Psychology

About the Department

For over a century, the Department of Psychology has been a leading center of scholarship, research and teaching in psychology and related fields. True to the Division’s interdisciplinary nature, its faculty members reflect the contemporary state of the field by serving on more than one of the department’s programs in cognition, developmental psychology, integrative neuroscience, and social psychology. Additionally, the Department maintains close connections with other areas of the university: faculty and students participate in courses, colloquia, workshops and joint research ventures with scholars in related departments including anthropology, biology, computer science, education, linguistics, and philosophy, and in the University’s professional schools of business, public policy, law, medicine, and social service administration.

MAPSS-Psychology Concentration

Students admitted for the MAPSS-Psychology concentration will receive a separate letter of admission.

Those persons must complete a minimum of 4 graduate courses listed or cross-listed with the Psychology department, participate in a relevant lab or research placement, and write an MA thesis directed to a psychology readership that makes a contribution in the psychology literatures.

Students will be supported in their lab or research placement by MAPSS Psychology Academic Mentor Hannah Hamilton.

International students are eligible for three years of work authorization in the U.S. after they graduate, since MAPSS-Psychology is a STEM-approved program.

MAPSS Support for Psychology

Approximately 40 MAPSS students concentrate in Psychology each year. MAPSS works closely with those students to help them secure lab placements in the Psychology department or closely related parts of the University such as Comparative Human Development. Many begin that lab work the summer prior to matriculating into MAPSS.

MAPSS Psychology Academic Mentor Hannah Hamilton advises MAPSS students on lab placements, course selections, faculty advisors, and MA thesis projects. Dr. Hamilton's doctoral research explores the relations among the need to belong, interpersonal interactions, health behaviors (such as alcohol consumption), and relationship functioning. In this work, she uses a variety of research designs (e.g., experimental, daily diary) and a broad array of statistical analyses (e.g., Poisson regression, multilevel modeling, Actor-Partner Interdependence Model).

Recent MAPSS graduates have gone on for a Psychology PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, UChicago, and Minnesota, to name a few.

Recent Psychology Classes Taken by MAPSS Students

PSYC 43130. Stress and the Social Brain. This course explores the topic of social stress and its influence on behavior and neurobiology and provides in-depth coverage of the psychophysiology of the stress response and how it is modulated across social contexts. The material is presented in a seminar-style format. The primary goal of the course is to provide students with a high-level understanding of the complexities associated with contemporary stress research from the perspective of social neuroscience and psychophysiology. Greg Norman, Associate Professor.

PSYC 33000. Cultural Psychology: Philosophical and Theoretical Foundations. In this course we analyze the concept of "culture" and examine ethnic and cross-cultural variations in mental functioning with special attention to the cultural psychology of emotions, self, moral judgment, categorization, and reasoning. Research findings in cultural psychology raise provocative questions about the integrity and value of alternative forms of subjectivity across cultural groups. Richard Shweder, Harold Higgins Swift Distinguished Service Professor

SOCI 30112 Applications of Hierarchical Linear Models. Diverse methodological problems such as correlates of change, analysis of multi-level data, and certain aspects of meta-analysis share a common feature: a hierarchical structure. The hierarchical linear model offers a promising approach to analyzing data in these situations. This course surveys the methodological literature in this area and demonstrates how the hierarchical linear model can be applied to a range of problems. Stephen Raudenbush, Lewis-Sebring Distinguished Service Professor

MAPS 31701 Data Analytics & Statistics. This course provides a strong foundation in the statistical and data analyses commonly used in the behavioral and social sciences. Topics include logistic regression, statistical inference, chi-square, analysis of variance, and repeated measures models. In addition, this course also places greater emphasis on developing practical skills, including the ability to conduct common analyses using statistical software. Students learn how to build models to investigate data, formulate hypothesis tests as comparisons between statistical models and critically evaluate model assumptions. The goal of the course is for students to define and use descriptive and inferential statistics to analyze and interpret statistical findings.