psychology 2X21 or 2930
Biology, Chemistry or Physics lab course at the 2000 level or above	Biology, Chemistry or Physics lab course at the 2000 level or above Note: must be same subject as Fall lab course
Science elective	Science elective
Elective	Elective

 

Arts
Fall Semester	Winter Semester
Psychology 2910	Psychology 2911
Psychology 2930 or 2X21	Psychology 2X21 or 2930
Minor program course	Minor program course
Breadth of Knowledge course	Breadth of Knowledge course
Breadth of Knowledge course	Breadth of Knowledge course

 

Years 3 and 4

There is considerable flexibility in which courses are taken in the third and fourth years. The basic idea is that students will gain knowledge of four major areas of psychology by taking four of the following courses (we recommend taking one of these in second year):

2021 Introduction to Child Development*
2121 Introduction to Social Psychology*
2421 Introduction to Human Cognition*
2621 Introduction to Abnormal Psychology
2721 Introduction to Animal Behaviour*
2821 Introduction to Behavioural Neuroscience

Each of these courses is a pre-requisite for one or more 4000-level selected topics/seminar courses, and some may be pre-requisites for 3X5X courses. Please see course descriptions for details. Courses marked with * are pre-requisites for a 4000-level research experience course (along with PSYC 2910, 2911, and 2930).

Students will also require three courses at the 3000 level. This must include at least one 3X5X course (excluding 3550), and Psychology Majors may only apply one 385X Behavioural Neuroscience course to this requirement:

 

3020 Adolescent Development
3120 Forensic Psychology
3121 Health Psychology
3520 Sexual Behaviour
3821 Human Neuropsychology
3822 Drugs and Behaviour

3051 Cognitive Development
3251 Learning
3350 Perception
3451 Human Memory
3551 Psychological Testing
3850 Neurobiology of Learning and Memory†
3851 Behavioural Endocrinology†
3852 Neurobiology of Stress†
3853 Neuropsychopharmacology†

†Psychology Majors may only apply one 385X course to their requirements for 3000 level PSYC courses

Students must take two 4000-level courses; at least one of these must be a selected topics or seminar course (4X5X), and at least one must be a research experience course (4X7X).

A total of at least 120 Credit Hours must be completed in order to graduate with a BA, BSc, BA (Hons), or BSc (Hons).

Additional information on the major programs can be found in the Calendar here: https://www.mun.ca/upcoming-university-calendar/st-johns-campus/faculty-of-science/11/12/#11.12.8

AND

Additional course information can be found in the Calendar here: https://www.mun.ca/upcoming-university-calendar/st-johns-campus/faculty-of-science/13/12/