Social Psychology
Coordinator: Melissa Milkie | (301)
405-6428
| mmilkie@socy.umd.edu
The University of Maryland’s
Department of Sociology offers a rich and varied program
in social psychology that spans multiple levels of
analysis and methodological approaches. Six faculty
members identify social psychology as a principal area
of interest. Eight courses in social psychology are
offered at the graduate level. We also offer a strong
program of training in the methodology and statistics of
contemporary social psychology.
The
social psychology area at Maryland has achieved national
distinction (ranked 16th in the U.S. in 2006)
and has been very popular among graduate students. Our
faculty are unified through strengths in micro
approaches to stratification (e.g., gender, race, and
socioeconomic status). Melissa Milkie and Jeff Lucas,
along with alumnus David Rohall, (Ph.D., 2000) have
co-written a new undergraduate textbook in Sociological
Social Psychology that underscores how features of
stratification underlie much of the research
accomplishments of our field.
Associated Research
Centers
Ties
between the social psychology program and the Joint
Program in Survey Methodology, an interdisciplinary
graduate training program, provide a unique resource for
graduate student training in public opinion and survey
methodology. Our associated research centers provide
opportunities for faculty and graduate research and
training, as do the Webuse Research Group, the
University of Maryland Stress and
Health Program,
and an experimental laboratory for the study of group
processes.
Faculty Interests
Sociology faculty with major
research interests in social psychology include
Jeff
Lucas,
Melissa Milkie,
Leonard Pearlin,
Stanley Presser,
John Robinson, and
Mady W. Segal. Carmi Schooler joins
us in 2007 as Research Professor.
The social psychology
faculty are actively engaged in numerous research
projects. Lucas is co-PI on a newly funded National
Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to examine stigma and
status processes in interpersonal interactions; Milkie’s
new NIH grant research focuses on social statuses and
children’s mental health; Pearlin continues his prolific
work examining stress and health among older Americans
with a National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded grant;
Presser’s research explores how the measurement of
attitudes and behavior is intertwined in complex ways
with social psychological processes; Robinson examines
how time use patterns are critical for understanding
different social groups’ patterns of behavior in
societies across the world; and Segal’s research
continues to add to our understanding of the lives of
military women and military families.
The
social psychology faculty’s orientations are diverse and
represent an array of theoretical perspectives. Both
quantitative and qualitative methodologies employed by
social psychologists are represented in the faculty's
empirical studies, including surveys, experiments,
observational studies, content analysis, in-depth
interviewing, and cross-cultural research designs.
Academic Program
Our speciality area is
vibrant, and includes a monthly brownbag seminar series
in which graduate students actively participate. All
graduate students in social psychology are expected to
enroll in SOCY 660, Theories of Social Psychology.
For a Ph.D. specialization, students take at least two
other courses from the following list:
SOCY 624 Lives and Times: Socialization Across the Life
Course
SOCY 632 Personality and Social Structure
SOCY 634 Attitudes and Public Opinion
SOCY 642 Sociology of Mental Health
SOCY 645 Sociology of the Self Concept
SOCY 647
Interpersonal Processes and Small Groups
SOCY 699
Power, Status, and Leadership in Groups
SOCY 719 Advanced Special Topics in Social Psychology
Other special topics courses
or courses in other departments may be allowed by
petition. Students are encouraged to take more than
three courses in the specialty area to prepare
themselves for research and teaching in this area as
well as for comprehensive exams in social psychology.
Recommended methods courses
include the following:
SOCY 604 Survey Research
SURV 630 Questionnaire Design
SURV 632 Social and Cognitive Foundations of Survey
Measurement
Graduate Student
Research Opportunities and Employment
In
addition to working with individual faculty on research,
graduate students can find employment as research
assistants in a variety of projects within the
department and in the Washington DC area. Students are
encouraged to present papers at regional and national
professional meetings and to publish their work in
professional journals. There are also many opportunities
to develop teaching skills that will be helpful in
future employment, as social psychology is perennially
popular in the sociology undergraduate curriculum.
Recent graduates have positions as faculty members in
graduate and undergraduate sociology departments, as
well as in government and nonprofit research
organizations.
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