Requirements
The Psychology Department requires that all doctoral degree students complete nine semester hours of statistics and research design, a one-credit orientation and ethics course (PSY800), and three core courses on the biological, cognitive-affective, and/or social bases of behavior.
Departmental Core Courses
To satisfy the current distributional requirement, students are required to take 9 credit hours of core courses in total, spanning the two groups listed below. Two courses must be taken from one group and one course from the other. The student, with Committee approval, selects the area of greater emphasis.
The two groups and their corresponding courses are:
- Group A
- PSY 500 - Visual Perception
- PSY 502 - Physiological Psychology
- PSY 508 - Cognitive Processes
- PSY 744 - Human Information Processing
- Group B
- PSY 511 - Advanced Social Psychology
- PSY 584 - Advanced Developmental Psychology
- PSY 591 - History & Systems of Psychology
- PSY 764 - Survey of I/O Psychology
For a list of all the courses that fulfill the statistics requirement please see pages 18 & 19 of the current Psychology Graduate Student Handbook.
Lifespan Developmental Core Courses: In addition to the general departmental requirements, all Developmental students must take the following core courses:
- PSY 584 - Advanced Developmental Psychology
- PSY 785 - Methodological Issues in Developmental Psychology
- PSY 786 - Cognitive Development
- PSY 787 - Social Development
- PSY 788 - Adulthood and Aging: Cognitive and Intellectual Changes
- PSY 789 - Social-emotional Processes in Adulthood and Aging
In addition to the above courses, most students in the Lifespan Developmental Psychology program also take advantage of the five course series in research design and applied statistics, all of which are taught by Lifespan Developmental area faculty. These courses are workshop-based, providing hands-on training in analyzing data using advanced statistical techniques such as Structural Equation Modeling, Latent Growth Curve Modeling, Hierarchical Linear Modeling.
Students are expected to attend and participate in the Lifespan Developmental Area Seminar (PSY820D), an informal series (held from 12:15-1:30 every other Wednesday) at which students and faculty meet to discuss ongoing research, development projects, and professional issues.
Our program is also one of the constituent members of the internationally renowned Center for Developmental Science, and maintains ties to the UNC system-wide Institute on Aging. Students are encouraged to augment their training through participation in special seminars and research opportunities associated with each of these organizations.
Please consult the Psychology Graduate Student Handbook for further information about academic requirements.
See the Graduate Psychology Course Catalog for more descriptive information about graduate psychology courses. The TRACS Schedule of Courses lists current schedule of courses offered.
