The doctoral program in psychology has a three-fold focus: (1) Life-Span Development, (2) Legal Psychology, and (3) Industrial- Organizational Psychology. The emphasis is on academic quality and the curriculum is designed to foster a commitment both to basic research and to application as an integral part of the individual student’s specialty area development. A minimum of 90 semester credits of graduate work beyond the baccalaureate is required, including a dissertation based upon the student’s original research. A maximum of 36 credits may be transferred from another graduate program with the approval of the Program Area Committee.
The Lifespan Developmental Science area emphasizes both basic and applied research across the lifespan. Faculty interests focus on basic processes in the development of vision, child anxiety and phobias, adolescent social development and substance abuse, adulthood and aging, and parenting. The current Director of this program is Dr. William Kurtines.
The Industrial-Organizational area focuses on issues such as the psychology of human resource management, group behavior, cultural diversity in organizations, leadership, and training and development. The current Director of this program is Dr. Vish Viswesvaran..
The Legal Psychology Doctoral area focuses on issue such as jury decision making,
jury selection, witness memory, eyewitness identification, alternative dispute resolution, sexual harassment, deception detection, investigative interviewing and forensic psychology. Doctoral students are expected to master a series of core course requirements designed to facilitate a thorough grounding in theory, methodology, and content both in basic and applied research.
Students are also required to pursue specific areas of interest through apprenticeship with a primary advisor for the purpose of acquiring direct research experience. The current Director of this program is Dr. Ronald Fisher.
