Graduate study in Psychology at Penn emphasizes scholarship and research accomplishment. The first-year program is divided between courses that introduce various areas of psychology and a focused research experience. A deep involvement in research continues throughout the graduate program, and is supplemented by participation in seminars, teaching, and general intellectual give-and-take. Students are admitted into the graduate program as a whole, not into specific subfields. Students and faculty are free to define their fields of interest. A high level of interaction between students and faculty helps generate both a shared set of interests in the theoretical, historical, and philosophical foundations of psychology and active collaboration in research projects.
The Graduate Group in Psychology is highly distinguished and represents a broad range of work in psychology and includes an APA-approved clinical program. Two regular faculty and two emeritus professors are members of the National Academy of Sciences, and three regular faculty are Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Department also includes past presidents of the American Psychological Association, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and of the Linguistics Society of America.
Many other faculty, graduate students, and former students have received national awards for excellence in research and teaching. We have strong connections with other disciplines at the University. Our members play pivotal roles in two of the most important interdisciplinary areas on campus, the cognitive sciences and the neurosciences, both of which have been fostered by the Department as a matter of policy.