En Route M.A. in Social Ecology Requirements

A. Complete:
SOCECOL 200	Seminar in Social Ecology
PSCI P201	Research Methods in Psychology
One additional research methods or data analysis course
Four electives in an area of study (each course must be 4 units)

En Route M.A. in Psychological Science Requirements

A. Complete:
PSCI P201	Research Methods in Psychology
SOCECOL 264A	Data Analysis
SOCECOL 264B	Data Analysis
PSCI P294A	Research Directions in Psychological Science I
PSCI P294B	Research Directions in Psychological Science II
PSCI P294C	Research Directions in Psychological Science III
PSCI P209A	Applied Psychological Research
One 4-unit course in an area of specialization (Affective, Clinical, Development, Health, or Social)

Program Requirements

All students take six required departmental core courses:

A. Complete:
PSCI P201	Research Methods in Psychology
SOCECOL 264A	Data Analysis
SOCECOL 264B	Data Analysis
B. One research methods/data analysis course selected from the following:
PSCI P203	Big Data Analytics for the Social Sciences I
PSCI P221	Critical Perspectives in Diversity Science
PSCI P210	The New Statistics and Open Science
PSCI P206	Big Data Analytics for the Social Sciences II
PSCI P276	Systematic Review and Meta Analysis
PSCI P261	Intensive Longitudinal Data Analysis
PSCI P280B	Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Lab
SOCECOL 272A	Structural Equation Modeling I
SOCECOL 272B	Structural Equation Modeling II: Longitudinal and Advanced Topics
SOCECOL 266D	Analysis of Survival Data
IN4MATX 203	Qualitative Research Methods in Information Systems
EDUC 234	Measurement and Psychometrics
EDUC 265	Applied Regression Analysis for Education and Social Scientific Research
EDUC 287A	Quantitative Data Analysis in Education Research and Evaluation
EDUC 288B	Structural Equation Modeling for Educ, Soc & Behavioral Analysis
MGMTPHD 297H	Analysis of Experimental Data
COGS 205A	Introduction to Programming
COGS 265	Introduction to Functional MRI
COGS 214	Bayesian Cognitive Modeling
STATS 205	Introduction to Bayesian Data Analysis
C. Complete:
PSCI P209A	Applied Psychological Research
PSCI P294A- P294B- P294C	Research Directions in Psychological Science I and Research Directions in Psychological Science II and Research Directions in Psychological Science III

The course on Applied Research PSCI P209A introduces students to the scientific, professional, and ethical issues involved in conducting and translating psychological research in a variety of applied settings. The three-quarter course Research Directions in Psychological Science (PSCI P294A-PSCI P294B-PSCI P294C) allows students to increase their breadth of knowledge regarding contemporary issues and controversies in psychology by participating in the Department’s weekly colloquium series and interacting with visiting scholars and other speakers.

Students must select one of four core specialization areas in which to further focus their graduate training. Students enrolled in the Ph.D. in Psychological Science program with a concentration in Clinical Psychology are not required to select a core specialization area outside of the clinical concentration (see specific program requirements for the clinical concentration). Additional course requirements vary across each specialization.

In addition to selecting a core specialization area, students are also required to select a minor specialization and complete one required specialization course and one elective course in this area. The minor specialization and elective courses should be chosen according to the plan that best meets the needs of the individual student, as determined in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor and the departmental graduate advisor. In addition to courses offered by the Department of Psychological Science and the School of Social Ecology, students may take courses offered by other departments in other schools such as the Departments of Cognitive Science, Anthropology, and Sociology in the School of Social Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology and Behavior in the School of Biological Sciences. Approval from instructors is required to enroll in these courses.

Students who are interested can pursue an optional training track in psychology and law. This track is supplemental to the requirements associated with the required specializations and supplemental to the required minor. That is, all students must complete the above-listed requirements for their specialization and minor. Then, if the student decides to complete the training track in psychology and law, this training is in addition to the requirements listed above. For the training track, a total of four courses must be taken, one required (PSCI P266) and three electives. The electives must be approved by the student’s faculty mentor and departmental advisor and can be a course in Psychological Science, or in the School of Social Ecology or School of Law, with instructor and school approval.

