Welcome to the division of Social, Behavioral and Human Sciences (SBHS) at the University of Washington Tacoma. We offer two interdisciplinary majors, Psychology and Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, as well as several minors. Our curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers in human services, community service, and human resources. We also provide students who plan to work as professional psychologists with the necessary tools to succeed in graduate school.
About SBHS
Our majors include Psychology and Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences with an individually-designed option.
Study psychology--the study of what determines behavior--with us. Our curriculum is designed to prepare students for careers in human services, community service, human resources and for graduate school--for students who plan to work as professional psychologists.
We value interdisciplinarity--being able to combine and use skills and knowledge across disciplines.
Mission
SBHS’ teaching, scholarship, and action facilitate inclusive and socially-engaged learning communities that promote health, well-being, and a more just world.
Vision
SBHS seeks to create communities in which all are inspired and able to use innovative and interdisciplinary theory, research, and practice to improve the human experience and promote a just world.
Values
Purpose:
The faculty of the Division of Social, Behavioral, and Human Sciences developed this statement to articulate our shared values in order to improve collegiality and sense of belongingness and to serve as a guide for strategic planning and hiring decisions.
In developing this statement, the faculty set out to ensure that it was inclusive of our individual and shared perspectives. Our guiding principle in its development was to ensure that each faculty member could review these values and conclude that “not every piece is me, but all of me is here.” This is a working document that we will continue to develop in order to ensure that each faculty member’s values are represented.
Hyoung Suk Lee, Ph.D.
SBHS Division Chair
Associate Professor
- We value EXPERIENCE and INTELLECTUAL EXPERTISE that represents the following:
- Varied epistemologies. We believe that personal and professional development is maximized through embracing the multiple ways in which knowledge is generated and shared. Our pursuits in scholarship and pedagogy reflect these diverse epistemologies including evidence-based (e.g., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods), interpretive (e.g., existential, hermeneutics), and expressive (e.g., play, creative arts) methodologies. Thus, as a Division, we desire to maximize the breadth of experience and expertise represented in our faculty rather than focusing on depth within any specific content area in regards to sub-disciplines of psychology or particular epistemological approaches.
- The whole person: We believe that divisional efforts should promote the development and appreciation of the whole person. We embrace a person-centered focus to our curriculum that appreciates both process and content learning. Through process learning, our curriculum promotes the development of critical and synthetic thinkers and life-long learners who can critically and intuitively evaluate the role of their experiences on who they are and how they see the world. In addition, our appreciation of content learning promotes the development of skills and knowledge that are commensurate with undergraduate psychology programs and informed by the expectations set forth in the American Psychological Association guidelines.
- We value a COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY that:
- Supports our students in the classroom: We value the diversity of experiences represented among our students. We believe in implementing innovative and inclusive pedagogies and curriculum, designed to maximize the success of our students and to be responsive to their diverse needs.
- Facilitates cultural competence and humility: We value the promotion of diversity not only among our students but also among our faculty, staff, and the broader UWT community. We value our varied cultural and personal beliefs and are committed to learning with and about people of all cultures, races, ethnicities, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, ages, abilities, socio-economic statuses, and religious and spiritual beliefs. In doing so, we create and foster an inclusive environment and learning community in which we can collectively pursue our divisional and institutional goals.
- Promotes and sustains an inclusive climate: We believe that diversity in experiences and perspectives are integral to promoting a thorough understanding of the human experience. To support our community, we actively pursue and seek to retain diversity among our faculty, students, and staff.
- We value COMMUNITY and focus on the following to support our community within and outside of SBHS:
- Social justice: We believe our division has the responsibility and privilege to improve the lives of our students, faculty, university, and non-academic communities. Thus, we value use-inspired research and faculty whose work impacts social change.
- Culture of research: We value our scholarship across varied epistemologies as a means for benefiting the development of the whole person and addressing social justice issues. As such we are dedicated to promoting a culture within our Division, School, University, and non-academic communities that embrace the production and dissemination of scholarship and support all faculty and students in this pursuit.
- Collegiality and cohesion: We value that our faculty, students, and staff are the greatest asset to our division. Therefore, we believe in developing systems and processes that support each other in our academic and professional endeavors.
- Promotion of health and well-being: We value the promotion of health and well-being individually, inter-individually, and in our communities and society. We also value using diverse approaches to promote health and well-being, including but not limited to scholarship, research, pedagogy, clinical practice, and community-engaged work.
