Guide to Online Psychology Courses
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Online psychology courses offer a flexible and convenient way to study this in-demand topic. You can take online courses in a degree or diploma program or study psychology for free as part of a self-designed learning plan.
Explore popular course focuses, find out what to expect, and connect with a wealth of learning opportunities with this student-focused guide to online psychology courses.
What Programs Offer Online Psychology Classes?
Some psychology programs are 100% online, some follow a hybrid format with both online and on-campus classes, and some offer only in-person classes.
Many psychology programs offer online courses, including bachelor’s in psychology, master’s in psychology, and doctoral psychology programs.
Online psychology classes may or may not meet in real time. Some courses are asynchronous, allowing you to log in and view prerecorded video lessons and class materials at your convenience. Other courses, however, are synchronous, a format that typically requires you to attend and participate in live virtual class sessions at scheduled times throughout the term.
Benefits of Taking Psychology Courses Online
Online psychology courses offer many appealing benefits. You can use them to:
- Build targeted knowledge of psychology theory, research methods, and practical applications.
- Develop valuable and versatile insights into human behavior that transfer well to many industries and job functions.
- Learn at your convenience and set your own schedule.
- Cut your educational costs by avoiding commuting, transportation, and parking fees.
Which Psychology Courses Are Offered Online?
Accredited schools offer online psychology courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. The subsections below introduce and explain popular offerings, which you can pursue as standalone courses or as part of a diploma or degree program.
Undergraduate Courses
Undergraduate institutions feature a wealth of foundational and intermediate online psychology courses. Curated from a cross section of leading online undergraduate degree programs, here’s a look at some common courses you can take at the associate or bachelor’s level:
Introduction to Psychology
This broad survey course introduces students to the academic fundamentals of psychology. It explores the field’s history and development and examines both historical and current theories and models of human psychology. Course content also looks at personality, memory, learning and development, abnormal psychology, and other important concepts.
Statistical Analysis in the Social Sciences
Learn about the quantitative analysis methods social scientists use to interpret and extract insights from research-generated data. Course content may cover such topics as probability, distributions, dispersions, statistical noise and interference, linear regressions, and bivariate associations.
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
This survey course explores scientific approaches to understanding human cognition in areas such as attention, consciousness, creativity, decision-making, memory, and problem-solving. Similar courses can also be taken in other specialized psychology subfields, including abnormal psychology, health psychology, and social psychology.
Research Methods in Psychology
Typically required in undergraduate psychology programs, this course explores the fundamentals of study design and the methods researchers use to form and test hypotheses, collect data, and interpret study outcomes. It also teaches students how to interpret external sources and academic literature.
Human Development Across the Lifespan
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of developmental psychology. It examines the interplay between biological, cultural, social, and psychological determinants and their impacts on human development. Content may emphasize particularly influential periods in a person’s life, such as birth and early childhood through adolescence.
Graduate Courses
At the graduate level, online psychology courses become more advanced and focused on specific niches. You can also build highly specialized analytical insights with precise academic, research, and professional applications.
Here’s a look at some of the courses commonly offered in online graduate programs.
Program Measurement and Evaluation Methods
Mental healthcare providers and social service agencies routinely offer structured programs to their clients. This course looks at analytical methods for measuring program impacts and evaluating their effectiveness. Topics covered include statistical theory and methods, assessments, psychometrics, and experiment design. The course equips students with tools for improving client outcomes.
Intervention Science for Psychology Professionals
Psychologists, counselors, therapists, and other frontline psychology professionals often use interventions as a starting point with clients. This course explores the frameworks used in effective intervention programs, with a special emphasis on removing systemic, personal, and cultural barriers to mental healthcare.
Psychotherapy and Counseling Theories and Methods
Designed for emerging practitioners, this course explores techniques for conducting individual and group therapy sessions. It examines relationships between care providers and clients and looks at specific ways of applying counseling theory to advance therapeutic goals. The course may also cover cross-cultural applications of therapy and counseling methods.
Ethical and Cultural Issues in Psychology
Build cross-cultural sensitivities and learn how to provide responsive care to diverse communities. This course also introduces students to professional practice standards and explains how to navigate culturally and ethically complex situations and client relationships.
Advanced Neuroscience
This course looks at scientific reasoning from a neuroscience perspective and includes detailed examinations of brain chemistry, structures, and functions. You can find similar courses that focus on other psychology subfields, such as child and adolescent psychology, cognitive psychology, and developmental psychology.
Which Psychology Courses Are Not Online?
Institutions offer many core and elective courses from their psychology programs in online formats. However, online learning lends itself best to the academic aspects of psychology. The field also involves experiential learning, especially at the graduate level. Many schools require students to complete these requirements face to face.
Examples include courses that involve:
- Laboratory components
- Field research
- Internships or practicums
- Supervised clinical training
These requirements are essential if you plan to become a licensed psychologist, as you’ll need to complete thousands of hours of supervised experiential training. For this reason, the American Psychological Association does not currently accredit any fully online doctoral programs in psychology.
Where Can I Find Free Online Psychology Courses?
Many educational institutions — including some of the country’s most prestigious colleges — offer online psychology courses you can take for free. Some of these free course offerings include:
- Carnegie Mellon University’s Open Learning Initiative
- The Open University, which offers free online courses in psychology and many other subject areas
- Open Yale Courses, a project of Yale University
- Introduction to Psychology through the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s OpenCourseWare program
- Stanford University Online’s Free Online Courses in psychology and many other subjects
Many other educational institutions offer free online psychology courses as massive open online courses (MOOCs). MOOCs have become popular with learners seeking to explore subjects and learn new skills without major time or financial commitments. They’re readily available through dozens of providers — search and see!
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