Social and personality psychology seeks to understand how people think about, influence, and relate to one another, and how they strive to satisfy personal needs and goals in the wider world.
Training in social and personality psychology at the advanced undergraduate, M.A., and Ph.D. levels emphasizes critical thinking and the scientific process from idea generation to disseminating knowledge. Such training occurs through a wide range of seminars, supervised research projects and thesis work, and regular research meetings of the social and personality faculty and graduate students, resulting in academic and applied careers. Students are encouraged to build their research portfolio by presenting at conferences, writing manuscripts for potential publication, and working on multiple lines of research.
Studying in the social and personality psychology area offers an opportunity to work with research experts on:
Close relationships (e.g., romantic, friendship, relationship initiation)
Health-related self-perceptions and behavior
Motivation and emotion in achievement and health domains
Individual differences (e.g., personal control, self-esteem, self-compassion, gender)
Intergroup relations and social justice (e.g., reconciliation, prejudice, discrimination, social change, intergroup interaction)
Scale construction
Social perception (e.g., attributions, biases, empathy, perspective taking, concerns with social evaluation)