Psychology

The Graduate Program in Psychology at Georgetown University offers a five-year, full-time program of study in developmental science leading to a Ph.D. in Psychology. Located in close proximity to the White House, Congress, the National Institutes of Health, the National Academies, and many of the world’s most prestigious research and nonprofit organizations, the Department of Psychology provides a unique graduate education that bridges academic study and practice in both public policy and health/medicine.

Our two graduate student concentrations take full advantage of these resources. Students concentrate in either Human Development and Public Policy or Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience. A dual degree in Psychology (Ph.D.) and Master of Public Policy (M.P.P.) is also offered in collaboration with the McCourt School of Public Policy.

Both concentrations offer strengths that include an interdisciplinary education in the processes and contexts of development across the lifespan. Program requirements are explicitly designed to offer students rigorous training in the range of theories and methods that characterize the developmental sciences and enable them to place the study of development into the broader contexts- biological, familial, social, cultural, economic, historical, political- from which the field draws its societal applications. Faculty research ranges from studies of age-related differences to those focusing on only one period of the lifespan. Similarly, Ph.D. students' dissertation projects include both developmental and non-developmental components.

AREAS OF STUDY

HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY

The 42-credit concentration in Human Development and Public Policy and the 51-credit dual degree in Psychology and Public Policy link students to Georgetown’s extensive network of policy scholars and programs, integrating a solid grounding in the theoretical, conceptual and empirical work that defines developmental science with rigorous instruction in quantitative and policy analysis skills, the policy process, and additional disciplinary perspectives common to policy studies, notably economics and political science.

In addition to the core requirements, students become well-versed in methods of policy analysis and program evaluation and gain direct experience in applying scientific knowledge to policy issues affecting human development.

The developmental element of this concentration emphasizes social, emotional, and cultural dimensions of development. Students who select this concentration take a substantial share of the core courses required for masters students at the McCourt School of Public Policy (MSPP). During their first year, students take the existing Quantitative Methods and Ethics, Values, and Public Policy courses offered at the MSPP, as well as in other departments at Georgetown. They become well versed in basic processes of human development; highly skilled in research methods, statistics, and policy analysis; and well prepared to apply their knowledge and skills to real public policy issues affecting human development.

Graduates are prepared to assume positions as academic teachers and researchers, policy analysts, and research specialists in an array of policy, nonprofit, and other institutions, both national and international. This concentration maintains close ties with the existing Master of Public Policy (MPP) program at the MSPP.

Students in this concentration may apply separately and concurrently to the McCourt School of Public Policy to pursue a dual degree.

LIFESPAN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE

The 48/49-credit concentration in Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience integrates grounding in the theoretical, empirical, and conceptual scholarship that defines developmental science with rigorous preparation for teaching and research on cognition and its neural bases from a variety of methodological approaches. Students choosing this concentration may focus their own research on the behavioral/cognitive level to explore the processes of cognition from a systems perspective, and/or they may opt to use neuroimaging techniques to explore the brain bases of cognition. This concentration maintains close ties with Ph.D. programs in Linguistics and the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN).

Students may focus their research primarily on normal any period of development (early/late childhood, adolescence, adulthood) or aging. Research questions may examine behavioral, neural, and/or genetic mechanisms underlying normal or disordered cognition and/or emotion. Regardless of their particular research focus, all students choosing this concentration gain a firm grounding in basic theories and methods of experimental psychology and in their application to investigating the brain bases of behavior.

Students also gain a broad background in neuroscience in order to participate in interdisciplinary research and to appreciate how neuroscience at all levels contributes to, and benefits from, research on cognition. Students leave the program well-prepared to assume positions as academic researchers and teachers in medical and applied settings, or if they elect to take courses in our public policy concentration, to serve as policy analysts and applied researchers in various organizations.

To foster a broad background in neuroscience and to strengthen graduate student ties across disciplines, during their first year, in addition to Psychology courses, Lifespan Cognitive Neuroscience students take the Neuroscience Core course which is also taken by the Interdisciplinary Program in Neuroscience (IPN) students. In addition, graduate students in Linguistics and in the IPN often take Psychology’s graduate core seminars in Cognition (PSYC-511) and in Cognitive Neuroscience (PSYC-512).

COURSES REQUIRED FOR BOTH CONCENTRATIONS

• PSYC-501: LIFESPAN DEVELOPMENT: BRAIN AND COGNITION (3 credits)
• PSYC-502: HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN CONTEXT (3 credits)
• PSYC-505: GRADUATE TUTORIAL IN TEACHING (3 credits)

PSYCHOLOGY COURSES REQUIRED FOR THE LIFESPAN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE CONCENTRATION

• PSYC-511: SEMINAR IN COGNITION (3 credits)
• PSYC-512: SEMINAR IN COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE (3 credits)

PSYCHOLOGY COURSES REQUIRED FOR THE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLIC POLICY CONCENTRATION

• PSYC-365: SCIENCE, CHILDREN, AND POLITICS (3 credits)

ADDITIONAL PSYCHOLOGY COURSES AVAILABLE TO BOTH CONCENTRATIONS.

• PSYC-520: APPLIED MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS (3 credits)
• PSYC-901: GRADUATE TUTORIAL: PSYCHOLOGY (3 credits )
• PSYC-999: THESIS RESEARCH: PSYCHOLOGY (0 credits)

• Application Form
• Non-refundable Application Fee
• Statement of Purpose
• Resume/CV
• Official Transcript (all prior institutions)
• Official Recommendations (3)
• GRE Score
• TOEFL: A minimum score of 550 (paper-based test) or 80 (iBT test) on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).  Georgetown University's reporting code is 5244. 
• IELTS: A minimum score of 7.0 from the International English Language Testing System.
• Writing Sample