2024-2025 Academic Catalog
Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
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Course Offerings: Criminal Justice, Psychology, Sociology, Business Psychology, Social Justice
Major Offerings: Criminal Justice, Psychology, Sociology
Faculty
RICHARD HANSON, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology; Chair, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences
NATALIE E. EICK, Psy.D., Assistant Professor of Psychology
TODD C. HIESTAND, J.D., Tenured Professor of Criminal Justice
ALAN B. YOUNG, Ph.D., Professor of Sociology
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SENIOR COMPREHENSIVE
A comprehensive examination is required to be passed by all senior behavioral science majors before graduation. The comprehensive examination is meant to assess the student’s mastery of basic content areas of the curriculum.
The examination is administered by the Department each Fall and Spring semester for psychology, sociology, and criminal justice majors and in January for business psychology majors. Further details regarding the senior comprehensive are available from the Social and Behavioral Sciences Department Chair. There is a $32.50 fee for this exam.
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The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at MidAmerica Nazarene University strives to train and equip students to face the challenging world of behavioral health, psychology, counseling, sociology, and criminal justice. Our diverse programs and experienced faculty provide numerous opportunities for students to actively engage these disciplines. Specific emphasis on the acquisition of essential knowledge and the development of required skills and dispositions is essential to our core mission.
Our undergraduate programs seek to train students for direct entry into the job market and to successfully compete for further study in graduate programs. Our major areas of study include: Psychology, Sociology, and Criminal Justice. As our world shifts due to more technological connection, exposure to diverse people groups, and increased pace of change we emphasize the core attributes of:
- Strong critical thinking skills
- Excellence in writing and verbal communication
- Empathic engagement with human need and suffering
- Flexible knowledge base
- Engaged Christian worldview
Statement of Purpose:
The Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences educates and develops students to be competent in academic disciplines focused on understanding human behavior, mental processes, social functioning and the institutional structures of society. Specifically, we seek to produce life- long learners who:
- Have a firm grasp of the knowledge base, methods of inquiry, and scientific developments within particular academic disciplines (major).
- Are competent to pursue a career and/or graduate studies within a broad range of cultural and institutional contexts.
- Are capable of discussing their discipline from a Christian faith perspective; able to clearly articulate relevant points of engagement between their faith and learning.
- Grasp a clear vision of service to humanity through participation in their academic discipline.
- Embrace the multicultural and multiethnic diversity of our nation and world specifically as it impacts learning and practice in their chosen field of study.
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