Psychology (Ph.D. Code: PSY)

Fields of study: Clinical, cognitive, and social psychology; neuroscience and behavior; visual perception. The program offers doctoral study for students who intend to become psychological scientists or scientist-practitioners. Students who plan to terminate their studies with the master\'s degree are not encouraged to apply. Admission is not limited to students with undergraduate backgrounds in psychology. Theory, method, and research experience in a number of areas of psychological science are emphasized. Course requirements are organized into the three broad areas of cognitive science, neuroscience, and clinical science. Students have intensive research training with individual faculty in the areas of clinical psychology, cognition, functional imaging, perception, psychobiology, sensory neurophysiology, and social psychology. Students in clinical psychology are also provided with extensive training in clinical skills. Major practicum facilities in which students receive supervised clinical and/or applied research training are found in the Vanderbilt Medical Center and other institutions in Nashville. The department is in a building which offers generous laboratory space for individual and group experiments with human subjects, and facilities for animal experimentation. It has a computerized classroom and connections to the campus mainframe computers. Computerized equipment for neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and psychophysics is also available and is especially suited for work on sensory systems. Human subjects are available through a University research pool, Vanderbilt clinics, and the local school system. In addition, the department has an animal facility providing a wide variety of species, including fish, rodents, and primates.
Faculty: 22
Graduate enrollment: In residence 37;
average in entering class 5-8
Address: 111 21st Avenue South; 37240
Phone: (615) 322-2874
E-mail: patricia.m.burns@vanderbilt.edu
[Psychology]

Psychology and Human Development (M.S., Ph.D. Code: GPSY)

Fields of study: Clinical, cognitive studies, community, developmental, and quantitative psychology. The Clinical program focuses primarily on issues facing children and families. Faculty members study the development of aggressive behavior and depression in children and adolescents; psychological factors accompanying developmental disability and chronic physical disease; the role of communities in mental health; cognitive intervention for learning and behavioral problems; and the delivery of mental health services to children, youth, and families. The goal of the clinical program is to educate psychologists as scientists and practitioners so that they may pursue a variety of career paths. The Cognitive Studies program focuses on laboratory- and field-based research into cognitive processes as they occur in formal and informal learning situations. Areas of research emphasis include cognition, instruction, and technology; cognitive development; expert-novice performances and individual differences in cognitive skills; family and community contexts for learning; language and text processing; perceptional-motor coordination; relationships between cognition and emotion; spatial representation and reasoning; and social behavior. The Community Psychology program is oriented to action-research-based strategies of assessment and intervention in such settings as family, school, neighborhood, and city. The Developmental specialty emphasizes research aimed at understanding basic processes of development and the application of these understandings to practical problems. The research focuses on social relations, personality, language, cognition, and perception, as related to normative development as well as to disabilities such as psychopathology, mental retardation, and blindness. The Program in Quantitative Methods focuses on methods for designing studies and analyzing data for two interrelated forms of behavioral and social change: (1) change that comes about due to naturally occurring developmental processes; and (2) change that is instigated through deliberate intervention strategies and experimentation. In both arenas, an integrated approach to the analysis of change is emphasized that involves in-depth consideration of measurement, research design, statistical theory, principles of data analysis, research synthesis and the reporting of findings. In particular, the program focuses on development and application of statistics, measurement, and research design to applied practical problems in social research generally, with specific emphasis on problems in psychology, education and program evaluation.
Faculty: 34, plus many research and clinical affiliates
Graduate enrollment: In residence: about 60;
average in entering class 10-12
Address: Box 512 Peabody Station; 37203
Phone: (615) 322-8141 Fax: (615) 343-9494
Email: sharone.k.hall@cvanderbilt.edu
[Peabody]