With award-winning faculty, state-of-the-art facilities and varied research opportunities, Hope’s psychology department will prepare you for diverse callings and careers.

At Hope, psychology students dive headfirst into the study of the human mind and behavior. Going beyond information, we engage in formation through integrated scientific inquiry, field experience, perspective-taking and faith engagement.

We cultivate:

  • Knowledge in the major areas of psychology
  • Scientific inquiry skills
  • Critical thinking and communication skills
  • Service-learning and field experience
  • Ethical and moral engagement for social responsibility in a diverse world
  • Professional development
  • Engagement with faith and learning

You’ll learn and collaborate in the A. Paul Schaap Science Center’s smart classrooms, eight-room observational teaching space equipped with one-way mirrors, advanced research teaching lab and 30 research laboratory rooms.

Research is integral to our practice and our degree programs, and our students are vital to the process. You’ll work alongside our distinguished faculty on psychology research projects and in our labs. Many of our students who pursue supervised research go on to present at conferences themselves, and some are even published!

Our faculty is recognized regionally and nationally; they earn awards and accolades every year. From textbook authoring to research publishing, your professors are actively working in their fields.

With a psychology degree from Hope, you’ll engage in significant learning that shapes your knowledge of the field, how to conduct research and how to work with others — skills that carry lifelong value, whether you pursue grad school or dive right into your career after graduation.

Hope by the Numbers

  • 58%Conduct additional research

    More than half of our students conduct research beyond the curricular lab requirements.

    Research with us
  • 75%Graduates employed within 6 months

    In 2022, three-quarters of psychology graduates were employed within six months of graduating. Most others went on to graduate studies.

  • 38%Pursue graduate school

    38% of last year’s graduating class went to grad school.

  • 10%Student population

    1/10th of Hope’s total student body majors in psychology.

    View our degree programs

Psychology has helped me learn how to think in a different way and understand how others think in their own way. I feel better equipped to help people during emotional struggles, feel called to help people in times of stress, and have a greater understanding of relationships.

Hope psychology major