Northern Illinois University
Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Ph.D. Requirements

We offer a Ph.D. program in Developmental Psychology. Therefore, in Developmental Psychology, we admit students who wish to eventually pursue a Doctoral Degree. Students are initially admitted into the Master’s degree program with the expectation that they will continue to work toward the Ph.D. after completing the M.A. Students who have completed an M.A. degree prior to enrolling at NIU may petition to count their M.A. coursework toward the Ph.D., and students who have completed an M.A. thesis at another institution may begin working toward the Ph.D. upon enrollment at NIU.

• Master’s degree course requirements: Thirty semester hours must be taken for the master’s degree. Of these, 15 hours will consist of the departmental foundation courses listed below, and 6 hours will be thesis credit.
• Ph.D. course requirements: For the doctoral program, 90 semester hours are required beyond the baccalaureate degree. The dissertation will account for approximately two semesters of this total.
• Additional requirements: Additional requirements for the master’s degree and Ph.D. include completion of the master’s proposal, the master’s thesis and defense, the doctoral candidacy exam, the dissertation proposal, the dissertation, and the dissertation defense.
• Timeline for progress: A timeline for progress through the program and completion of these requirements is available here: Graduate Student Progress and Assessment.

Students with interests in developmental psychology typically concentrate their course work and research on developmental issues. However, while most students may choose to focus primarily on developmental psychology, they also have the option of combining it with other areas of psychology if they wish. Flexibility in each student’s program allows for individual programs of study to be developed in consultation with area faculty. Students may even apply simultaneously to the Developmental Psychology program and another program of interest.

Courses

The Developmental Psychology Program provides students with a broad background in major areas of psychology—including cognitive psychology, social psychology, behavioral neuroscience, and statistical methods—as well as a specific focus on psychological development from infancy through adolescence.

Foundation

Three courses from the following list are required. Additional courses from this list may be taken as electives.

• Psychology 601 - Fundamentals of Learning: Analysis of methodology, empirical findings, and theoretical attempts in the area of learning with emphasis on classical and instrumental conditioning.
• PSYC 603 - Biopsychology: Selected review of current research concerned with the biological and chemical bases of behavior.
• PSYC 611 - Cognitive Psychology: Theories, issues, and research in fundamental areas of human cognition, including learning and memory, attention, concepts and categories, and knowledge representation.
• PSYC 620 - Experimental Social Psychology: An in-depth survey of topics of current interest in social interaction, emphasizing experimental approaches to human behavior and including discussions of attitudes, persuasion, conformity, and aggression.
• PSYC 641 - Psychopathology: Evaluation of criteria, definitions, and classificatory schemes of psychopathology, with a focus on conceptualizing behavior problems as deviations from normative behavior on a continuum from mental illness to mental health, while considering individual differences and cultural influences.

Developmental Psychology

Electives

• Psychology 679 - Cultural Perspectives on Human Development: Crosslisted as EPS 679 and ANTH 679X. This course examines cultural perspectives on parenting, home-school relations, psychological development, and education using case materials from both Western and non-Western societies.

Statistics and Research Methods Courses

Required

• Psychology 604 - Analysis of Variance and Hypothesis Testing in Psychological Research: Covers concepts of probability, normal and sampling distributions, hypothesis testing, power analysis, various ANOVA models, post-hoc tests, and experimental design methods.
• Psychology 606 - Correlation and Regression Analysis in Psychological Research: Focuses on bivariate and multiple regression techniques, hierarchical and step-wise procedures, coding categorical variables, and testing for mediation and moderation effects.
• PSYC 690 - Psychological Research: Provides supervised research training in planning, design, execution, and analysis of psychological research. This course is required each semester prior to dissertation proposal approval and is repeatable (S/U grading).

Elective

• Psychology 710 - Multivariate Data Analysis in Psychological Research: Introduces techniques for conducting and interpreting multivariate analyses using SPSS, covering topics such as matrix algebra, the general linear model, canonical correlation, principal components, MANOVA, and more.
• Psychology 712 - Structural Equation Modeling in Psychological Research: Provides hands-on experience with SEM techniques, including path analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and advanced topics like multiple group analysis.
• Psychology 714 - Meta-Analysis in Psychological Research: Discusses the theory and techniques of meta-analysis and validity generalization, including aggregation of study results, coding for moderators, and use of meta-analytic software.

Methods or statistics courses offered by other departments may also be included in your program of studies.