Information for Prospective Graduate Students

Overview:

Our Social and Personality training program aims to provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary for (1) identifying research questions that are both important, and amenable to scientific investigation, (2) research design and methods that allow them to get at the core of a question, (3) a grounding in the existing body of knowledge, so they can position their research to benefit from, and advance, the state of knowledge, and (4) effectively communicate their work to maximize their contribution to the field and society.

Training Philosophy:

Being a graduate student in our program means becoming a part of a vigorous research community with a cooperative spirit. From the moment students begin, they are encouraged to develop a program of collaborative research with members of the faculty. As they develop their competence and experience through a training program that they and their advisor(s) develop, students will assume an increasingly large role in the research project and they will become full collaborators. Our goal is to help students become independent researchers, ready to start their own life-long program of research when they graduate from our program with a Ph.D.

We seek collaborative working relationship between faculty and students. While we make sure each student has a primary mentor, we encourage each student to work with more than one faculty. Students are also encouraged to take advantage of the strong clinical, cognitive, developmental, neuroscience, and quantitative programs offered by the department to broaden their training. We admit only a small number of students to our program to ensure they are able to work closely with faculty and other graduate students in research and teaching.

Courses and Colloquia:

Throughout their training, students take courses and seminars that efficiently provide the foundations of conducting research. Further, students have opportunities to attend brown bags, the departmental proseminar, and our department's colloquium series that brings internationally renowned researchers from other departments and schools at the university, as well as universities from around the world, to present their work and meet with graduate students and faculty.

Faculty:

The area's core faculty are available to serve as primary supervisors of Social & Personality graduate students. Our core faculty members make graduate admissions decisions collectively and encourage prospective students to consider how their research interests intersect with multiple members of our faculty. Prospective students are welcome to contact our core faculty members with questions about graduate study at the University of Washington. Also, prospective students are encouraged to contact our graduate students for their perspective on our program.

First Year Social & Personality Cohort

Finally, we would like to extend a big welcome to our new graduate students who joined us in the 2007-08 academic year, Ricardo Contreras, Leona Dondi, Ben Drury, and JiaoJiao Ye. Welcome!