Courses
Search for courses listed in this bulletin. To find a semester course schedule (including instructors, meeting times and locations), go to mynmu.nmu.edu.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: Admission to the MPA program or consent of instructor
Study of the practice, theory and application of the legal aspects of public personnel. Topics covered will include Title VII, Americans with Disabilities Act, Affirmative Action, sexual harassment, age discrimination, gender gap, Family Medical Leave Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: Admission to the MPA program or consent of instructor
Study of the practice, theory and application of administrative law and governmental regulation. Topics covered will include growth of the administrative system, democratic accountability of the administrative process, rule making, order making, administrative discretion, judicial review, suing the government and balancing societal and individual rights.
This course provides an in-depth investigation of scholarship related to the development of public administration as an academic discipline. The course is designed to provide a foundation for understanding practical and theoretical concepts related to public administration in the United States.
- Graded: A/F
The political and administrative dimensions of community development. Students probe the administrative aspects of managing a planning process while considering the political realities of implementation.
- Graded: A/F
An introduction to the American health-care system. Familiarizes students with the actors, processes, language and institutional relationships of this system. Public, private, and voluntary health-care agencies at the state, local and national level are analyzed.
- Graded: A/F
The political, economic and social forces influencing the contemporary administration of the health care system in the United States. How health care policies are developed, analyzed, adopted, implemented and evaluated. Emphasis is on how national policies and politics impact local and state health-care issues. Coverage includes how health policy outcomes are affected by political ideology and leadership, governmental processes, bureaucracies, interest groups and the public through the use of relevant contemporary case studies.
- Graded: A/F
Contemporary program evaluation and assessment theory and methods. Evaluation and assessments are presented as continuous improvement exercises involving program staff and/or outside reviewers, funders, clients and the general public. Students are trained in setting goals, tracking performance, making midcourse corrections and analyzing program impact.
- Graded: S/U
- Prerequisites: PS 507 and approval of the department head and the MPA program director
Designed principally for graduate students in the graduate program in administrative services who wish to pursue an internship with a governmental unit or agency engaged in public service.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: Students must complete a minimum of 30 semester hours, including PA 500, prior to enrolling in this seminar.
This seminar serves as a capstone experience. Candidates complete a graduate research project report.
- Graded: A/F
Individual or group study of a significant topic or problem in political science. The requirement of this course may be met by completing a course not ordinarily offered, or through participation in seminars, colloquial workshops, study abroad or directed readings.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: Approval of the department head, the MPA program director and the instructor who will direct the study
Individual research on a significant topic or problem in political science. This course is designed for students who are writing a master’s thesis in political science or for those students who wish to pursue an applied study project option in the graduate program in administrative services.
- Graded: S/U
- Prerequisites: PA 500
The student develops a thesis with the help of a three member thesis committee (chair and two readers). The student will submit a three- to five-page research proposal which must be approved before registering for credit. Appropriate thesis forms must be completed prior to enrollment. The thesis must be approved by the thesis committee and the Office of Graduate Education. The student should consult with the department and the Office of Graduate Education for specific requirements.
- Prerequisites: Department consent
- Offered: Fall
This course will provide an in-depth exploration of the theoretical, methodological, and applied aspects of environmental and nonprofit campaign design. Students will put those understandings into practice with the creation of a campaign related to communicating an ecological or social issue, e.g., water quality, local climate change impacts, etc. Additionally, students will learn how to translate complex scientific information for diverse, public Audiences.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY 101
Examination of the philosophical and historical roots of psychology culminating in an analysis of major theoretical perspectives leading to modern scientific psychology.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: PSY100 or PSY101; PSY201 and PSY202; PSY 220 recommended.
A focus on empirically researched areas of organizational behavior including performance management, leader behavior, organizational environments, feedback, etc., and on implementing programmatic changes through the use of researched psychological techniques. Field and laboratory investigations included when appropriate.
- Offered: Contact Deptartment
- Graded: A/F
A combination of theoretical and practical applications of positive psychology. This course includes a focus on the background and history of positive psychology, and includes research, experience, and application of positive psychology.
- Offered: Fall
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY 101; PSY 250 or PSY 251; PSY 201 and PSY 202 recommended.
Seminars on relevant topics, selected by students, including independent laboratory experience involving psychophysiological research in bio-behavioral or sensory processes of humans or other animals. Includes a focus on neuroscience techniques.
- Offered: Contact department
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY101; and PSY201, PSY 202, and PSY 230; and PSY 250 or PSY 251.
Scientific exploration of sensory and perceptual phenomena with emphasis on relevant psychological laws, neurological mechanisms, the relationship between brain function and mental experience, and the practical implications of each. Laboratory investigation of methods and phenomena.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY 101; PSY 201 and PSY 202; PSY 250 or PSY 251, or instructor permission.
This course explores how emotions interact with cognition and other mental processes to motivate behavior. The underlying brain basis of emotional behaviors and emotional states are explored in this course.
- Graded: A/F
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY 101; PSY 201 and PSY 202; PSY 250 or PSY 251, or instructor permission.
This course provides advanced coverage of psychoactive drugs used for recreational or therapeutic purposes. The major topics covered include basic pharmacology, psychoactive drug effects on nervous system functioning and behavior, recreational drugs, and pharmacotherapeutic drugs.
- Offered: Winter
- Prerequisites: PSY 100 or PSY 101, or instructor permission.
Study of psychological applications in the field of sports and coaching. Topics include behavioral coaching of motor skills, competition anxiety analysis and management, mental rehearsal techniques and aggression control.
Content addresses the beginnings of modern psychology from the late 19th century founding of the American Psychological Association (1892) through the 20th-century developments of physiological, learning theory, cognitive, Gestalt, humanistic, behavioral, social, psychoanalytic, and the various applied psychologies of the 21st century. Students will also learn about the structure of the American Psychological Association and its role in both the academic and professional components of the discipline.
- Prerequisites: PY 204 or BI 201, BI 202 or consent of instructor
- Prerequisites: Graduate level standing
Survey of designing qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research in the behavioral sciences. The course will emphasize database searching and thesis preparation.