American Sign Language and Psychology, BS

American Sign Language (ASL) is estimated to be the third most used language in the United States and its visibility in society is on the rise in recent years. There are roughly 500,000 to 2,000,000 Deaf, DeafBlind, or hard of hearing people in the United States who use ASL as their primary language, and a large number of non-Deaf signers use or learn ASL as a second language. A disproportionate percentage of Deaf people experience socioeconomic disadvantage due to their dual status as members of both a cultural linguistic minority group and a disability group. As a result, there is a broad societal misunderstanding of Deaf, signing people’s minority language and culture—their lived experience—which creates barriers to educational and economic opportunity. While state and federal legislation enables improved civic engagement by Deaf, hard of hearing, and DeafBlind individuals, there is continued need to elevate quality of life, equity, and the rich contributions of the diverse members of the American Deaf communities.

The program offers a wide array of courses as well as volunteer, co-op, and research opportunities to learn from Deaf people's lived experiences through community and industry connections.  

This combined major educates students in cognitive psychology, psycholinguistics, and the structures of human languages in general and ASL in particular. The curriculum is designed to assist students in acquiring competence in ASL, develop an understanding of the diverse American Deaf communities and Deaf culture, better understand cognitive efforts of interpreters' language transfer, as well as gain insights into various features of spoken language and experience firsthand the principles underlying the spatial organization of discourse required by signed languages. This knowledge and the psychology background from the major provide a foundation for more advanced studies of ASL and interpreting or psychology and Deaf people.

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• Concentrations and course offerings may vary by campus and/or by program modality.  Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for the course availability each term at your campus or within your program modality. 
• Certain options within the program may be required at certain campuses or for certain program modalities.  Please consult with your advisor or admissions coach for requirements at your campus or for your program modality. 

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Complete all courses listed below unless otherwise indicated. Also complete any corequisite labs, recitations, clinicals, or tools courses where specified and complete any additional courses needed beyond specific college and major requirements to satisfy graduation credit requirements.

Universitywide Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the Universitywide Requirements.

NUpath Requirements

All undergraduate students are required to complete the NUpath Requirements.

American Sign Language Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
American Sign Language
AMSL 1101	Elementary ASL 1	4
AMSL 1102	Elementary ASL 2	4
AMSL 2101	Intermediate ASL 1	4
AMSL 2102	Intermediate ASL 2	4
AMSL 3101	Advanced ASL 1	4
Social and Cultural World
DEAF 1500	Deaf People in Society	4
DEAF 2500	Deaf History and Culture	4
Linguistics
LING 1150	Introduction to Language and Linguistics	4
DEAF 2700	ASL Linguistics	4
Interpreting
INTP 3500	The Interpreting Profession	2
INTP 3510	Interpreting Inquiry Texts	4
INTP 3970	Research Methods for Interpreting and Translation (Research Methods for Interpreting and Translation)	4

Psychology Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Psychology
PSYC 1101	Foundations of Psychology	4
PSYC 2320	Statistics in Psychological Research	4
PSYC 3466	Cognition	4
Psychology Lab or Directed Study
Complete one of the following:		4
PSYC 4600	Laboratory in Research Design
PSYC 4606	Laboratory in Biological Psychology
PSYC 4610	Laboratory in Psycholinguistics
PSYC 4612	Laboratory in Cognition
PSYC 4614	Laboratory in Social Psychology
PSYC 4616	Laboratory in Personality
PSYC 4622	Laboratory in Sensation and Perception
PSYC 4624	Laboratory in Affective Science
PSYC 4626	Laboratory in Life-Span Emotional Development
PSYC 4628	Laboratory in Developmental Psychology
PSYC 4991	Directed Study Research
Personal/Social Bases of Behavior (Area A)
Complete two of the following:		8
PSYC 3400	Personality
PSYC 3402	Social Psychology
PSYC 3404	Developmental Psychology
PSYC 3406	Clinical Psychology and Mental Health
Biological/Cognitive Bases of Behavior (Area B)
Complete one of the following:		4
PSYC 3450	Learning and Motivation
PSYC 3451	Learning Principles and Behavior Analysis
PSYC 3452	Sensation and Perception
PSYC 3458	Biological Psychology
Language/Cognition Elective
Complete one of the following:		4
PSYC 4520
PSYC 4522	Psychology of Reading
PSYC 4524	Cognitive Development
PSYC 4658	Seminar in Psycholinguistics
PSYC 4660	Seminar in Cognition
PSYC 4674	Seminar in Cognitive Neuroscience

Integrative Requirements

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
INTP 4940	Interpreting Research Capstone	4
PSYC 3464	Psychology of Language	4

Combined Major GPA Requirement

Minimum 2.750 GPA required in all AMSL, INTP,  and DEAF courses
Minimum 2.500 overall GPA required

Combined Major Credit Requirement

Complete 82 semester hours in the major.

Experiential Liberal Arts

All students in this College of Social Sciences and Humanities program are required to complete the Experiential Liberal Arts Requirement.

Program Requirement

128 total semester hours required

Four Years, No Co-op

Year 1
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
AMSL 1101	4	AMSL 1102	4	Vacation	0	Vacation	0
DEAF 1500	4	LING 1150	4
PSYC 1101	4	MATH 1215	4
ENGW 1111	4	Elective	4
	16		16		0		0
Year 2
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
AMSL 2101	4	AMSL 2102	4	Vacation	0	Vacation	0
DEAF 2500	4	PSYC 2320	4
PSYC 3464	4	PSYC 3466	4
INTP 3500	2	Elective	4
Elective	1-4
	15-18		16		0		0
Year 3
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours	Summer 1	Hours	Summer 2	Hours
AMSL 3101	4	DEAF 2700	4	Vacation	0	Vacation	0
Psych Area A elective	4	Psych Area B elective	4
ENGW 3315	4	Language/cognition elective	4
INTP 3510	4	AMSL 3102	4
	16		16		0		0
Year 4
Fall	Hours	Spring	Hours
INTP 3970	4	INTP 4940	4
Elective	4	Psych lab elective	4
Elective	4	Psych Area A elective	4
Elective	4	Elective	4
	16		16
Total Hours: 127-130