Psychology

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STUDENT SERVICES OFFICE:
1533 Mandler Hall
http://psychology.ucsd.edu

The Graduate Program

The Department of Psychology provides broad training in experimental psychology. Increased specialization and the general burgeoning of knowledge make it impossible to provide training in depth in every aspect of experimental psychology, but most aspects are represented in departmental research.

Preparation

Apart from the general university requirements, the department generally expects adequate undergraduate preparation in psychology. A major in the subject, or at least a strong minor, is normally a prerequisite, but applicants with good backgrounds in such fields as biology and mathematics are also acceptable.

Language Requirements

There is no foreign language requirement.

Graduate Curriculum

Students must fulfill all course requirements (stated below) while registered as graduate students in psychology at UC San Diego. There may occasionally be exceptions granted to this rule. Requests for exception should be in the form of petitions from students and their advisors to the Committee on Graduate Affairs. It is in the best interest of the student if these petitions are forthcoming at the time of admission to the graduate program. In this way, the committee, the students, and their advisors will all be aware of the course requirements before any of them are taken.

Program of Study

Courses are divided into six areas: behavior analysis (including basic and applied), neuroscience and behavior (including neuropsychology and neurophysiology), cognitive (including attention, language, and perception), developmental (including language acquisition), sensation and perception (including vision and audition), and social (including health and law). The Graduate Affairs Committee provides an approved list of courses from these areas. In the first year of study, each student must fulfill the following four requirements:

  1. Each student must fulfill a quantitative methods requirement, either by taking two quantitative methods courses approved by the Graduate Affairs Committee (currently 201A and 201B), or by showing a satisfactory knowledge of these courses through an examination.
  2. In addition to the quantitative methods requirement, each student is expected to take four proseminars and four approved courses from the list prepared by the Graduate Affairs Committee. All course work must be completed by the end of the third year.

  3. Each first-year graduate student is required to submit a research paper on the research project (Psychology 270ABC). The paper should be comparable in style, length, and quality to papers published in the normal, refereed journals of the student’s research area. (The publication manual of the American Psychological Association, fourth edition, 1995, gives an acceptable format.)

    The research paper will be read and evaluated by the student’s research advisor and by at least two other readers appointed by the graduate advisor.

    The research paper is presented orally at a research meeting held at the end of the spring quarter. Attendance at this meeting is a requirement for the department’s graduate students and faculty. Typically, each student is allowed ten minutes to present the paper, with a five-minute question period following the presentation.

  4. A teaching requirement must be met. (See below.)

    All students are evaluated by the entire faculty at the end of the academic year. The normal minimum standards for allowing a student to continue beyond the first year are
    1. Satisfactory completion of the first- year research project (including oral presentation)
    2. At least a B average in the courses which fulfill the area requirements
    3. Having a faculty advisor in the Department of Psychology

Any student whose needs cannot be reasonably met with courses conforming to these guidelines may petition the Graduate Affairs Committee. The petition should contain a specific list of courses and a statement of justification and must be approved by the student’s advisor.

Advancing to Candidacy

In order to advance to Ph.D. candidacy a student must

  1. Complete all first-year requirements
  2. Complete an additional four elective courses from the list prepared by the Graduate Affairs Committee
  3. Complete the qualifying examination for the Ph.D.

The qualifying examination is divided into two sections to be taken separately by all students. Part I of the qualifying exam consists of a paper written by the student that is modeled after those published in Psychological Bulletin or Psychological Review. Ideally, the paper would consist of a detailed review and theoretical synthesis of a coherent body of research. The paper should demonstrate independent and original thinking on the part of the student, and should either take a theoretical stance or recommend experiments designed to resolve theoretical ambiguities (i.e., the paper should not merely review published research).

Students form a qualifying committee in much the same way that they form a dissertation committee. The same rules apply, except that members from outside the department need not be included (although up to two may be). Once the committee is formed, the student should prepare a brief (e.g., three pages) proposal defining the area of research and the theoretical issues that will be addressed in the paper. A proposal meeting is then arranged (usually in spring quarter of the student’s second year), and committee members may at that time recommend changes in the scope of the paper and define their expectations.

The paper does not have a prescribed length, although low-end and high-end limits of thirty and fifty pages, respectively, seem reasonable. An oral defense of the paper is required (and should be completed by the end of the student’s third year).

Part II of the qualifying examination is the defense of the dissertation proposal. This will normally follow Part I of the qualifying examination and will be an oral examination including outside examiners.

Teaching

In order to acquire adequate teaching experience, all students are required to participate in the teaching activities of the department for at least four years (one quarter for the first year and two quarters the second through the fourth year).

Residency

Each student must complete the requirements for qualification for candidacy for the Ph.D. degree by the end of the third year of residence. Any student failing to qualify by this time will be placed on probation. A student who fails to qualify by the end of the spring quarter of the fourth year of residence will automatically be terminated from the department.

