Department of Psychology

Chair

Deborah A. Prentice

Acting Chair (fall)

Eldar B. Shafir

Director of Graduate Studies

Charles G. Gross

Professor

Jonathan D. Cohen

Joel Cooper

John M. Darley, also Woodrow Wilson School

Susan T. Fiske

Joan S. Girgus

Sam Glucksberg

Elizabeth Gould

Charles G. Gross

James V. L. Haxby

Bartley G. Hoebel

Barry L. Jacobs

Philip N. Johnson-Laird

Daniel Kahneman, also Woodrow Wilson School

Daniel N. Osherson

Deborah A. Prentice

Eldar B. Shafir, also Woodrow Wilson School

Susan L. Sugarman

Anne M. Treisman

Associate Professor

Sabine Kastner

J. Nicole Shelton

Assistant Professor

Asif A. Ghazanfar

Michael Graziano

Virginia S. Y. Kwan

Kenneth A. Norman

Daniel M. Oppenheimer, also Woodrow Wilson School

Emily Pronin, also Woodrow Wilson School

Alexander Todorov, also Woodrow Wilson School

Lecturer with Continuing Appointment

Ronald J. Comer

Associated Faculty

Marguerite A. Browning, Linguistics

Adele Goldberg, Council of the Humanities, Linguistics

 

Graduate work within the Department of Psychology emphasizes preparation for research and teaching in psychology, with specialization in the following broad areas: cognition and perception, social and personality psychology, and cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. The program is designed to prepare students for attaining the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) and a career of productive scholarship in psychology. All students are required to assist in teaching as part of their graduate education as determined by the department (at least three class hours during their graduate career).

The department requires that candidates for admission take the general test of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE).

Instruction is based on the assumption that first-year students have had the equivalent of an undergraduate major in psychology, neuroscience, or related fields. Basic undergraduate training in science and mathematics is also considered desirable.

First-year students work closely with a faculty adviser to plan and conduct research. They also normally take the proseminar, PSY 500, 501, 502, which covers several basic areas of psychology.

Second-year students take advanced seminars and conduct research to prepare a written report of a research project. Students may also take relevant courses in other departments. By the end of the second year, students should have demonstrated basic competence in quantitative methods by having successfully completed PSY 503, Quantitative Analysis in Psychological Research. Additional quantitative training should be planned in consultation with the student’s adviser. The third, fourth, and fifth years are devoted to conducting research and to continuing study in the student’s area of specialization by means of courses, independent reading, and advanced seminars. Normally, the doctoral dissertation is completed near the end of the fifth year.

A program leading to the Ph.D. degree in psychology and neuroscience is also offered. The program is oriented toward the study of the role of the central nervous system in behavior. See the description of the Program in Neuroscience in this catalog.

The department is also closely affiliated with the Center for the Study of Brain, Mind, and Behavior (CSBMB), which fosters research on the neural underpinnings of psychological function. The CSBMB houses state-of-the-art facilities for the study of brain function, including a research-dedicated high-field fMRI scanner, high-density scalp electrical recorders, and high-performance computing facilities for data analysis and computational modeling.

Examinations

The general examination is normally taken in the fall of the third year. It deals at an advanced level with selected topics within a student’s own area of specialization in psychology. The final public oral examination for the doctoral degree is based on the problem, methods, and results of the dissertation and the relation of its findings to major trends and current problems in psychological research.

Equipment and Facilities

Facilities and specialized equipment needed for thorough training in modern psychology are available in the departmental laboratories in Green Hall. Laboratory units are organized around the research programs of the faculty, ranging from animal motivation and conditioning processes to decision-making in human social groups, neurophysiological mechanisms controlling basic drives, attributional processes in judging other individuals, cognitive neuroscience, issues of psychology and policy, the sensory and perceptual roots of human cognition, concept formation and problem-solving behavior in the child and the adult, the mathematical and computer techniques employed in research, and the mechanisms of attitude formation and change. The Psychology Library is also located in Green Hall. It comprises an extensive collection of more than 33,000 volumes, including about 460 of the principal journals in the various areas of psychology as well as standard reference works, texts, and monographs. A computer terminal in the Psychology Library provides online access to psychological and related bibliographic databases.

Colloquia and Seminars

Psychology colloquia are held at regular intervals throughout the year and are attended by members of the staff and graduate students. A series of research seminars is held throughout the year in which students in various research areas interchange ideas with one another and with the faculty.

Courses

PSY 500, 501, 502 Proseminars in Basic Problems in Psychology

Staff

An intensive review, over the course of a full academic year, of several substantive areas of psychology, with an emphasis on the problems posed by the findings of contemporary research.

PSY 503 Quantitative Analysis in Psychological Research

Staff

An introduction to quantitative methods in psychological research appropriate for first-year graduate students. Topics covered include exploratory data analysis, analysis of variance and covariance, and multiple regression.

PSY 504 Experimental Design and Analysis in Psychological Research

Staff

Selected topics in experimental design and analysis.

PSY 511 Current Issues in Neuroscience and Behavior

Staff

An advanced seminar that reflects current research on the brain and behavior. Research by seminar participants and articles from the literature are discussed.

