College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

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Developmental Psychology

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Developmental Psychology

I. Nature of Program

The Developmental program within the Department of Psychology provides doctoral training in developmental science.  Graduates of the program pursue careers in basic research and university level teaching. Applicants to the program must enter with plans to enroll full time to earn a doctoral degree

The Developmental program draws upon a rapidly expanding area of interdisciplinary developmental research linking psychophysiological, social, emotional, and cognitive development.  Because human development encompasses a wide range of psychological processes, and because developing individuals function in a wide range of settings that influence them and which they influence, the full study of development requires an integration of multiple approaches, analyses at multiple levels, and exposure to a wide range of research methodologies and tools of data analysis.

The Developmental Science Ph.D. program in Psychology is an area of concentration within a comprehensive Department of Psychology.  Research in the department spans the biological, individual and social levels of analysis, and reflects strengths in both basic research and real-world applications. The study of development spans traditionally separate areas of Psychology, and requires recruiting insights and techniques from across the field. Developmental students benefit directly from the departments’ breadth.

The Developmental Area in the Department of Psychology is part of a large and active community of developmental scientists across the University of Maryland College Park Campus.  Students in our program have access to this community via the Field Committee in Developmental Science (www.devsci.umd.edu). Students affiliated with the committee have access to doctoral courses and seminars across departments, including Human Development, Linguistics, Hearing and Speech Sciences, Kinesiology and Family Studies.

In addition, our faculty are among the members of the Neural and Cognitive Sciences Program (NACS, www.nacs.umd.edu), which is a multi-department, multi-college collaboration.  NACS offers courses, sponsors seminar series, and fosters interactions among scientists working in many areas of the neural and cognitive sciences across campus. Graduate students who are studying with Developmental faculty have the option of receiving their degree from either the Psychology Department or from the NACS Program.  Students who enter our laboratories via the NACS program will have Psychology as their "home department" Developmental Psychology students also have the option of completing a certificate in NACS.  Interested students should refer to the NACS website for details (www.nacs.umd.edu).

II. Program Structure (72 cr.)

A. Departmental Requirements (20 cr.)

1. Core courses (9 cr.): All Psychology doctoral students are required to take 3 core courses outside their area of specialization.  The Developmental faculty recommend that the student’s courses span at least two of the following levels of analysis

2. Statistics courses (11 cr.): All Psychology doctoral students are required to take PSYC 601, PSYC 602 (or equivalent), plus a third statistics or methodology course to be selected in consultation with the advisor.

B. Area Requirements (34 cr.)

1. Basic courses (9 cr.)

At least two of the following:

2. Specialization courses (12 cr.): Students are to take 12 credits (typically, 3 or 4 advanced courses) that provide breadth in developmental science and/or build expertise relevant to the student’s program of research. These must be content courses (not brown bags), and can include additional statistics/methodology courses.  Below are listed several suggested courses. Students can find additional suggestions via the Field Committee in Developmental Science (www.devsci.umd.edu).

3. Electives (13 cr.): Students should take 13 elective credits to fulfill the 72 credits needed for graduation.  These can include additional coursework, developmental seminar, brown bags, and research credits.

C. Research Requirements (18 cr.)

D. Developmental Seminar.

The Developmental Seminar brings together the students and faculty in the area throughout the academic year. Activities include discussions of important theoretical and empirical papers, research presentations by area faculty, students and post docs, discussions concerning professional development, and occasional presentations by visiting scholars. All students and faculty are expected to participate. After the second year, students should register for the seminar (PSYC 888 in Fall, and PSYC 889 in Spring) for 1-3 credits per semester.

E. Interface with the Developmental Science Field Committee.

The Developmental Science Field Committee is designed to provide a common set of training resources for the broad set of developmental science training programs across campus. It is not a formal program itself.  Students in the Developmental Psychology program are encouraged to apply for affiliate statues in the Field Committee (see www.devsci.umd.edu for details). As affiliates, students will have access to graduate courses across departments and will be able to participate in the Committees activities (e.g., meeting with visiting speakers).

