Information on Core Content Courses

Students often ask what courses can be used to fulfill the required CPA core content areas. The Director(s) must follow CPA guidelines, which state that core content areas must be addressed through broadly-based psychology courses. Here is the information from the CPA Accreditation Manual.

The six core content areas are:

  1. Biological bases of behaviour: Includes education in the theoretical and empirical foundations of physiological psychology, comparative psychology, and neuropsychology
     
  2. Cognitive-affective bases of behaviour: Includes education in the theoretical and empirical foundations of learning, sensation, perception, cognition, thinking, motivation, and emotion
     
  3. Social-cultural bases of behaviour: Includes education in the theoretical and empirical foundations of social psychology; cultural, ethnic, and group processes; gender roles; organizational and systems theory
     
  4. Individual differences, diversity, growth, and lifespan development: Includes education in the theoretical and empirical foundations of personality; human development; individual differences; individual, social, and cultural diversity; and abnormal psychology, and includes education in cognitive, affective, and behavioural changes and growth from conception to death
     
  5. Historical and scientific foundations of general psychology: Includes education in the the relevant historical bases of the study and profession of psychology, including the cultural origins and contexts of the discipline and profession (this content area can be fulfilled with a one-semester, senior undergraduate course)
     
  6. Foundations of psychopharmacology: Includes education in the biological basis of neuropsychopharmacology, classes of drugs, drug interactions and contraindications, medication compliance, and models of psychologist interaction with prescribing professionals (Required ONLY for students admitted in Fall 2026 or later)

Below is a list of some of the courses that can and cannot be used to meet the core content requirements. As mentioned above, these courses must be general in nature to fulfill the requirement for a core content area. As such, courses that are very focused on a specific area (e.g., assessment, intervention) generally will not count.

NOTE:
The clinical courses (i.e., those taught by a registered clinical psychologist) can count either toward the core content requirement or toward the supplementary clinical courses. By default, they count as a supplementary clinical course so please advise Amanda Sigsworth if you wish the course to count as a core content requirement.

Biological Bases of Behaviour

  • PSY 5103 – Fundamentals of Behavioural Neuroscience 
  • PSY 5125 – Principles of Neuropsychology
  • PSY 6151 – Drugs and Behaviour (for students admitted prior to Fall 2026)
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Hormones and Behaviour

These courses do NOT count:

  • PSY 6123 – Psychosocial Stress Research
  • PSY 6137 –Psychedelic Psychotherapies & Mental Health
  • PSY 6138 – Neuroscience of Psychedelics
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Educational Neuroscience
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Psychedelics: Survey of an Emerging Field
  • PSY 6991 – Seminars in Psychology: Sleep and Behaviour

Cognitive-Affective Bases of Behaviour

  • PSY 5105 – Fundamentals of Cognitive Psychology
  • PSY 6166 – Human and Social Motivation: Theory and Research 
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology : Consciousness
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Future-Oriented Thinking and Decision-Making: Cognitive, Developmental, and Clinical Implications 
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Human Memory: Cognitive, Neural, Developmental, and Social Perspectives

These courses do NOT count:

  • PSY 6114 - Cognitive Psychophysiology
  • PSY 7123 - Cognitive and Behaviour Therapy

Social-Cultural Bases of Behaviour

  • PSY 7108 – Multicultural Psychology

NOTE: For students starting the clinical program in September 2021 or later, this course must be used to fulfil the CPA core content area of Social-Cultural bases of behaviour. For students who entered the program before September 2021, this course can count as a supplementary clinical course as it is highly recommended that all students complete this course.

Individual differences, diversity, growth, and lifespan development

  • PSY 5114 – Fundamentals of Developmental Psychology 
  • PSY 6132 – Child Psychopathology
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology: Infant and Child Cognitive Development
  • PSY 6191 – Seminars in Psychology :The Child’s Social World
  • PSY 6191 –Seminars in Psychology: Moral Psychology and Moral Development

These courses do NOT count:

  • PSY 6176 – Psychological Assessment and Intervention with Older Adult Populations

Foundations of Psychopharmacology

  • PSY 6151 – Drugs and Behaviour 

These courses do NOT count:

  • PSY 6137 – Psychedelic Psychotherapies & Mental Health
  • PSY 6138 – Neuroscience of Psychedelics 

Updated June 2026