Psychology as a discipline made a new beginning in India in the first decade. It was during the British era through education much emphasis was given, however the roots of psychology has been in the roots back in the philosophical and religious literature. Psychology was an important part of his voluminous writings. With all these influences and the basic emphasis on education: Psychology as a subject gained a lot of momentum (Mishra and Paranjape,2012).
Psychology as a disciplined has existed in christ university since the college started ib 1969. The christ college was affliated to bangalore university, The purpose of starting the college for the purpose of giving a secular education for the students of dharmaram college. The students was allowed to study both spiritual and secular education. Since there is a strong need to study psychology for dharmaram students was to handle with the people in their congregation.
The Psychology department was the smallest department in Christ College when it was started. The student's strength was about fifteen students and one teacher. The B.A. course was offered with two combinations widely known as PSENG (Psychology, Sociology and English) and PSECO (Psychology, sociology and economics). Till 1990 there were only male students. After 1990 there was change in trend in the society and there was acceptance in the society. In 1998 there was two more new combination started. FEP (functional English, English and psychology) and JPENG (Journalism, psychology and English). The significance behind these programmes was to extend the application of psychology. When these two courses were started it became a competition between these two sets of combination. This in turn led to lots of initiative and events in the department of psychology.
In 1998 practical lab was started in main block (now called as block 1). The department started having a lot of activities and competitions. This is where silhouette was born. The department had adopted a student centric approach. Teachers supervised activities enable the students to learn better, and brought the unity in class. Later in 2008 the department was unified as one department. Till that point of time teachers had a option to work in the undergraduate or postgraduate department. Teachers supervised the activities to enable an experiential learning process and also to inculcate the spirit of unity in the class. The activities of the department are usually conducted by the elected members (final year UG & later on even PG) of psychology association in collaboration with faculty members. The texts were the Munn and Morris book on psychology were used. From the beginning in abnormal psychology DSM was used in teaching students.
In 2004 was an important year in the history of Christ College as it was given an autonomous status by the UGC. Hence the department had a freedom to change the syllabus. All this while the department was referring to the university syllabus and had limitation in trying out new disciplines of psychology. In 2005 a master programme in clinical psychology was started. In that time it was new in the locality. The necessity in starting the programme was based on the growing demands in the field of psychology and the autonomous status gave the liberty to start this programme. At that time there was division in the department. It was called as the post graduate studies in psychology.
In 2007, there was a master programme in counseling psychology was started. The reason for starting this programme was based on the student needs. In 2007 department of psychology started to have its first nation al conference on women psychology and from that it has been a tradition to hold a conference every year. In 2008 it was big achievement and a mile stone for this institution took place. On July 22 Christ College was given deemed to be university status by the MHRD. This has helped the department of psychology to grow higher. Meanwhile the scope of psychology was growing in Bangalore and many students preferred to study psychology in Christ University. This point there was a revision in the syllabus of psychology courses. Courses on qualitative research, skill based training courses, supervised practicum/ research labs and many electives like addiction counseling, workplace counseling, disability and challenge were introduced at the PG level. The post graduate students were now given an option to choose the clinical track (internship) or research track (dissertation) as students felt they wanted to focus more on applied areas.
In 2010 there was a new combination in the UG programme was started. PEP (Performing arts, English and Psychology). In the same year the BA psychology Honours started. This programme offered papers such as biological foundations, cognitive psychology, abnormal psychology, industrial psychology, research methods, health psychology and statistics, among others along with electives. A new PG programme M.Sc. in Human resource development and management was also started in the same academic year. This was unique programme. This programme has professionalization seminars every week where experts from the field come and interact with students. They also conduct events such as HR conclave which aims at academic-industry interface. These changes were incorporated to reflect the demands of the industry.
The department evolved over a period of time and changes in the discipline and has made necessary changes in the pedagogy and syllabus. The expertise in the field was highlighted and more faculties were recruited. This department has grown to be one of the largest departments in India both students and faculties. This department has always been innovative and a trend setter for the various reasons. Service learning and cognitive labs are the new ideas drawn in for the understanding of the students.
The Vision of the Department of Psychology is to promote high academic standards and scholarship in psychology, by creating an optimal and enriching learning environment, fostering on going professional and personal development and contributing effectively to societal needs.
The Department runs a range of programmes that include Certificate courses, Undergraduate programmes, Post Graduate programmes with three specializations and Research degrees in psychology (M.Phil. and Ph.D.). Through these programmes we encourage students to consider careers and life missions that integrate psychological understanding to life. Our programmes integrate scholarship with professional practice and we offer courses that are cutting edge in the field of psychology. Students who complete programmes in Psychology from the University demonstrate high degrees of self awareness are service oriented and are encouraged to embrace humane values in their vocation.
The Department realizes its vision to promote high academic standards through a continuous and dynamic curriculum review process based on feedback from peers, professionals, potential employers and students. A variety of student-centered teaching and training pedagogies are practiced by the faculty members. Prominent among them are the use of seminars, experiential methodologies, laboratory training, conferences, workshops, field based studies, and film based discussions and interactions with field experts.
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