We train social psychologists who produce and advance the scientific study of social psychological theories, including the affective, cognitive, sociocultural, motivational, neural, and physiological underpinnings of social behavior. Our students seek to understand how these processes are shaped by political, societal, organizational, and other factors.
The APA-accredited Ph.D. program in Psychology (specialization in Social Psychology) at Howard's Graduate School provides rigorous training in the scientific study of affective, cognitive, sociocultural, motivational, neural, and physiological underpinnings of social behavior. Our scholars seek to understand how these processes are shaped by political, societal, organizational, and other factors. Our program prepares graduates for careers as psychologists, social scientists, practitioners, and university and college faculty who advance the use of social psychological theories (i.e., attitudes, social cognition, judgment, and decision-making) and methods (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research) to understand how individuals perceive themselves and others and how people relate to one another. Our Ph.D. program emphasizes a firm grounding in contemporary theoretical orientations and multi-method approaches that combine assessment, self-report and direct behavioral observation, experience, correlational, longitudinal, and dyadic sampling methods, survey and field research design, EEG/ERP, eye-tracking, and peripheral psychophysiology. As a doctoral student in the Social Psychology graduate program, you'll be part of an active research culture at Howard and collaborate with faculty in research labs on projects across various knowledge domains in the social psychology field. You'll have numerous opportunities to present your research findings at key meetings in Washington, DC, and benefit from the close mentorship of faculty with wide-ranging research interests, including social cognition, self-knowledge, social identification, judgment and decision-making, intergroup relations, and prejudice and stereotyping.