Health Psychology Specialization

PSCI P258	Health Psychology
and three additional courses selected from the following:
PSCI P213	Stigma, Discrimination, and Health
PSCI P216	Psychological Wellbeing and Health
PSCI P226	Emotion in Psychology
PSCI P232	Trauma and Resilience
PSCI P235	Social Health Psychology
PSCI P258	Health Psychology
PSCI P260	Technology and Health
PSCI P262	Interpersonal Processes and Health
PSCI P268	Coping with Stressful Life Events
PSCI P273	Biobehavioral Aspects of Health and Illness
PSCI 277	Implementation Science
PSCI P280A	Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience
PSCI P283H	Psychoneuroimmunology
PSCI P284	Health and Emotion
PSCI P288	Human Neuropsychology

Social and Personality Specialization

PSCI P214	Seminar in Social Psychology
and three additional courses selected from the following:
PSCI P213	Stigma, Discrimination, and Health
PSCI P214	Seminar in Social Psychology
PSCI P223	Cross-Cultural Psychology
PSCI P226	Emotion in Psychology
PSCI P234	Childhood
PSCI P235	Social Health Psychology
PSCI P249	Advanced Social Psychology
PSCI P250	Emotion, Reasoning, and Memory
PSCI P262	Interpersonal Processes and Health
PSCI P263	Eyewitness Testimony
PSCI P265	Memory and the Law
PSCI P266	Psychology and the Law
PSCI P268	Coping with Stressful Life Events
PSCI P286	Motivation
PSCI P275	Special Topics in Psychological Science 1

¹

Course only applies when topic is Moral Psychology or Cooperation and Helping

Affective Science Specialization

PSCI P226	Emotion in Psychology
or PSCI P250	Emotion, Reasoning, and Memory
and three additional courses selected from the following:
PSCI P216	Psychological Wellbeing and Health
PSCI P226	Emotion in Psychology
PSCI P235	Social Health Psychology
PSCI P232	Trauma and Resilience
PSCI P246	Affective Neuroscience
PSCI P247	EEG Methods
PSCI P250	Emotion, Reasoning, and Memory
PSCI P260	Technology and Health
PSCI P268	Coping with Stressful Life Events
PSCI P283H	Psychoneuroimmunology
PSCI P284	Health and Emotion
PSCI P286	Motivation
PSCI P288	Human Neuropsychology

Developmental Psychology Specialization

PSCI P220	Developmental Psychology: Theories and History
and three additional courses selected from the following:
PSCI P204	Adolescence
PSCI P217	Life-Span Development
PSCI P220	Developmental Psychology: Theories and History
PSCI P223	Cross-Cultural Psychology
PSCI P234	Childhood
PSCI P250	Emotion, Reasoning, and Memory

 

Advancement to Candidacy and Dissertation

Normative time to advancement for doctoral students in the School of Social Ecology is three to four years. Students must advance by the winter quarter advancement deadline by their fourth year to remain in good standing with the department. In no case will students be allowed to advance to candidacy after the end of the fifth year of study (adjusted for any approved Leaves of Absence the student may have taken). The normative time for completion of the Ph.D. is five years, and the maximum time permitted is seven years. 

A student may formally advance to candidacy for the Ph.D. when all requirements except the dissertation have been completed, and when their Candidacy Committee has approved the student’s dissertation plans. The Candidacy Committee must be approved by the department Chair and the Associate Dean of the School of Social Ecology, acting on behalf of the Dean. The committee must consist of a minimum of four members. At least three of the four members must hold affiliations with Psychological Science and at least two members must have a primary appointment in Psychological Science. A student has the right to request a committee member from an academic unit outside of the student's department.

The Doctoral Committee (also referred to informally as the “Dissertation Committee” or the “Thesis Committee”) will supervise following advancement to candidacy, the preparation and completion of the doctoral dissertation. The Doctoral Committee must have three members from the Candidacy Committee, a majority of whom hold affiliations with a student’s home department although more than three of the original members may be retained if the student and their Candidacy Committee Chair consider this desirable and feasible. The exact membership of the Doctoral Committee should be determined in consultation with the Chair of the Candidacy Committee. The Dean of Graduate Division must approve any exceptions to membership of either the advancement to candidacy or doctoral dissertation committees.

Students complete a supervised research project during their second year culminating in a paper that may form the basis for a publication. They take a written comprehensive examination the summer before their third year, which requires them to demonstrate mastery of the principles of social ecology and of major theoretical, substantive, and methodological issues in the study of their major specialization and in the psychology of human behavior. All students must advance by winter quarter of the fourth year. The normative time for completion of the Ph.D. with internship is six years, but we encourage students to complete their dissertation within five years. Students must complete all requirements for the Ph.D. in Psychological Science no later than their seventh year of study, adjusted for any approved leaves of absence that may have been taken. It is expected that most students will complete the degree requirements well in advance of this deadline. All Ph.D. students in the Psychological Science program are required to pass a final oral defense of the dissertation.

Potential employment sites for graduates of the program include academic institutions, research organizations, government policy institutes, health care and human services settings (e.g., hospitals, schools, community agencies), and a variety of private sector employers. The Ph.D. Program in Psychological Science specializes in the training of researchers, not in the training of clinical practitioners.