No students may allow more than eight calendar years to elapse between starting the graduate program and completing the requirements for the Ph.D. Degree students will automatically be terminated from the program at the end of the spring quarter of their eighth calendar year in the department.

Research

In each year of graduate study, students enroll in a research practicum (Psychology 270 in the first year; Psychology 296 or 299 in subsequent years). Students are assigned to current research projects in the department and receive the personal supervision of a member of the staff.

Departmental Ph.D. Time Limit Policies

Students must be advanced to candidacy by the end of four years. Total university support cannot exceed eight years. Total registered time at UCSD cannot exceed eight years.

Specialization in Anthropogeny

This is a transdisciplinary graduate specialization in anthropogeny with the aim of providing graduate students the opportunity to specialize in research and education on explaining the origins of the human phenomenon. The aim is to rectify the absence of existing training programs that provide such a broad and explicitly transdisciplinary approach—spanning the social and natural sciences—and focusing on one of the oldest questions known to humankind, namely, the origins of humans and humanity. This specialization is not a stand-alone program, but aims at providing graduate students who have just embarked on their graduate careers with the opportunity to interact and communicate with peers in radically different disciplines throughout the duration of their Ph.D. projects. Such communication across disciplines from the outset is key to fostering a capacity for interdisciplinary “language” skills and conceptual flexibility

Admission to the Specialization

The psychology graduate program will advertise the specialization to those students in our programs who have an interest in human origins. Qualifying applicants will have the opportunity to enroll for the specialization.

Specialization Requirements

Students pursuing this specialization will be required to take a series of courses in addition to research rounds over four years of study. It is advised that students begin their course work in their second year.

Qualifying Examination

Psychology students in the anthropogeny specialization must meet the departmental requirement for advancement to candidacy, including the qualifying paper and dissertation proposal. In addition, students must meet internal deadlines, mentoring provisions, and proposal standards of the anthropogeny specialization track.

Dissertation

Ph.D. students must complete a dissertation, which meets all requirements of the home program. In addition, it is expected that the Ph.D. dissertation is broadly related to human origins and will be interdisciplinary in nature.

Time Limits

It is expected that students will retain the same time to degree as students not pursuing this specialization. Additional course load consists only of two regular courses (two quarters twenty lectures each). The third proposed course takes place only three times a year from Friday noon to Saturday evening.

Major Requirements for the Contiguous B.S./M.A.

A contiguous program leading to a bachelor of science degree and a master of arts degree in psychology is offered to those undergraduate students who are enrolled in the bachelor of science major offered in the Department of Psychology at UC San Diego. Qualified students are able to obtain the M.A. degree within one year following receipt of the B.S. degree. Students interested in applying to this program must consult with the B.S./M.A. advisor in the Psychology Student Affairs Office fall quarter of their junior year.

The program is open only to UCSD undergraduates. The Department of Psychology does not have financial aid available for students enrolled in this program.

Eligibility and Enrollment

To be eligible, students must have completed the first two quarters of their junior year in residence at UCSD and must have an overall UCSD GPA of at least 3.0 and students’ major GPA should be at least 3.3. It is the responsibility of the prospective student to select a faculty member who would be willing to serve as the student’s advisor and in whose laboratory the student would complete at least twenty-four units of research over a two-year period. Twelve of the twenty-four units of research Psychology (194A-B-C or 196A-B-C) must be completed during the student’s senior undergraduate year and must be taken in addition to the requirements for the bachelor of science degree. The remaining twelve units of research will be taken in their year of graduate study as part of their M.A.

There are two applications:

  1. In fall quarter of the junior year, students apply to the contiguous B.S./M.A. track if they fulfill the above requirements.
  2. In the spring quarter of their senior year, students apply to the M.A. program.

Requirements for the M.A.

For an M.A. in psychology, students must pick a concentration in one of six areas: Behavioral, Cognitive, Developmental, Neuroscience and Behavior, Sensation and Perception, and Social.

Students who have been approved (by both the Department of Psychology and UCSD Office of Graduate Studies) for the program must enroll in their graduate year in

This amounts to forty units of graduate work. All course work is to be approved by the advisors (forms available from the Psychology Student Affairs Office). Students are expected to meet the graduate requirements for the M.A. in one year (three consecutive, contiguous, academic quarters, beginning in the fall after graduation). Any deviation from this plan, such as a break in enrollment for one or more quarters, will cause the student to be dropped from the program.

All forms required for the program must be submitted and approved by the Psychology Student Affairs Office, including the Application for Candidacy. Students must pay fees and be officially enrolled at UCSD during the quarter that the master’s degree is to be awarded. The thesis draft should be submitted to the Office of Graduate Studies for review before the final copy is officially submitted.

See the Psychology Student Affairs Office for further details.