Overview
A Vigorous Ph.D. Graduate Program in Psychology Is Offered at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark
Just eight miles west of Manhattan, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Newark, has a well-earned reputation as a top research university with high-caliber graduate programs, faculty members who represent the leading voices in their fields, and an abundance of cutting-edge research projects. Nowhere is that reputation more evident than in Rutgers' vigorous Ph.D. graduate program in psychology.
Within the general field of psychology, the scientific study of mental functions and behavior, graduate students pursuing a Ph.D. degree in psychology can choose a specialization in one of five areas: biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive science, perception, or social psychology.
Graduate students in psychology learn in an intimate environment of highly personalized classroom interaction and have numerous opportunities to conduct definitive hands-on research with ground-breaking faculty researchers in topical areas such as autism and the effect of violence in the media on behavior. Low student-teacher ratios create the perfect climate for developing nurturing relationships with faculty mentors.
In the midst of an unprecedented resurgence, the city of Newark, New Jersey, provides a stimulating environment for psychology graduate students to explore. Known for its culture and museums, Newark is also famous for its internationally flavored Ironbound District, where hundreds of restaurants skillfully prepare the ethnic favorites of Spain, Portugal, Brazil, Italy, China, Mexico, Ecuador, and the Caribbean. Filled with nightclubs and taverns, specialty shops, clothing boutiques, and old-world style markets, the Ironbound District is always an adventure and a favorite destination for graduate students at Rutgers University's Newark campus.
Psychology Department Faculty and Graduate Students Conduct Seminal Research in State-of-the-Art Research Facilities
The Department of Psychology at Rutgers-Newark is primarily and foremost a research institution offering a variety of opportunities for those interested in gaining hands-on experience in the many different disciplines of psychology. Graduate students pursing their doctoral degrees in psychology develop their research skills under the guidance of acclaimed faculty members working in cutting-edge research facilities.
The psychology department faculty is always engaged in ground-breaking research projects. Individual labs are devoted to social development, neuroethology, social and affective neuroscience, mind brain analysis (RUMBA), visual cognition, behavioral dynamics, attachment, learning and decision making, and infant cognition.
Studies in the research facilities of the Attachment Lab include investigating an intervention program to facilitate the movement of college students from insecurity to more secure attachments. Faculty and students at the Learning and Decision Making Lab use behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) research to learn what information different brain systems are sensitive to, and how their activity influences decision making and learning. At the Neuroethology Lab, the faculty members and students study the ability of the adult brain to repair itself after injury.
The Infant Cognition Center investigates how infants understand objects and people in the world around them. In the Visual Perception laboratory, one of the research studies looks at how people with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) perceive and interpret other people's actions. At any given time, graduate students are hard at work on dozens of psychology research projects in Rutgers' top-notch research facilities.
Rutgers University in Newark Offers a Graduate Program in Psychology Leading to a Top-Notch Ph.D. Degree in Psychology
Located in Newark, this spacious, green campus of Rutgers University is the setting for ground-breaking, industry-leading research in diverse fields of study. The faculty of Rutgers-Newark's nationally recognized graduate program in psychology emphasizes research, empirical methods, teaching, and presentation skills. In preparation for cross-disciplinary research, all students must successfully complete one course in each of the five concentration areas, and, to gain depth as well as breadth in the behavioral sciences, students12 take 21 credits of electives while training for their psychology degrees. The graduate faculty is interdisciplinary and includes educators from the Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, the Department of Philosophy, and the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures.
The graduate program in psychology encourages students to take advantage of training and research opportunities in the adjacent Center for Molecular and Behavioral Neuroscience, the College of Business (information sciences), the College of Nursing, the Department of Biological Sciences, the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), and the New Jersey Institute of Technology, as well as adjunct courses listed in related areas, such as linguistics, philosophy, or cognitive science, on the New Brunswick campus.
While pursuing their psychology degrees, students have access to the department's computing laboratory and a series of individual laboratories for neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, and neuropharmacological research. In addition to a variety of human observation and testing rooms, one-way observation rooms, and video equipment, there are more than 16,000 square feet for animal holding and testing. There is a virtual reality system for the study of spatial navigation, a virtual reality driving simulator, and an optical motion capture system for the perception of biological movement.
