College: College of Letters and Science
Designation: Department
Major: Psychology
Degrees Offered: M.A., M.S., Ph.D.
Other: Ph.D. Minor
Faculty: Professors Snowdon (chair), Abramson, Baker, Berridege, Caspi, Coe, Davidson, Devine, Gernsbacher, Glenberg, Goldsmith, Harackiewicz, Hyde, Jenison, Kluender, MacDonald, Moffitt, Moore, Newman, Ryff, Seidenberg; Associate Professors Alibali, Gooding, Harmon-Jones, Marler, Saffran, Shah; Assistant Professors Auger, Biesanz, Cai, Curtin, Grunewald, Livingston, Pollak, Postle; Affiliated Faculty--Professors Benca, Hermann, Kalin, Kelley, Kent, Lutfi, Schneider, Vandell; Associate Professors Evans, Kalish; Assistant Professors Abercrombie, Bakshi, Basso, Bolt, Gammie, Johnson, Litovsky, Nitschke, Whalen
The Department of Psychology has fostered excellence in research and scholarship for over 100 years. The department provides graduate students with the best available training to prepare them for a variety of professional careers in academic, clinical, research, and other settings. Emphasis is on both extensive academic training in general psychology and intensive research training in the student's area of concentration. The department expects students to become creative scientists and to exhibit an early and continuing commitment to research and scholarship. All students initiate a first-year research project and present the results to the entire department in the fall of the second year. Many students have several significant publications before receiving the Ph.D. degree. To support professional development, small grants fund student research and travel to present work at national conferences. The department offers workshops on writing proposals for grants and fellowships, and many students receive NSF or NIH predoctoral fellowships and other awards. The department hosts an NIH Emotions Training Grant that supports several predoctoral students.
Ordinarily students are admitted for graduate study in psychology only for the Ph.D. program. Students admitted to psychology may obtain the master's degree if they find it necessary to have a degree as formal evidence of progress toward the Ph.D.
There are five area groups in the psychology department from which students may select for their major concentration: biological, clinical, developmental, cognitive and perceptual sciences, and social/personality. Although most incoming graduate students' interests fall within these five areas of concentration, some do not. That some students' interests cut across departmental area groups and/or interface with other departments on campus is to be expected in a top-notch department because the boundaries of psychology itself are in flux. An innovative feature of the program is the Individualized Graduate Major designed for those graduate students who do not find a niche in the current area group structure and, instead, wish to cross area group lines and/or incorporate substantial training from other departments in their psychology graduate work. Faculty members and graduate students have many affiliations with other departments, institutes, and training programs: Institute on Aging, Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development, Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, Health Emotions Center, Neuroscience Training Program, Keck Neuroimaging Center, Hearing Training Program, Women's Studies Research Center, Institute for Research on Poverty, NSF National Consortium on Violence Research, Mass Communications Research Center, and Survey Research Laboratory. There are strong ties to the departments of Anatomy, Anthropology, Communicative Disorders, Educational Psychology, Entomology, Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Industrial Engineering, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Sociology, Wildlife Ecology, and Zoology.
Students can pursue training in theories and methodologies involved in the study of animal behavior. Course work and research provide a unique interdisciplinary experience with a strong emphasis on evolutionary/ecological principles and proximate mechanisms, including communication and the role of hormones and social relationships underlying the expression of behavior. The goal is to train outstanding students with a special interest in integrating knowledge across traditional discipline lines.
Many facilities are available for graduate training, including the department's Harlow Primate Laboratory, internationally known for its studies of primate development and learning, and the Callitrichid Behavior Laboratory, renowned for research on communication, reproduction, and conservation. In addition, students benefit from the Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center with its large rhesus monkey and marmoset colonies. Within the Brogden Psychology Building, research programs utilize many other small animal species. Well-equipped facilities are available, including surgical suites and histology, electrophysiology, endocrine, and immunology laboratories.
This program continues to grow and incorporate new perspectives. Students and faculty interact and collaborate with the departments of Anthropology, Comparative Biosciences, Wildlife Ecology, and Zoology, as well as the Neurosciences Training Program, Institute on Aging, and Center for Excellence in Women's Health Research. The UW-Madison provides a diverse and stimulating academic environment for training in biological psychology.
During their stay, clinical graduate students complete courses in assessment, clinical research methods, and a sequence of clinical core courses covering the etiology and treatment of psychopathology, in addition to statistics/methodology courses and course work in nonclinical areas both in and outside of the department. The required curriculum may take more than five years to complete. The clinical program is situated in a world-class psychology department that includes area groups in cognitive, biological, developmental, and social psychology. In addition, an Emotion Training Program within the department cuts across all other area groups and is supported by an NIMH training grant. Many clinical students and faculty are involved in various aspects of the Emotion Training Program. Many clinical students avail themselves of the extensive range of opportunities available through collaborations with other units on campus including the Waisman Center, an interdisciplinary research institute for developmental research; Institute on Aging; W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior; Department of Psychiatry; and other departments in the School of Medicine and Public Health, College of Letters and Science, and School of Education. The aim is to train scholars who are well-versed in modern, interdisciplinary research in psychopathology.
