Financial Psychology Ad-Hoc Major

What is an ad-hoc major?

The Weissman Arts and Sciences ad-hoc major is appropriate for students who find that the conventional majors at Baruch do not quite match their educational goals. Specifically, students create this major by combining courses from two or more departments into an integrated field of study with a clear liberal arts focus. Note, there is no ad-hoc major within the Zicklin School of Business or the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs.

What is financial psychology?

Worries about money and the economy are major sources of stress for many people, as highlighted in the American Psychological Association’s Stress in America surveys. Concerns about money can influence many areas of life, including but not limited to, career and professional development, workplace performance, and relationship dynamics. Financial psychology examines these issues by exploring how emotions, cognitive biases, and personal history shape financial behaviors, helping to explain why people make certain money decisions and highlighting the deeply human side of money.

The Financial Psychology Ad-Hoc Major will allow students to:

Develop foundational understanding of the psychological, behavioral, and economic factors influencing financial decision-making.
Understand the role of financial psychology and behavioral economics in promoting equitable and sustainable personal finance behaviors.
Analyze how behavioral biases and heuristics influence individual and group financial behaviors.
Critically evaluate financial and economic models, incorporating insights from behavioral and financial psychology to identify limitations and propose improvements.

Potential Careers Paths

For Zicklin Majors

Financial psychology is becoming an increasingly popular and crucial practice in the financial services industry (e.g., financial planning, financial advising). Recent research in financial planning has noted that “advisors spend approximately 25% of their time dealing with non-financial issues, and perhaps more shockingly, 74.4% of advisors have had a client cry, sob, tremble, or become violent”. Given this dynamic, the financial services industry now recognizes the need to consider clients’ financial attitudes and beliefs when developing strategies and providing advice. In fact, financial psychology/the psychology of financial planning is now a required component of the Certified Financial Planner (CFP) Certification.

Pursue the Financial Psychology Ad-Hoc Major via the Weissman Optional Focus.

Recommended Course Sequence:

Pre-Requisites

PSY 1001 (General Psychology)
FIN 2000 (Financial Planning)
PSY 2100 or STA 2100 (Statistics for Social Science)
MTH 2003 (Pre-Calculus)
ECO 1001 (Micro-Economics)
ECO 3100 (Intermediate Micro-Economics)

Required Psychology Courses (10 credits)

PSY 3001 (Research Methods in Psychology)
PSY 3151 (Financial Psychology)
PSY 3181 (Industrial-Organizational Psychology)

Required Economics Courses (9 credits) – Choose three of the following courses:

ECO 3140 (Game Theory)
ECO 3220 (Money, Banking, and Monetary Policy) – requires ECO 1002
ECO 4007 (Market Design)
ECO 4120 (Behavioral Economics)

Psychology Foundation Courses (9 credits) – Choose three of the following courses:

PSY 3055 (Psychopathology)
PSY 3056 (Social Psychology)
PSY 3059 (Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence) or PSY 3060 (Developmental Psychology: Adult)
PSY 3064 (Personality & Individual Differences)
PSY 3067 (Psychology of Motivation & Learning)
PSY 3081 (Cognitive Psychology)
PSY 3082 (Mind, Brain, & Behavior)

3000-Level Psychology Elective Course (3 credits) – Choose one of the following courses (or another Foundations Course from the list above NOT used to meet the Foundations requirement):

PSY 3063 (Health Psychology)
PSY 3077 (Positive Psychology)

4000-Level Psychology Elective Course (3 credits) – Choose one of the following courses:

PSY 4051 (Psychology of the Family)
PSY 4182 (Occupational Health Psychology)
PSY 4084 (Drugs, Brain and Society)