<p>hey all! i'm interested in doing a psychology undergrad in US or Canada. I'm spefically interested in cognitive psychology, but not really into the computer science and artificial intelligence stuff. I'd really like to go somewhere with good research opportunities. Also, what is the difference between cognitive psychology and cognitive sciences? And, about APA accreditation, does it really matter b/c I'm not interested in clinical psychology? Should I do psychology as a general major and then specialize? Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>CS/AI isn’t something you really deal with unless you want to.
A lot of schools have good psych programs.
The difference can be major or very slight, depending on how the particular school wants to use it. As a general rule C Psych is more theoretical and C Science is more practical in regards to the physical brain. Many schools only offer one of them.
I’m not sure what you mean by APA accreditation in regards to an undergrad program, but you have to learn APA. Most of the time you have to declare a general psych major and then can (but don’t always have to) emphasize.</p>
<p>APA accreditation is only for doctoral programs. Unless you want to do cognitive research as a career, you could probably go either way. You can take a general psychology major and may find something else you like or just focus on cognitive psychology.</p>
<p>VSG is right. APA accreditation only matters for doctoral programs and primarily matters in the Clinical (and related) area. If you’re interested in cognitive psych programs, you’ll likely be best prepared with a psych major and a second major (or minor) in biology or neuroscience, since much of cognitive psychology is heavily focused on the psychology side of the functions of the brain.
FYI…undergraduate programs generally aren’t “specialized” because most graduate programs want you to specialize while in their program, so they require a broad base in Psychology first (hence, in most doctoral programs, the first year or two is actually masters-level coursework on various subfields in psychology)</p>