Graduate Programs
Our graduate programs will provide graduate students with the knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to become successful consumers and producers of psychological science. Psychology is a broad discipline that interfaces with the biological and social sciences and our program is organized around three concentrations that encapsulate the breadth of psychological science:
- Social/Personality
- Behavioral Health
- Evolutionary and Comparative
Apply NowM.S. in Psychology RequirementsPh.D. in Psychology Requirements
The Master of Science (MS) with a concentration in Social-Personality Psychology is a two-year terminal degree program in experimental methodology. The Ph.D. is a five-year program aimed at preparing the candidate for an academic career in Social-Personality Psychology. As a graduate student in the Social-Personality concentration, you will be exposed to course work concerning the theoretical foundations of the discipline. You will also acquire the quantitative skills and expertise in research methodology that is necessary to contribute to the advancement of the field of social-personality psychology. Through formal and informal aspects of the program, you will develop skills in conceptual analysis of social-personality psychology, research design, data analysis, scientific writing, teaching, editorial reviewing, and scholarly presentations.
Faculty in the Social-Personality Psychology concentration have varied, active research programs currently investigating several facets of psychological experience, including self-esteem, dark personality features (e.g., narcissism), post-traumatic growth, social influence (e.g., obedience, conformity), alcohol use, physiological correlates of social behavior (e.g., hormonal variations), romantic relationships, mate choice, sexual violence, sexual risk-taking, infidelity, and jealousy.
Dr. Melissa McDonald: My primary program of research attempts to improve our understanding of why intergroup bias is a pervasive feature of human societies. To this end, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach drawing on research from social and personality psychology as well as anthropology and evolutionary biology. Within this framework, I am interested in how the psychological systems that produce intergroup bias operate, with a particular emphasis on how these systems differ for men and women. For example, my research explores questions such as: Why is intergroup bias so often a male-on-male affair? What are the ultimate motivations of intergroup bias for men and women, and more specifically, when and why do they differ? And, how do situational features and individual differences shape the expression of intergroup bias? Most recently, I have become interested in developing practical interventions for reducing bias and conflict between groups. For more information, please visit: Dr. Melissa McDonald's website.
Dr. Michele Parkhill Purdie: My primary research interests are centered on both perceptions of masculinity and violence against women. I utilize both survey and experimental methodologies to examine predictors of violence against women with a particular focus on masculinity, childhood abusive trauma, substance use, and emotion regulation. In addition to violence against women, I have several lines of research that examine violence against LGBTQ individuals, police violence, and gun violence. For a list of publications and presentations, please visit: Dr. Michele Parkhill Purdie's website.
Dr. Kanako Taku: My research has centered on the construct of post-traumatic growth – positive psychological changes that may occur as a result of the struggle with major life crises or traumatic events. One of my primary research interests is developing a psycho-educational intervention program that aims to enhance cognitive abilities triggered by post-traumatic growth. Additionally, I am interested in challenging the definitions and conceptualization of post-traumatic growth from cross-cultural, social, and personality perspectives. I am also investigating different growth processes dependent on the nature of triggered experiences such as: experiencing trauma (e.g., earthquake); causing or enabling trauma (e.g., bullying); having non-traumatic but influential life experiences (e.g., having a baby or undertaking spiritual pilgrimages); and working with traumatized people (e.g., vicarious post-traumatic growth). For more information, please see visit: Dr. Kanako Taku's website.
Dr. Lisa Welling: My research mainly focuses on hormonal and psychological sources of individual differences in human preferences, perception, and behavior. For example, my work has investigated how menstrual cycle effects, hormonal contraceptive use, and other sources of hormonal variation affect mate choice and person perception in men and women. Other research interests into individual differences in adaptive preferences have investigated penchants for sexually dimorphic cues, cues to kinship/relatedness, dominance, health, condition-dependent preferences, and salience of emotional expressions. Finally, given the incredible importance of mate choice and interpersonal relationships on reproduction and overall fitness, I am interested in human sexual behavior and adaptive preferences for underlying markers of mate quality. For more information and to download publications, please visit: Dr. Lisa Welling's website.
Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill: My primary research interests are in three interrelated areas: (1) self-esteem, (2) dark personality features (e.g., narcissism, psychopathy, spitefulness), and (3) interpersonal relationships. Though divergent at times, these substantive areas often overlap in my research so that much of my work reflects an integration of these topics. In my research concerning self-esteem, I have focused primarily on the causes and consequences of fragile high self-esteem as well as the development of the status-signaling model of self-esteem. My research concerning dark personality features is focused on identifying potentially maladaptive aspects of personality and examining their connections with important life outcomes (e.g., psychological adjustment). Finally, in the area of interpersonal relationships, I examine how personality features as well as beliefs about the self and one’s romantic partner influence intimacy, relationship satisfaction, jealousy, infidelity, and longevity in close relationships. For more information about my research and to download publications, please visit: Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill's website.
