Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour (Honours)

McMaster University

The Department of Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour offers a variety of programs that serve students with different interests and career goals. You can think of the programs as falling along a spectrum. At one end of the spectrum are the Applied Psychology in Human Behaviour programs. These programs lead to a Bachelor of Applied Science and focus on the scientific study of the mind with the goal of understanding how humans think, feel, and behave. Students will learn how to relate basic psychological theories, principles, and methods to everyday life with the goal of helping people understand, explain, and change behaviour. The Applied Psychology in Human Behaviour programs are the most narrowly focused on the topic of psychology, and they are the least research-intensive. Next are the Psychology, Neuroscience & Behaviour (PNB) programs. The PNB programs are more interdisciplinary than the Applied Psychology in Human Behaviour programs because the PNB programs integrate concepts across psychology, neuroscience, and animal behaviour. The PNB programs are research-intensive and focus on the experimental study of human and non-human animals, with the goal of understanding how the mind and nervous system work, and how animals survive and reproduce. Moving along the interdisciplinary scale we come to the BioPNB program. This is a Combined Honours degree program in which students major in both PNB and Biology therefore, the BioPNB program has more requirements than the Applied Psychology in Human Behaviour or PNB programs. The most interdisciplinary program that we offer is the Neuroscience program. Students in the Neuroscience program develop strong foundational skills in Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Mathematics, and Physics, coupled with a strong introduction to the core areas of molecular, cellular, and systems neuroscience. The Neuroscience program is geared towards students who are interested in pursuing neuroscience research or other fields built upon a strong interdisciplinary science foundation.