Doctoral Programs Overview

Our doctoral programs in Health/Social Psychology and Visual and Cognitive Neuroscience are designed to produce graduates with strong research skills who will be competitive in the academic job market as well as in public and private applied research settings. The program includes coursework to provide a solid grounding in the content of one's chosen area as well as in research methods and statistics, laboratory experience in an apprenticeship model of research training, and teacher training which culminates in the students' preparation and teaching of their own courses.

Our program is strongly based on a mentorship model of training in which a student is expected to work closely with a specific faculty member in his or her specialty area. All of our faculty are active in research and publication, with productivity comparable to that of the top quartile of doctoral-level psychology programs surveyed by the National Research Council (Research-Doctorate Programs in the United States, 1995).

We expect to accept up to four students a year. We also expect to support most of our students through teaching or research assistantships. Assistantships up to $18,000 a year are available, accompanied by tuition and fee waivers. All assistantships are half-time (20 hours a week) positions. Students accepted into the program with a bachelor's degree should expect to take 4-5 years to complete the Ph.D. Those entering with a master's degree in psychology can expect to take 2-3 years to complete the Ph.D.

Program Requirements: Students must complete at least 90 hours of graduate credit, including those completed for the master's degree. At least 30 hours of graduate credit must be in approved didactic courses. Other requirements include attendance in our graduate seminar and colloquium series, teaching one undergraduate course under the supervision of a faculty member, a major area paper which will serve as the comprehensive exam, and completion of an empirically based doctoral dissertation.