Psychology, BA

Program Information

The Bachelor of Arts in Psychology provides a rigorous foundation in psychological science and applied professional practice, preparing students for graduate study and careers in counseling, organizational psychology, human resources, and related fields. The program integrates core theoretical and empirical knowledge in psychology with the practical and ethical demands of contemporary professional life, while affording the breadth of general education and elective study characteristic of a comprehensive four-year degree.

The program is organized around the unifying framework of the School of Psychology at Golden Gate University - Human Systems in the Age of AI - which asks how human psychological capacities function, adapt, and sometimes fail inside complex, technology-mediated environments. This framework connects psychological knowledge to professional contexts across clinical, organizational, business, legal, and public settings, and positions psychology not as an isolated helping profession but as a discipline essential to understanding how people think, decide, relate, and lead within the evolving structures of modern institutional life.

Consistent with this framework, AI is integrated into instruction as a scaffold for learning rather than a substitute for it. Students develop the capacity to use AI critically and ethically - prompting well, evaluating outputs, and remaining aware of how working alongside intelligent systems shapes thought, judgment, and professional practice.

All students complete a common foundation in psychological science and have the option to select one of two graduate pathway tracks: the Industrial-Organizational Psychology Pathway, preparing students for advanced study and careers in organizational consulting, talent management, leadership development, and human-centered technology strategy; or the Counseling Psychology Pathway, preparing students for graduate study and careers as licensed psychotherapists in clinical, community, and integrated care settings. Each pathway includes four designated graduate-level courses that apply toward the corresponding master’s degree upon enrollment, providing students with a direct and efficient route from undergraduate to graduate study within the School of Psychology. Alternatively, students may complete additional courses related to their field of study.

Student Learning Outcomes

Institutional / GE Learning Outcomes

Written Communication: Write clearly and coherently for professional audiences, including contexts that involve AI-mediated drafting and collaboration.
Oral Communication: Speak clearly and deliver clear, organized presentations appropriate to audience and context.
Quantitative Reasoning: Interpret quantitative information, evaluate statistical claims, and use computational tools to analyze problems.
Critical Thinking: Analyze arguments, weigh evidence, and evaluate claims - including those produced by AI systems - with appropriate critical awareness and rigor.
Information & AI Literacy: Locate, evaluate, and ethically use information from human and AI sources to support inquiry and decision-making.
Ethical Reasoning: Identify ethical dimensions of professional and personal dilemmas and decisions, including those raised by emerging technologies, and apply principled frameworks to navigate and address them.
Human & Social Understanding: Apply psychological, social, and economic perspectives to analyze and interpret behaviors, ways of thinking and systems.

Disciplinary Learning Outcomes

Disciplinary Knowledge in Psychology: Apply foundational concepts, principles, and theoretical frameworks across psychology’s core content domains-biological, cognitive, developmental, social, clinical, and industrial-organizational-to analyze human behavior and mental processes.
Psychological Science and Research Methods: Design, conduct, and evaluate empirical psychological research, using experimental, correlational, and qualitative methods together with statistical analysis of behavioral data.
Ethics and Diversity in Psychological Practice: Apply the APA Ethics Code and culturally responsive practices when conducting research, assessment, and intervention with diverse individuals, groups, and communities.
Disciplinary Communication: Communicate psychological evidence and arguments using APA conventions, and translate technical and clinical concepts for academic, professional, and lay audiences.
Professional Development in Psychology: Demonstrate self-regulation, collaboration, and reflective practice consistent with professional standards in psychology and preparation for graduate study or applied careers.
Integration in Human Systems: Integrate psychological knowledge with humanistic, ethical, and interdisciplinary perspectives to address contemporary challenges in human systems, including those reshaped by artificial intelligence and emerging technologies.

Requirements for the Bachelor of Arts in Psychology

The degree requires completion of 120 units as follows:

General Education - 30 units
Major: Directed Electives - 30 units
Major: Free Electives - 27 units
Core Course: Capstone - 3 units
Free Electives - 30 units

Each course listed carries three semester units of credit, unless otherwise noted. A cumulative grade-point average of 2.00 “C” or higher is required in all courses taken at Golden Gate University.

