The goal of our program is to educate and train the next generation of researchers, advanced educators and leaders in Psychological and Brain Sciences. Our overarching purpose is to train skills required to design, conduct, and evaluate psychological research, with the expectation that students will pursue research or teaching careers in academic, medical, business and industrial settings as appropriate. We view our graduate program as integral to both our research and educational mission and we aim to provide rigorous training experiences that span coursework, scholarship, instruction and community involvement.
Graduate Degrees
The Department offers a Ph.D. degree but no free-standing Master’s degree. The Department also offers a 4+1 program in Neuroscience. A distinctive feature of our Ph.D. program is the prominent role of our four concentrations of graduate training: behavioral neuroscience, clinical science, cognitive psychology and social psychology. Across different areas, the Department also has strengths in Neuroscience and Developmental Science. The Department is a member of the Cognitive Science Group on campus and offers an optional Graduate Certificate in Cognitive Science.
Faculty Mentorship
Faculty advisors are actively engaged in mentoring graduate students, and empowering students to pursue independent research interests. Our faculty mentors have authored hundreds of research publications, are influential in prestigious organizations and editorial boards around the world, and consistently attract major funding from leading national agencies. Please see the specific concentration area pages for Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Social Psychology for a list of faculty recruiting graduate students for the 2024-2025 academic year.
Please see the specific concentration area pages for Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Science, Cognitive Psychology, and Social Psychology for a list of faculty recruiting graduate students for the 2022-2023 academic year.
An Interdisciplinary Community
The structure of our program emphasizes interdisciplinarity and collaboration within the Psychological and Brain Sciences Department and beyond. Within the university, students in our department may earn a doctorate in neuroscience through the campus-wide Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Graduate Program
. Beyond the university, faculty and students collaborate with researchers from institutions such as Johns Hopkins University, University of Maryland, University of Pennsylvania, Temple University and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They also work with leading healthcare centers, including Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, and Christiana Care Health System.
Funding
Students in good standing in the program typically receive support for 5 years. This support may come in the form of a Department TA or RA position, a University fellowship, or an RA on an advisor’s extramural grant. Students are strongly advised to consider applying for external funding (e.g., an NSF Predoctoral Fellowship or an NRSA Predoctoral Fellowship from NIH) and to discuss the application with their advisors well in advance of the due date. The Department offers Travel and Dissertation awards, as well as smaller funds for miscellaneous research expenses.
For questions about the program not covered on this website, please contact the Director of Graduate Education:
Timothy Vickery227 Wolf Hall(302) 831-1511 [email protected]
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