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Graduate

Program Overview

The Department of Psychology offers the 90 credit Ph.D. in Psychology and the 90 credit Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology. For students pursuing the Ph.D. in Psychology, the department offers four specialty areas: behavior analysis, developmental, neurobehavioral and cognitive sciences, 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 self-esteem and identity, animal models of addiction or obesity, age changes in cognition, the impact of stereotypes and prejudice, self-injurious behavior, diversity issues, health promotion, language, assessing stress and its effects, areas of brain activation, and everything in between. Our training program in counseling psychology is accredited by the American Psychological Association and our program in behavior analysis is approved by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board.

Nine-month teaching assistantships, with a stipend and full tuition waiver, are awarded to most first-year students. These are renewed annually, for up to five years of funding for students in good standing. Students may also act 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, university, 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.

Our department offers accredited training in Counseling Psychology. Students interested in pursuing a graduate program in Clinical Psychology should contact the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology at the University of Florida.