Graduate Program - Curriculum
The graduate program in the Department of Psychology is designed to educate and train scientists and scholars who will make contributions to society through their research and teaching. PhDs in Psychology from Brown are prepared for scientific careers in both academic and applied settings. The Department does not have a terminal masters program, but many students do obtain an MA in Psychology en route to the PhD.
- Course Requirements
- Quantitative Skills
- Course Offerings
- Colloquia
- Graduate Training in Teaching and Research
Course Requirements
Graduate training in Psychology requires a balance of breadth and depth. Because many Brown PhDs are teachers as well as research scientists, a broad knowledge of the major areas of Psychology is desirable, and certain course distribution requirements are designed to promote such breadth. Students must take a graduate core course in at least three of the following areas: (1) Behavioral Neuroscience; (2) Sensation and Perception; (3) Cognitive Processes; and (4) Social Psychology. Typically, students begin taking these courses in the first or second semester and finish by their fourth or fifth semester.
To achieve the necessary depth of knowledge for a career as a scientist and scholar, students take additional graduate seminars in their primary area of research interest. A sample of the graduate seminars recently offered in Psychology appears later in this brochure. The student and his or her advisor jointly arrange a curriculum that suits the student's interests and goals. This may include courses in various departments and programs besides Psychology, including for example Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences, Neuroscience, Biochemistry, Education, Computer Science, and Applied Mathematics. Students take a minimum of 6 graduate seminars, typically over their first three years in the program.
Quantitative Skills
Quantitative skills are essential for productive careers in Psychology, but modern psychology has become so diverse that no single set of quantitative skills will suit the needs of all students. All students must take at least two courses in quantitative methods suitable for graduate credit, but the specific courses are chosen jointly by the student and his or her advisor and graduate committee. Courses in the following areas may be selected: (1) Computer languages, (2) Mathematics, (3) Methods of data analysis and statistics, (4) Probability theory and mathematical statistics, and (5) Mathematical and computer models of psychological processes.
Course Offerings
Below is a sample of courses and seminars available to graduate students in Psychology. Core courses are typically offered every other year. The topics of specialized seminars vary somewhat from year to year depending on faculty and student interests; those listed here are among topics recently offered. In addition to seminars such as those listed here, a number of lecture courses open to both undergraduate and graduate students can be found in the Course Announcement, as can courses and seminars in departments such as Neuroscience and Cognitive & Linguistic Sciences. Students may also select quantitative courses from other departments, including Applied Mathematics and Computer Science.
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Core Courses
- Learning and Cognition
- Neural Basis of Behavior
- Perception
- Social and Personality
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Quantitative Courses
- Experimental Design
- Quantitative Methods: Analysis & Models
- Quantitative Theories in Psychology
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Specialized Seminars (a sampling)
- Animal Cognition
- Attention
- Cognitive Neuropsychology
- Development of Brain & Behavior
- Human Sensory Processing
- Learning
- Molecular Basis of Behavioral Neuroscience
- Motion Perception
- Psychopharmacology
- Social & Personality Development
- Stereotyping & Intergroup Relations
- Color Vision
Teaching
Teaching is a natural extension of research and scholarship - it is one important vehicle for sharing knowledge with others so that society as a whole can benefit. Because many Brown Ph.D.s become teachers as well as research scientists, guided experience in undergraduate teaching is an important part of the graduate program. Four semesters of supervised teaching activities are required. A variety of teaching activities are available; they include supervising laboratories, course administration, tutoring, supervising research, and running laboratory sections in the Introductory Psychology course. Where appropriate, more advanced students have the opportunity to give a lecture to an undergraduate class to further develop their teaching skills. Students who enter the program with an advanced degree may receive credit for prior teaching experience.
Involvement in teaching at Brown is particularly rewarding because of Brown's special character as a University/College. Courses are generally small and all faculty - from the most junior to the most senior - participate in teaching at all levels. The undergraduates at Brown are dedicated, talented students with genuine interests in Psychology. The undergraduate concentration or "major" is one of the largest at Brown, with about 75 concentrators each year.
Undergraduates also participate in research projects with faculty and graduate students, thus adding to the dynamism of the Department. Each year, about 15 undergraduates complete senior honors projects; each project involves two semesters of research with a member of the faculty, a written thesis, and an oral defense. Often, these research projects are on topics that are related to those being worked on by graduate students and the graduate student may serve as an additional advisor. Over the last several years, many honors projects have been of sufficiently high quality that they have been published in scientific journals.
Research Training
Productive careers in research or teaching require a deep understanding of the phenomena, theories, and methods in a focused area, and for this there is no substitute for direct involvement in research. Psychology graduate students become involved in research early, and continue this involvement throughout their graduate careers. As a first step, faculty members informally review their research in a series of talks for first-year students; this helps students and faculty become acquainted and facilitates students' selection of research advisors.
One important component of the research training is the first-year project. Entering students attend faculty talks and meet individually with faculty, and by the end of their first semester they will have arranged with a research advisor to conduct a supervised but independent research project. The advisor arranges for appropriate facilities, provides guidance on designing and executing the experiment and on data analysis. The advisor and two other faculty members compose a committee that guides the first-year project and evaluates the student's progress. The project culminates in a written and oral report given by the student at the beginning of the second year.
Though most students continue with the same research advisor into their second year, a student's interests may develop such that a change of advisors is desirable between the first and second years. Whether or not this shift occurs, many student's interests lead them to conduct research in collaboration with more than one faculty member, and indeed this is recommended as a way to acquire a breadth of skills and knowledge during graduate training. The main requirement of the program is that students remain active in research, presenting the results at professional meetings and in scientific publications when this becomes possible.
Another feature of the graduate program that is designed to deepen the student's knowledge of a focused domain is the preliminary examination. The examination is completed by the end of the first semester of the third year. It consists of a major integrative paper that includes a critical survey of the literature and an analysis of the major concepts and issues in a specified problem area. The topic and scope of the paper is defined jointly by the student, the research advisor, and the graduate committee. In addition to deepening the student's knowledge of a particular content area, the preliminary examination helps students to develop the writing skills that are needed to publish papers in scientific journals.
The doctoral thesis is the culminating experience for the PhD candidate. The thesis is an original contribution to psychological knowledge based on extensive research. Research for the thesis is usually begun no later than the second semester of the third year, The faculty advisor and two other faculty members form the dissertation committee, which assists the student in planning the research and provides critical feedback as necessary. An oral examination on the thesis completes the formal requirements for the PhD. Completion of the program is normally expected to require four years, but with the approval of the Department students may be allowed five years to finish.