General Education - 30 units

Core Courses - 9 units

Students must complete the following courses:

COMM 1 Professional Writing and AI 3 unit(s)
CS 1 AI Applications in the Workplace 3 unit(s)
MATH 1 Quantitative Reasoning with AI 3 unit(s)

Competencies and Ethics: Directed Electives - 15 units

Select 15 units from the following:

COMM 40 Understanding Communication 3 unit(s)
CRTH 10 Critical Thinking 3 unit(s)
ENGL 60 Research Writing 3 unit(s)
MATH 40 Statistics 3 unit(s)
PHIL 50 Professional and Personal Ethics 3 unit(s)

General Studies: Free Electives - 6 units

Select 6 units from the following:

ACCTG 1A Introductory Financial Accounting 3 unit(s)
ECON 1 Principles of Microeconomics 3 unit(s)
FP 320 Introduction to Personal Financial Planning 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 10 Introduction to Psychology 3 unit(s)
SOSC 60 Introduction to Sociology 3 unit(s)
A course used to fulfill a General Education requirement may also be used to fulfill other degree requirements.

Major: Directed Electives - 30 units

Select 30 units from the following:

OLHS 115 Diversity and Inclusion in Organizations 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 10 Introduction to Psychology 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 102 Lifespan Development: Theories and Applications 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 108 Research Design and Experimental Methods 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 113 Psychology and Technology 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 115 Introduction to Biopsychology 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 120 Principles and Methods of Counseling 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 121 Abnormal Psychology 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 125 Psychology of Death, Dying, and Bereavement 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 143 Psychology of Leadership 3 unit(s)

Major: Free Electives - 27 units

Students choose one of two Tracks below or they may take any 27 units of undergraduate coursework, including transfer credit, or approved graduate coursework related to their program of study to fulfill this requirement.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Track

Designated Graduate-Level Courses - 12 units:

PSYCH 308 Applied Psychological Research 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 345 Organizational Diagnosis and Development 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 355 Diversity in Organizations 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 356 Conflict Resolution: Ethics, Theory and Practice 3 unit(s)

An additional 15 units must be chosen from undergraduate coursework, including transfer credit, or approved graduate coursework, including the other program track, related to the field of Psychology.

Note: Students who complete all four designated graduate-level courses with grades of “B” or better and apply to the MA in Industrial-Organizational Psychology within two years of BA conferral are eligible for guaranteed admission and their remaining MA coursework will be reduced from 30 to 18 units.

Counseling Psychology Track

Designated Graduate-Level Courses - 12 units:

PSYCH 302 Lifespan Development: Theories and Applications for Therapists 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 304 Cross-Cultural Aspects of Psychology 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 308 Applied Psychological Research 3 unit(s)
PSYCH 320 Therapeutic Communication and Counseling Skills 3 unit(s)

An additional 15 units must be chosen from undergraduate coursework, including transfer credit, or approved graduate coursework, including the other program track, related to the field of Psychology.

Note: Students who complete all four designated graduate-level courses with grades of “B” or better and apply to the MA in Counseling Psychology within two years of BA conferral are eligible for guaranteed admission and their remaining MA coursework will be reduced from 60 to 48 units.

General

Students must take any 27 units of undergraduate coursework, including transfer credit, or approved graduate coursework related to their program of study to fulfill this requirement.

Graduate Pathway to Financial Planning Certificate

Students who complete the following seven courses will satisfy the requirements for the Graduate Financial Planning Certificate:

FP 320 Introduction to Personal Financial Planning 3 unit(s)
FP 321 Risk Management and Insurance Planning 3 unit(s)
FP 322 Personal Income Tax Planning 3 unit(s)
FP 323 Personal Investment Management 3 unit(s)
FP 324 Retirement and Employee Benefits Planning 3 unit(s)
FP 325 Personal Estate Planning 3 unit(s)
FP 326 Personal Financial Planning Cases 3 unit(s)

Core Course: Capstone - 3 units

PSYCH 190 Strands of a System: Psychology Capstone 3 unit(s)

Free Electives - 30 units

Students may take any 30 units of undergraduate coursework, including transfer credit, or approved graduate coursework to fulfill this requirement.

Declaring Minors

Students may declare up to two minors for their bachelor’s degree programs. Students seeking to declare more than two minors will be required to appeal to the dean for approval.

Students will not be permitted to declare minors at the point of application but may do so following admission or prior to degree conferral. Students should make their minor declarations through their assigned academic advisors by submission of the Declaration of Minor form.

Students’ diplomas will list the minors that they had successfully completed at the time their degrees were conferred. Students may not declare additional minors after their degrees have been conferred.

Bachelor’s degree-seeking students may declare the minors shown below. Note: students may not declare minors that are the same as their majors.