The Master of Science (MS) with a concentration in Behavioral Health is a two-year terminal degree program in experimental methodology aimed at developing the research skills necessary to pursue doctoral training in health or applied areas. The Ph.D. is a five-year program aimed at preparing the candidate for an academic career in Behavioral Health.
As a graduate student in the Behavioral Health concentration, you will be exposed to course-work concerning the theoretical foundations of the discipline. You will also acquire the quantitative skills and expertise in research methodology that is necessary to contribute to the advancement of the field of behavioral health psychology. Faculty in the behavioral health concentration have active research programs investigating cardiovascular health, obesity, sexual risk taking, addictive behaviors, violence, trauma, and emotion regulation.
The Master of Science with a concentration in evolutionary and comparative psychology is a two-year terminal degree program in experimental methodology. The Ph.D. is a five-year program aimed at preparing the candidate for an academic career in evolutionary psychology or in comparative psychology. Research within this concentration has the principle goal of gaining a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of human and non-human psychology and behavior by exploring research questions as they pertain to natural and sexual selection.
The concentration targets the development of the research skills necessary to pursue (M.S.) or complete (Ph.D.) doctoral training in areas of psychology, such as evolutionary perspectives on cognitive processes, individual differences, and factors influencing behavior in both humans and non-humans. Faculty in the evolutionary and comparative psychology concentration have varied, active research programs currently investigating several facets of psychological experience, including human and non-human cognition, pro-sociality, cooperation, memory, concept formation, theory of mind, individual differences, behavioral endocrinology, mate choice, interpersonal relationships, mate guarding/jealousy, mate choice copying, person perception, preferences, attractiveness, human sexual behavior and animal/human interactions.
Dr. Melissa McDonald: My primary program of research attempts to improve our understanding of why intergroup bias is a pervasive feature of human societies. To this end, I adopt an interdisciplinary approach drawing on research from social and personality psychology as well as anthropology and evolutionary biology. Within this framework, I am interested in how the psychological systems that produce intergroup bias operate, with a particular emphasis on how these systems differ for men and women. For example, my research explores questions such as: Why is intergroup bias so often a male-on-male affair? What are the ultimate motivations of intergroup bias for men and women, and more specifically, when and why do they differ? And, how do situational features and individual differences shape the expression of intergroup bias? Most recently, I have become interested in developing practical interventions for reducing bias and conflict between groups. For more information, please visit: my Dr. Melissa McDonald's website.
Dr. Jennifer Vonk: I am a comparative/cognitive psychologist with primary research interests in two overlapping areas: (1) animal cognition, and (2) cognitive development. The underlying goal of my work is to examine cognitive continuities and discontinuities between humans and both closely and distantly related species. Thus, my work focuses on examining both phylogenetic and ontogenetic origins of cognitive processes that may or may not be shared with humans. Current work centers on social cognition, such as theory of mind, co-operation, prosociality, and reasoning about emotions, as well as physical cognition, such as causal reasoning, analogical reasoning, numerosity, and natural concept formation. I am collaborating with the Center for Zoo Animal Welfare at the Detroit Zoo and the Organization for Bat Conservation to tackle issue of animal welfare as well. Recent work with humans is focused on examining the effects of religiosity, attachment, and perspective-taking on human decision-making processes. For additional information and to download publications, please visit: Dr. Jennifer Vonk's website.
Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill: My primary research interests are in three interrelated areas: (1) self-esteem, (2) dark personality features (e.g., narcissism, psychopathy, spitefulness), and (3) interpersonal relationships. Though divergent at times, these substantive areas often overlap in my research so that much of my work reflects an integration of these topics. In my research concerning self-esteem, I have focused primarily on the causes and consequences of fragile high self-esteem as well as the development of the status-signaling model of self-esteem. My research concerning dark personality features is focused on identifying potentially maladaptive aspects of personality and examining their connections with important life outcomes (e.g., psychological adjustment). Finally, in the area of interpersonal relationships, I examine how personality features as well as beliefs about the self and one’s romantic partner influence intimacy, relationship satisfaction, jealousy, infidelity, and longevity in close relationships. For more information about my research and to download publications, please visit: Dr. Virgil Zeigler-Hill's website.
Dr. Martha Escobar's website.
Department of Psychology
654 Pioneer Drive
Rochester, MI 48309-4482
(location map)
(248) 370-2300
Fax: (248) 370-4612