PSY 528 Negotiation, Persuasion, and Social Influence: Theory and Practice (see WWS 519)

PSY 529 Conceptions of the Human Agent: Implications for Policy

Daniel Kahneman, Eldar B. Shafir

The implications of current knowledge about human reasoning and human motivation for the formulation and conduct of policy and the design of decision-making structures. Topics include attitudes to risk, myopia in decision making, perceptions of fairness, the effectiveness of incentives, and the effects of accountability. Areas of application include the regulation of risky behaviors; policies about saving, welfare, and health; and the engineering of organizational decisions.

PSY 536 Selected Topics in Cognitive Science

Staff

Each year a topic in cognitive science is critically examined. Topics include approaches to the study of memory, models of attention, and cognitive neuroscience.

PSY 540 Human Information Processing

Staff

An introduction to cognitive psychology. Contemporary approaches to the study of attention, memory, and language are reviewed and evaluated. The theoretical and methodological assumptions of human information processing paradigms are critically examined. Provides an appropriate background for the more specialized seminars, PSY 541 through PSY 547, listed below.

PSY 541 Human Learning and Memory

Staff

A survey of recent empirical findings and theoretical issues in the area of human memory.

PSY 542 Perception

Staff

An advanced review of the major areas of contemporary research on human perception.

PSY 543 Research Seminar in Cognitive Psychology

Staff

Current research and issues in sensation, perception, and cognition. Ongoing research by seminar participants, research methodology, and current issues in the literature are discussed.

PSY 544 Psychology of Language

Sam Glucksberg

An introduction to contemporary psycholinguistics. Topics include language comprehension, speech perception, and language development.

PSY 545 Selected Topics in the Psychology of Language

Sam Glucksberg

Each year this course examines in depth an important and representative area of research into the psychological basis of language and linguistic communication.

PSY 546 Topics in Developmental Psychology

Staff

Critical examination of one or more specific topics in human development. Topics are likely drawn from cognitive and language development, but may also include aspects of social and affective development. These topics are addressed from the perspective of how the child’s mind works and how it changes. Particular emphasis is on the study of development as a means of uncovering significant properties of human intelligence.

PSY 547 Cognitive Development

Staff

An examination of children’s thought and conceptual development from birth to adolescence. Theories of cognitive change and uses of evidence are emphasized.

PSY 551 Design and Interpretation of Social Psychological Research

Staff

An advanced seminar that considers current research in social psychology. Contemporary research conducted by the seminar participants is discussed.

PSY 552 Cognitive Social Psychology

Staff

An examination of how people reason about social events and make decisions under uncertainty. Focuses on the strategies people use in their reasoning and the resulting errors, biases, and successes, and the organization of knowledge about the self and others and the effects of this knowledge on the processing of social information. Discusses the implications for the perception, interpretation, and prediction of others’ behavior.

PSY 553 The Individual in Group Interaction Settings

John M. Darley

How do the groups in which an individual participates affect that person’s thinking and behavior? Focuses on theories concerning the ways in which individuals create definitions of the situations in which they find themselves, based on the social information they have available to them.

PSY 554 Attitude Structure and Change

Joel Cooper

A seminar reviewing theories of attitude change, consistency models, processing models, and reinforcement information models of persuasion.

PSY 555 Role and Symbolic Interactionist Perspectives in Social Psychology

John M. Darley

Recent developments in role theory in terms of their implications for social psychology. Symbolic interactionist, dramaturgical, and ethnomethodological perspectives are also considered.

PSY 556 Social Attribution

Staff

Discussion of theoretical models and related empirical research dealing with the determinants and consequences of causal attributions for behavior. Specific topics may include expectancy effects, attributional biases, stigma, self-handicapping, and self-presentation.

PSY 557 Experimental Implications for Clinical Theories of Change

Ronald J. Comer

The relationship between clinical theories of behavior change and relevant experimental research is examined.

PSY 558 Seminar in Personality Theories in Social Interaction Settings

Staff

A critical examination of recent personality models. Special attention is given to the interaction among personality and social and group factors.

PSY 559 Health Psychology: Psychological Perspectives on Physical Health

Staff

Seminar members critically review current applications of the theories and methods of psychology to health-related issues, with the goal of suggesting new directions that research might take. Practitioner-patient interactions, patterns of utilization of health services, pain management, methodological issues in health psychology, compliance with medical treatment regimens, psychosocial stress and physical health, and the management of chronic and terminal illness are among the topics that are studied.

PSY 591a Ethical Issues in Scientific Research

Charles G. Gross, Staff

Examination of issues in the responsible conduct of scientific research, including the definition of scientific misconduct, mentoring, authorship, peer review, grant practices, use of humans and animals as subjects, ownership of data, and conflict of interest. Class consists primarily of the discussion of cases. Required of all first- and second-year graduate students in the Department of Psychology; open to other graduate students. (Half-term course.)

PSY 591b Neuroethics

Charles G. Gross

Discussion of ethical issues raised by developments in neuroscience, including pharmacological enhancement of mood and cognition, neuroimaging, and transmagnetic stimulation. (Half-term course.)