Psychology is the scientific discipline that studies human behavior and mental processes: how human beings develop, learn, think, and feel. Psychologists study the relative influences of heredity (qualities people inherit from their biological parents) and experience (what happens to people during their lifetime). Many areas of psychology require substantial funding for research success. Our faculty include acknowledged leaders in their fields who have attracted major external funding to the University. The department is currently generating approximately $12 million per year in research funds. Psychological studies are carried out in a wide variety of environments, including the laboratory, home, school, workplace, jury room, hospital and hospice. Faculty of the Department of Psychology at SDSU actively involve students in their research and focus on a number of areas of psychology including:

• the effects of prenatal environments, including the influence of hormones and drugs used by expectant mothers on brain development and later functioning;

• the normal processes of learning, memory, and cognition (knowing and perceiving);

• the effects of childhood experience on social-emotional and cognitive development;

• the functioning of adults and the elderly in response to biological and environmental challenges;

• the effectiveness of programs for enhancing physical and mental well-being of people;

• personnel selection and performance in industrial and business settings;

• ways of eliminating or controlling maladaptive behaviors.