Master of Arts in Psychological Sciences - Social Psychology

The concentration in Social Psychology aims to foster a solid understanding of theory and research in social psychology, including implications of how research may be applied to solve practical problems. Students are trained principally for academicresearch careers.The social concentration operates on an apprenticeship model where students work closely with faculty members on theory-driven research. Students are trained to think conceptually and to acquire proficiency in research methodology, statistics, scholarly writing, oral presentation, and teaching. Students are expected to be continually involved in research during their tenure in the department as they hone their own, independent interests.Faculty research interests include stereotyping and prejudice, self, identity, social cognition, political psychology, ideology, and social psychophysiology. Students are encouraged to explore the intersection of social psychology with other areas

A bachelor’s degree is required for ALL master’s, C.A.S., Ed.S., and doctoral programs.Official transcript of all previous college or university workWe are looking for well-qualified students who have a broad undergraduate background. Promising applicants typically have taken a range of psychology courses including statistics and research methods. To ensure adequate preparation for entering our strongly research-oriented program, we favor applicants with successful undergraduate coursework in science, mathematics, computer science, and/or who have extensive research experience. We look for a GPA above 3.5 and Verbal and Quantitative scores above 150. We are flexible about these scores, however, the overall picture from GPA, GRE, letters of reference and the personal statement needs to be convincing.Our program is selective (in most years we admit 1-3 graduate students) and mentor-based. As such, graduate students identify and work closely with a faculty member who serves as their graduate advisor facilitating the development of the graduate student’s research program. As a result, we encourage potential applicants to contact the faculty member or members who they hope to work with prior to applying to the program. Such contact often helps in assessing a student’s possible research interests and in matching a student with a faculty advisor who has similar interests.