Social Behavioral Sciences and Methodology Minor

 

 

Students who like math, but prefer to major in something other than numbers, may be happy to know that a new minor involving statistics, methodology and data analysis can be pursued. Not only is the Social Behavioral Sciences and Methodology minor the only one of its kind in the US, it is also said to be a shoe in to graduate school.

Professor Todd Little proposed the SBSM minor four years ago, and the Committee on Undergraduate Studies and Advising approved the minor last May. Because this minor is so new, not many students know about the SBSM minor. About a dozen students are in the minor now, and six are finishing with it on their ARTS form this year.

After the approval, three students had already been taking the 18 required credits without knowing about the minor.            

Sandy Carpenter, a 2007 graduate, is one of three who have received the minor because she had already been taking the 18 required credits without knowing about the minor.

She said that when she applied to graduate schools, none of them turned her down because they were all intrigued and impressed with her work in methodology. She said she was able to prove that she could do quantitative and graduate-level work.

Carpenter, is graduating this December with a masters degree in Human Resources at the University of Illinois. She believes that the minor was a foot into the door to a graduate school and is a huge selling point for those wanting to a profitable job.

"My minor overshadowed my psychology degree," Carpenter said. "Companies always focused on my quantitative background and never asked me about psychology."

This year is the first year that students will be able to have the minor on their ARTS form.

"Students who take courses that count toward the SBSM minor are typically highly motivated and interested in pursuing graduate school, with the eventual goal of entering research or academia as a career," said Kris Preacher, professor in the Department of Psychology. "Having a good understanding of a wide variety of research methods and statistical analyses prepares students very well for a career that emphasizes research."

Professor Little believes the upper level classes undergraduates take to pursue the minor will provide students with the knowledge of how to demonstrate high-end research and how to measure and analyze information. With this education students have been able to do thesis research on their own.

"Before I graduated, I was doing graduate level work," Carpenter said. "I didn't have to ask someone to help me do my research."

Carpenter said she conducted her own surveys for her project and also analyzed her own data.

"It was my project," Carpenter said.

Little teaches Structural Equation Modeling and says that the popularity of the minor has grown by word of mouth.

"It's been great," Little said. "Our courses are filling up and 48 are registered in my class. It's unheard of."

Katie Harr, Wichita senior, has only one more class to take to complete the minor requirements. She decided to pursue the minor because she knew it would make her more marketable and it would make her psychology degree more flexible.

"I wanted to do it because I've always been good at math and science, but I didn't want to be a math major," Harr said. "I thought it was a good way to combine psychology with math."

Even Emily Rose Patrick, Lenexa senior, believes she has made the right choice of minor. She said she will use the minor to get into a graduate school, and she will use it when she conducts her own research for her thesis.

"If I didn't want to go to grad school I could easily get a job as an undergrad," Patrick said. 

Now that the freshly printed brochures have been circling the campus the past couple of weeks, the new SBSM minor is more than available to students who are interested in the study of methodology.

For more information visit http://www.psych.ku.edu/psych_programs/undergrad_social.shtml