Doctor of Philosophy in Social, Personality, and Health Psychology

The graduate program in Social, Personality, and Health (SPH) Psychology prepares students for careers in social psychology, personality psychology, health psychology, and the interface among these disciplines. Thematic areas of concentration that cut across faculty members and students in the SPH area include interpersonal relations, close relationships, and social networks, the self, identity, understanding, and belief, social cognition and social norms, antecedents and consequences of personality, scale development for social psychological and personality constructs, health behaviors including alcohol and substance use, disease risk and longevity, self-regulation and motivation, and sociocultural contexts and adverse experiences. The SPH area also has a strong focus on advanced quantitative methods including item response theory and psychometrics, structural equation and multilevel modeling, macro- and micro-longitudinal analyses, language analysis, and other data science techniques.The program generally emphasizes the application of social, personality, and health psychology theories, methods, and concepts to research in real life settings and important social issues.

Requirements include either a baccalaureate degree in psychology or an undergraduate degree that includes 24 semester hours in psychology, a 3.00 (A=4.00) grade point average in the most recent 60 semester hours of undergraduate or graduate courses, Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores, three letters of recommendation, and a goals statement. (Verbal, quantitative, and analytical writing GRE scores are examined separately and evaluated as one information source in the total application.)
TOEFL- Internet based Test (iBT)- An overall score of 79 or higher.
Paper-based Test (pBT)- An overall score of 550 or higher.
IELTS score required is an overall score of a 6.5