Florida State University

Program Information

Degree Offered

Ph.D.- Social Psychology (master's is incidental to Ph.D.)

Format: Campus

Program Description:

The program provides students with in-depth training in the areas of personality and social psychology, focusing on both basic and applied research. The goal of the program is to prepare students for future positions as researchers and educators. Coursework provides students with an education in a broad range of areas including classic and contemporary issues in social psychology, methodological and statistical approaches to psychological research, as well as in depth seminars in specialty areas such as prejudice and stereotyping, the self, motivation, social cognition, and evolutionary psychology. Graduate students develop further expertise in a specific area or areas of personality and social psychology through hands-on research, in collaboration with one or more faculty members in the Social program. Students in the program may specialize in one research area but are encouraged to work in several in order to broaden their experience. Students have been very successful at collaborating with multiple faculty members to help broaden their research. Some students may also have opportunities to collaborate with faculty in the other psychology programs whose interests and expertise are relevant to social psychology.
The broad areas of research interest and expertise of the Social Psychology program’s faculty provide several possible directions for interested graduate students to pursue. These broad areas of research include:

Self & Identity
Specific research includes self-control, self-knowledge, accuracy and error in self-judgment, self-deception and defense mechanisms, self-presentation and impression management; how the self operates in social interactions; how people respond to blows to their pride or “threatened egotism,” including effects on decision-making and aggression; the “need to belong” as a basic motivation, including what happens when people are rejected or excluded.

Prejudice and Stereotyping
Specific research includes the regulation of prejudice and the prejudice reduction process; the causes and consequences of negative affect in interracial interactions; the implications of race for responses to criminal suspects.

Emotion
Specific research includes emotional influences on judgment and decision-making, risk-taking, and social cognition; the self-regulation of emotional states; emotional experiences in the context of social interaction; psychophysiological processes and emotion.

Evolutionary Psychology
Specific research includes examination of evolved social cognition in areas such as romantic attraction and long-term relationships, power and dominance, social affiliation and rejection, prosocial/altruistic behavior, and prejudice; evolutionary approaches to human emotion and motivation; hormonal processes involved in social behavior.

Health
Specific research includes social processes in physical health (cancer prevention, healthy eating and physical activity, smoking cessation) and mental health (anxiety, depression, etc.); health communication; determinants of health protective or health-damaging behavior; judgment and decision making in the health context.

Tuition & Financial Aid

Financial Aid Offered: No

Classification: Doctoral/Research Universities - Extensive

Institution Sector: Public

Locale: Midsize City

Size & Settings: 20,000 and above