Applied Developmental Psychology, PhD

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The PhD program in Applied Developmental Psychology prepares students for research careers answering meaningful practice and policy questions relevant to improving the lives of children, youth, and families. Students will study the following areas in depth:

• The influence of individual, interpersonal, and contextual factors on learning and well-being outcomes for children and youth in school and out-of-school settings
• How human development and context interact to generate dynamic patterns of child and youth behavior
• The effectiveness of interventions to promote learning and wellbeing outcomes for children and youth

Students complete coursework in a diverse set of topics to learn academic writing skills, real-world applied research design, data analytics tools that match the complexities of the context under study, and authentic assessment strategies.

The PhD degree requires 90 credits distributed as follows: 9 credits in core courses, 12 in development in context course work, 15 credits in area of concentration, 9 credits in a supporting field or study, 1 credit of writing workshop, 3 credits of first year seminar, 30 credits in research methodology, 3 credits in supervised research, 3 credits in teaching practicum, and 18 credits in dissertation coursework. The program also requires two terms of supervised research, a research project, a practicum in college teaching, and a dissertation.

For additional degree requirement information, refer to the School of Education section on Doctoral Degree Requirements.