The Department of Psychology offers a doctoral degree in psychology, with specialization in the areas of social psychology, cognition, perception, learning, biological psychology, motivation, personality, and developmental and clinical psychology. Students in the doctoral program can earn an optional Master's degree by submitting a thesis, but all students are required to continue for the doctorate. The objective of the program is to train research workers who will broaden the base of scientific knowledge upon which the discipline of psychology rests.
Major emphasis is given to preparation for research.
Other emphases include preparing students for teaching and for the practice of clinical psychology. The clinical training program is accredited by the American Psychological Association. The Psychology Department has excellent laboratory and computer facilities to support graduate training. The research space, much of it newly designed and renovated, allows for research in animal behavior, cognitive information processing, child development, electrophysiology, pharmacological and physiological bases of animal behavior, psychophysiology, small group behavior, interpresonal communication, psycholinguistics and visual processing. All laboratories have several computers and terminals that link the department to the University-wide computing system.