Program Overview
The Department of Psychology offers a 90-credit Ph.D. in Psychology and a 90-credit Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. For students pursuing the Ph.D. in Psychology, the department offers four specialty areas: Behavior Analysis, Behavioral and Cognitive Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, and Social Psychology. Students admitted into the PhD program in Psychology (but not the PhD program in Counseling Psychology) may develop a co-major with another training program in the department (see our Graduate Handbook for a detailed description of this option). The excellence of our training program is reflected in the fact that our Department is competitive in garnering federal funding for faculty, national fellowships for our students, and excellent positions for our graduates.
Our graduate program represents a collegial apprenticeship model where students work closely with a faculty member to achieve research goals and develop as professionals. Coursework and research are tailored to fit the specific research interests of students and faculty. The range of expertise of our faculty contributes to an exciting intellectual climate for student pursuit of research ideas. The research interests of our students vary widely, and include age-related changes in cognition, animal models of addiction, artificial intelligence, autism, autobiographical memory, behavioral economics, choice and decision-making, emotional stress, health-related behaviors, health disparities, impact of social inequality, organizational behavior, perception and attention, reinforcement, self-esteem and identity, self-injurious behavior, vocational Psychology, and many others.
Our training program in Counseling Psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association and our training program in Behavior Analysis is approved by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board.
Nine-month teaching or research assistantships, with a stipend and full tuition waiver, are awarded to all first-year students. These are renewed annually, for up to five years of funding for students in good standing. Students may also work as research assistants on faculty contracts and grants during the academic year or the summer. Competitive multi-year and 12-month fellowships are available from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the University of Florida, and the National Institutes of Health.
The Department of Psychology does not offer a terminal masters degree, nor do we offer a distance-learning (i.e. online) doctoral program.
Students interested in pursuing a graduate program in Clinical Psychology should contact the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida. Students interested in pursuing a graduate program in School Psychology or Counselor Education should contact the College of Education.