The faculty in the Department of Psychology offer graduate programs leading to the Ph.D. degree in Psychology. Concentrations are available in clinical, developmental, environmental, and social psychology, as well as in cognitive/behavioral systems and behavioral neuroscience.
Although there is no formal M.A. program as such, doctoral students are required to complete an M.A. degree as part of their doctoral training.
All applicants are required to submit scores on the Graduate Record Examination (verbal, quantitative, and analytical sections; advanced section is required for clinical psychology), transcripts, three letters of reference, and a statement of purpose.
Program of Study. A minimum of 30 semester hours is required for the master’s degree.
Foreign Language Requirements. None.
Thesis Requirements. A thesis is required.
Final Examinations. A final oral examination in defense of the thesis is required.
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
See “Doctor of Philosophy” for general requirements.
Application Deadline. Completed applications for admission in the fall semester, including all letters and supporting documents, should be received by January 1.
The Department of Psychology requires all applicants to provide scores from the aptitude sections of the GRE for clinical psychology. A score from the advanced test in psychology is required. These scores are not used exclusively to determine admission but are viewed in the context of other supporting materials, such as GPAs and letters of recommendation.
Program of Study. At present the Department of Psychology offers the Ph.D. degree in the following research areas: clinical, developmental, environmental, cognitive/behavioral systems, behavioral neuroscience, and social psychology. A minimum of 60 semester hours of course credit beyond the bachelor’s degree is required, plus 24 semester hours of credit in research and dissertation.
In addition to a core curriculum, students take courses related to their area of interest as determined in consultation with their supervisory committees.
First-Year Evaluation. At the end of the first year of study, each student receives a comprehensive evaluation by the faculty based upon performance in courses and in professional or laboratory assignments and upon the evidence of professional responsibility and ethical behavior.
Foreign Language Requirements. None.
Comprehensive Examinations. Written and oral examinations are required near the end or upon completion of all course work. After passing the comprehensive examinations and meeting other requirements (e.g., dissertation prospectus), the student is eligible to apply for candidacy.
Dissertation Requirements. The dissertation must be an original contribution to knowledge, demonstrating the student’s proficiency as an independent investigator. (See “Research and Dissertation Requirements.”)
Final Examinations. A final oral examination in defense of the dissertation is required.
RESEARCH ACTIVITY
Clinical. Three areas of emphasis: child-clinical, community, and health psychology. Topics include risk factors for mental health and substance abuse problems of children and adolescents; mental health of minority groups; stress and coping processes; self-regulation and goal systems; the interface of psychology and the law; women’s health, cardiovascular reactivity, psychoneuroimmunology; development and testing of preventive interventions for children at risk; validation of cognitive, behavioral, and systems interventions for families in crisis; health promotion and relapse prevention in Hispanic populations; contagion theory, social support; adjustment to separation and divorce; and measurement of self-deception, processes underlying ethical judgments in professional contexts.
Developmental. Prosocial behavior, empathy, and moral development; political attitudes; sex roles; spatial cognition; child language and drawing; cooperation and competition; inference and reasoning; child and adolescent health psychology; development of ethnic identity; children’s theory of mind; social psychology of aging; dynamics of college departure among adults.
Environmental. Psychology of resource conservation, memory for architectural form, information storage and spatial cognition, house form and identity, urbanization, territoriality, person-situation interaction, and aversive environments.
Cognitive Systems. Perception: psychophysics, selective attention, word recognition; Cognition: short-term memory, semantic memory, abstract categories, reasoning, effects of emotion; Learning: experimental analysis of behavior, reinforcement theory; Action: categorization, scientific reasoning; Modeling: neurally inspired models of cognitive processes, quantitative models of behavior, and process models of perception.
Behavior and Behavioral Neuroscience. Biochemical and neural concomitants of behavior; neurobiology of behavioral recovery after brain damage; neurodegenerative diseases; drug abuse.
Social. Persuasion and compliance, attraction and relationships, prejudice and stereotyping, altruism, evolutionary psychology, impression formation and social cognition, ethnic and gender identity, social dilemmas and social traps, self-presentation, individual differences and personality, family relationships, behavioral genetics, perceptions of control, social development.
Applied Social Psychology. Health psychology, family relationships, alcohol and drug use, social psychology of sport and exercise, aging, prevention research and evaluation, gender roles and mental health, environmental psychology, criminal justice. Students interested in this area may choose it as a subspecialization in social psychology.
Omnibus Graduate Courses: See omnibus graduate courses that may be offered.
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