A major goal of the program is to integrate students' clinical and research activities. Students begin their clinical practicum in the Research and Training Clinic during their third year in the program and typically continue such practicum training throughout the remainder of their graduate careers. An important component of clinical training is the "Small Group Practicum" in which various clinical professors supervise practicum activities on topics related to their own areas of interest. In the summer following the third academic year, the student is appointed to a clerkship in one of the several agencies that cooperate with the department in providing practicum training. Finally, all clinical students obtain at least one full year of full-time clinical experience in an approved internship facility. Whereas many of our students obtain internships at various of the better-known training centers around the country, other students complete their internships at one of the excellent local sites. Virtually all clinical graduate students have received financial support while in residence in the graduate program.
Applicants for clinical psychology are urged to have their application completed by January 5 (see Admission). This will make it possible for the clinical faculty to consider inviting them for an interview in early January. Students who apply after this date will, in all likelihood, not be eligible to receive fellowship support. Admission into the clinical program is highly competitive. Please consider carefully the criteria for admission (see Admission).
Accreditation Status: Accredited (2/12/48)
Students within the program focus on cognitive, emotional, language, perceptual, personality, and social development, or relations among these areas. Within these content domains, students and faculty conduct research on both typical and atypical development, and work with individuals representing a wide range of ages, including infants, preschool and school age children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly. Specific faculty research interests include the development of mathematical reasoning and problem solving, development of visual perception and attention, developmental behavioral genetics, gender role development, developmental psychopathology, resiliency in adulthood and aging, and language acquisition.
Participants in our research studies are drawn from an unusually wide variety of sources, including local preschools and day care centers; public and private schools in the Madison area; the Dane County Division of Children, Youth, and Families; the Wisconsin Longitudinal Survey; University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics; and the Institute on Aging. Many developmental faculty are affiliated with the Waisman Center on Human Development, which provides a database of typically developing infants and children with developmental disabilities.
Additional resources are available to students from outside the psychology department. The social psychology program in the sociology department shares faculty members and courses with the program in psychology and offers seminars that supplement those taught in psychology. In addition, resources are provided by the Mass Communications Research Center, the Institute for Research on Poverty, and the Survey Research Laboratory.
The department has an extraordinary array of research facilities. Virtually all laboratories are fully computer controlled, and the department's general purpose computing facilities are freely available to all graduate students. The Brogden Building and the Harlow Primate Laboratory have special facilities for housing animals, as well as for behavioral, pharmacological, anatomical, immunological, and physiological studies. The department is well-equipped for studies of visual, auditory, and language perception and other areas of cognitive psychology. In addition, the Psychology Department Research and Training Clinic is housed in the Brogden Building. Connections with other departments and research institutes on campus (e.g., W.M. Keck Laboratory for Functional Brain Imaging and Behavior, etc.) have been described above.
An applicant is admitted into the program by an individual faculty member or by an area group (i.e., a group of faculty members associated with a major area of concentration) and not by the department as a whole, nor by an admissions committee. Because these programs tend to be small, they may not admit students in a particular year. Applicants interested in a particular program or working with a particular faculty member may contact the graduate admissions secretary at 608/262-2079 or individual faculty members to determine if admissions are likely for that year. Each faculty member and area group give preference to applicants who have a high potential for success in graduate school and who also share research interests with the prospective faculty sponsor. Applicants should consider carefully the description of faculty research interests, read several of their publications, and consult with faculty and advisors at the undergraduate institution before applying to the program. Whereas most applicants have majored in psychology, the department gives full consideration to applicants with undergraduate majors in other relevant areas.
Given its commitment to students, the Department of Psychology takes seriously its responsibility when admitting an applicant. Every piece of information is considered carefully. Students are selected on the basis of record of academic achievement, Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores, references, evidence of motivation and ability to do research, and also the fit between faculty and student research interests.
Decisions to admit applicants are made in spring. Applicants are strongly urged to submit the complete application, including transcripts, letters of recommendation and GRE scores by January 5, especially if they wish to be considered for fellowship or assistantship support. Most students admitted into the program are supported by either a research or project assistantship, teaching assistantship, or fellowship.
Consideration for admission is highly competitive. The department receives approximately 300 applications each year and less than 10 percent are admitted to the program. Applicants who fall below the minimum standards set by the department may still be admitted where there is clear justification (e.g., international students or minority group students whose GRE scores may not be an indicator of potential for graduate work, or students who are below the minimum requirement in one respect but well above it in other respects).
Undergraduate research experience is highly valued in applicants to the program and greatly enhances their chances of admission. Such research experience provides an opportunity to discover whether research is of interest and provides evidence of motivation and ability to do research.
Three references are required and are read very carefully. Good letters in favor of the applicant are essential and should be provided by faculty who know the applicant fairly well. The references should provide information that will evaluate potential for graduate work beyond that revealed by GPA and GRE scores. For example, a reference from a professor who writes about a student's unique skills, research abilities, and motivation is more influential than a reference that says the student received an "A" and was "very pleasant." Thus, references from faculty the applicant has worked with on a research project or senior thesis carry more weight in making a decision to admit.
In addition to references, grades, and Graduate Record Exam (GRE) scores, the faculty also consider carefully the personal statement. The personal statement is a place to communicate motives for attending graduate school, future goals, and why UW-Madison is the best place for the training to meet those goals. Applicants should describe in the personal statement any prior research experience and their role in that research.
For more information: Department of Psychology, Admissions Office, W. J. Brogden Psychology Building, 1202 West Johnson Street, Madison, WI 53706; 608/262-0512; alwiderski@wisc.edu ; psych.wisc.edu.