Course Requirements for Experimental Ph.D. in Psychology
- Courses for Experimental Program
- Specialization in Cognitive Psychology
- Specialization in Experimental Health Psychology
- Specialization in Social Psychology
- Optional Concentration in Applied Quantitative Psychology
The doctoral program in experimental psychology is designed to prepare the student for both academic and applied research positions.
Credit Hours: Candidates for the Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology are required to complete 90 credit hours if they entered the program with a bachelor's degree and 60 credit hours if they entered with a master's degree.
Comprehensive Exam: After sufficient progress, the student is expected to take and pass the Comprehensive Exam. (See the section on Comprehensive Examination for further details.)
Earning a Master's Degree: Upon completion of the master's thesis, as well as at least 30 credit hours in Psychology, the student may earn the master's degree. The master's degree is not intended to be a terminal degree, however, but a step toward the Ph.D. The final defense of the thesis should take place no later than the last day of classes in the Spring Semester of the third year. A student is not required to pass the Comprehensive Exam to qualify for the master's degree.
Scholarly Tool: It is recommended that the student complete his or her scholarly tool by the end of the third or fourth year. (See the section on Scholarly Tool for further details.) It is also recommended that the student complete his or her dissertation by the end of the fifth year.
Scholarly Activities: From the outset of their training, students are expected to participate in the various scholarly activities that are the hallmark of a quality research environment. These include attending research presentations made by fellow students, by faculty, or by invited speakers from other institutions. It is recommended that students give their own research presentations beginning in their first year and as frequently as possible thereafter. So as to enable faculty to observe the progress students are making toward becoming competent scholars, students are expected to maintain updated vitas that clearly detail the various scholarly accomplishments that have been achieved during their graduate training — for example, lists of publications, conference presentations, grants obtained, research or teaching awards, etc. These vitas will be used by the section to appropriately gauge students' progress during their evaluations.
Courses for Experimental Program
Courses for the experimental program are to be selected from the four groups below.
All courses are worth 3 credits, unless otherwise specified.
Courses marked with an asterisk (*) are required of all experimental students.
Courses marked with a tilde (~) are the 4 core experimental courses designed to give students a breadth of psychological knowledge.
All experimental students are required to take three of the four core courses. Courses used to satisfy the scholarly tool may not be used to satisfy the requirements described below.
Quantitative Courses
A minimum of 9 hours is to be taken from among the courses listed below. Courses taken to satisfy the scholarly tool requirement may not be used to satisfy this hour requirement.
- *6100 Data Management (1 credit hour)
- *6111 Advanced Statistics for Behavioral Sciences
- *6112 Introduction to Linear Regression Analysis 7110 Multivariate Statistics
- 7120 Advanced Testing Principles
- 7130 Advanced Regression Analysis
- 7150 Structural Equation Modeling
- 7170 Health Statistics
- 8901 Advanced seminars in psychology (must be oriented toward statistics or measurement)
Health Courses
Students can choose between the following courses to fulfill a health core course:
- 6210 Human Psychophysiology
- 7250 Health
- 7240 Psychoneuroimmunology
- 6220 Physiological Psychology
Content Courses
A minimum of 24 hours is to be taken from among the following courses. A maximum of 12 hours from other departments may be applied toward satisfaction of this requirement. All courses taken in other departments must have the prior approval of one?s advisor. Note that 7000-level courses (i.e., clinical courses) are generally not available to experimental students.
- ~ 6210 Human Psychophysiology
- ~ 6220 Physiological Psychology
- 6230 Comparative Psychology
- ~ 6310 Cognitive Processes
- 6410 Developmental Psychology
- ~ 6510 Experimental Social Psychology
- ~ 6610 Survey of Industrial & Organizational Psychology
- 6710 Clinical Psychopathology
- 6712 Psychopathology of Child & Adolescents
- 6720 Psychology of Personality
- 6730 Fundamentals of Personality Assessment
- 6740 Fundamentals of Psychotherapy
- 6750 Issues in Professional Psych
- 6760 Diversity Issues
- 6930 Readings (1-4 credit hours; max 15)
- 7210 Neuropsychology
- ~ 7250 Health
- ~ 7240 Psychoneuroimmunology
- 7270 Psychopharmacology and Psychotherapy
- 7310 Psychophysics & Theories of Perception
- 7320 Psycholinguistics
- 7330 Judgment and Decision Making
- 7340 Advanced Learning
- 7350 Concept Learning & Categorization
- 7360 Mathematical Modeling of Cognition
- 7510 Advanced Social Psychology
- 7520 Social Cognition
- 7530 Social Psychology of the Self
- 7550 Motivation
- 7621 Organizational Psychology: Org Behavior
- 7623 Organizational Psychology: Org Theory
- 7625 Employee Retention and Withdrawal
- 7630 Context analysis
- 7631 Performance Appraisal and Management
- 7633 Selection & Placement
- 7635 Training & Development
- 7730 Adult Assessment
- 7732 Child/Adolescent Assessment
- 7740 Adult Psychotherapy
- 7742 Child/Adolescent Therapy
- 7744 Interventions in Health Psychology
- 7930 Readings (1-4 credit hours; max: 15)
- 890n Advanced seminars in psychology (these must be research- or application-oriented, and no more than 15 hours are to be used to satisfy this hour requirement)
Research Courses
A minimum of 36 hours is to be taken from among the following courses.
- 5710 First Year Seminar in Experimental Psychology (1 credit hour)
- 6120 Advanced Research Methods
- 6950 Thesis (1 to 8 credit hours; max 35)
- 6970 Preparing Psychology Papers (1 credit hour)
- * 6980 Research Seminar (1 credit per semester; max 4)
- 7910 Fieldwork in Psychology (1-12 credit hours; max 24)
- 7940 Research (1-4 credit hours; max 25)
- 8940 Research (1-4 credit hours; max 25)
- 8950 Dissertation (1-15 credit hours; max 35)
Teaching Course
The following course is required prior to teaching within the department.
- 7960 Teaching Seminar (1)