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Third-and-Fourth Year Faculty and Research Interests |
Course WorkGraduate students must be enrolled for at least 9 hours (3 courses) to be full-time students (typically PSY 390 and 2 organized courses). Courses and seminars taken during this year will include departmental core courses not yet taken, advanced courses and seminars in developmental psychology, and other courses in psychology or other departments relevant to the student's individual needs and interests. During the second year, plans will be made for the completion of the departmental area distribution requirements. This means students must finish taking at least one departmental core course in each of the three general content areas: (a) Biological Psychology; (b) Human Experimental Psychology; and (c) Social and Personality Psychology. In addition, it is recommended that students plan to take at least one course from each developmental faculty member. Questions can be resolved with guidance from your faculty advisor or the area head. Second-year ProjectEach student is expected to execute an independent research project during the second year. Typically, such a project would be related to the advisor's ongoing research, though other options are certainly possible. Its purpose is for students to obtain supervised experience in the conduct of an entire study, including identifying and conceptualizing a research problem, designing an appropriate study, writing a research proposal, pilot testing and design revision if necessary, data collection, statistical analysis, writing a report of the research, and defense of the project before the student's three-person committee. ScopeThe project should be one that can be completed within one year. Given the other responsibilities of graduate students, this time frame limits the scope of the project. Rather than attempting "the definitive study" of a particular area, the student should identify a problem which lends itself to investigation with a modest amount of preliminary work-up time. Use of available equipment and facilities is strongly encouraged. SupervisionSupervision of the project will reside in a three-member committee, at least two of whom shall be members of the developmental psychology faculty. The third committee member may be either another member of the developmental faculty, but representing a developmental specialty other than the student's own, or a representative of a program other than developmental psychology who would make a significant contribution to the conduct of the research. CompletionThe written report of the second year project is due October 1 of the third year. The oral examination of the second year project will be conducted by the student's committee and will consist of the student's oral presentation or the research, faculty members' questions concerning the research and its relevance for developmental psychology as a whole, and suggestions concerning revising the report for publication. Upon completion of the project, students will orally present their work at an area meeting. Students are encouraged to use this project as the basis for a Master's Thesis. |
Updated 2 October 2008
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