F. Interface with Ph.D. program in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science. 

Because the NACS program is a Ph.D. degree granting program it establishes its own requirements for students seeking to obtain the Ph.D.  That program stipulates that each student has an academic “home” department -- i.e., the department in which the student’s primary mentor is housed -- and that the student’s mentor and advisory committee work together with the student to develop a suitable academic/research plan to meet the student’s long-term objectives.  Students in the Developmental program who wish to transfer into the NACS program can do so only with the support of his/her mentor, the Developmental Area faculty, and the approval of the Director of Graduate Studies.  Alternatively, Developmental Psychology students have the option of completing a certificate in NACS.  Interested students should refer to the NACS website for details (www.nacs.umd.edu).

III. Timeline for completion of requirements

The Psychology Department specifies department-wide expectations for the timely completion of graduate requirements, grades, research competency and the completion of the dissertation.  The Developmental Area faculty expect that students in this program will meet or exceed those standards.  We suggest the following timelines as guideposts to students in Developmental Psychology.  Students are expected to work closely with their advisors in planning a schedule for completion of the requirements.

A. Coursework

B. Research Requirements

IV. Faculty in the Developmental Area

Jude Cassidy (Professor) received her Ph.D. in 1986 from the University of Virginia. She received the Boyd R. McCandless Young Scientist award from the American Psychological Association and is a member of the editorial board of Child Development. Her interest is in socioemotional development with specific emphasis on attachment.

Andrea Chronis-Tuscano (Assistant Professor) received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 2002 from the State University of New York at Buffalo. She completed her training with an APA-accredited internship at the University of Chicago, where she received the Zanvel Klein Academic Award for excellence in clinical research and practice. Dr. Chronis-Tuscano joined the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland in 2002, and directs the Maryland Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Program. She is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the George Washington University School of Medicine, Children's National Medical Center. She is a recent recipient of the American Psychological Association Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Junior Faculty Mentoring and Development Award and the CHADD Young Research Scientist Award. Dr. Chronis-Tuscano's research focuses broadly on comprehensive behavioral and combined behavioral/ pharmacological treatments for ADHD. Her specific research interest involves the impact of parental psychopathology on the developmental and treatment outcomes of children with ADHD.

Tracy DeBoer (Assistant Professor, beginning in Fall 2008) received her Ph.D. in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 2005. She completed a post doctoral training fellowship at the M.I.N.D. Institute (M.I.N.D. stands for Medical Investigation of Neurodevelopmental Disorders) in the Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Department at the University of California, Davis. Most recently she was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Maryland, School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. Her research investigates the neural bases of memory development in both typically developing children and children with neurodevelopmental disorders using behavioral and neuroimaging techniques (both event-related potentials, ERPs and structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging, MRI).

Ellin Kofsky Scholnick (Professor and Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs) received her Ph.D. in 1963 from the University of Rochester. She has been President of the Jean Piaget Society, is their current book series editor and has been Secretary of Division 7 of the American Psychological Association. She is has been Associate Editor of Child Development and Developmental Psychology and is currently on the editorial boards of Cognition and Development. Her research focuses on the interactions of language and cognition particularly in reasoning, and in feminist approaches to gender development.

Amanda Woodward (Professor) received her Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford University in 1992. She was a post doctoral fellow at Cornell University and a faculty member at the University of Chicago before joining the faculty at Maryland in 2005. Her research has been recognized by several awards including the John Merck Fund Young Scholars Award (1994), the APA Boyd McCandless Award (2000) and a James McKeen Cattell Sabbatical Fellowship (2003-2004). She is a fellow in Division 7 of the American Psychological Association and in the Association for Psychological Science. Her research investigates infant social cognition and early language development.

 

 

Last modified 22 August, 2007
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