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Behavioral Science Ph.D.
Doctoral Degree
Program type:
Major
Format:
On Campus
Est. time to complete:
5-6 years
Credit Hours:
42 (with master's) or 72 (with bachelor's)
Get the specialized training needed to pursue a career in human research or academia.
While most programs are highly focused and concentrated, we expose you to a variety
of content areas, including cognition, social, developmental, motivation, health and
neuroscience. This approach allows you to pursue a focus with a fully informed background
and better prepares you to work in collaborative research environments.
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Request More InfoWhy Earn a Behavioral Science Ph.D.?
The program offers training in both basic and applied research. Focus is on high quality training with intensive student-faculty involvement in joint research.
You'll participate actively in research with faculty members throughout your tenure in the program. This emphasis on one-to-one training allows you to acquire research skills while working on projects leading to publication or grant application. You'll eventually develop advanced knowledge and research expertise in one or more specialty area(s).
Key research areas for our faculty members include:
- Adult development
- Health psychology
- Neuropsychology
- Personality disorders
- Physiological psychology
- Traumatology
- Memory and Cognition
- Critical Race and Tokenism
- Addiction
- Social Motivation
Marketable Skills
- Oral and written communication
- Research data collection/interpretation
- Current event knowledge
- Idea origination/implementation
- Statistical analysis
Behavioral Science Ph.D. Highlights
The individual work is conducted simultaneously with projects leading to publications
or grant applications.
The program offers many teaching opportunities and support for professional development,
and it maximizes training for research.
The Graduate Student Writing Support office can help you with writing, and the Center
for Interdisciplinary Research offers assistance with statistical research.
A Dissertation Boot Camp and other specialized workshops are available through the
Toulouse Graduate School. Many of the workshops are available online for your convenience.
Financial support for doctoral students is often provided through teaching and research
assistantships, teaching fellowships and scholarships.
While pursuing your degree, you will gain competence in research through course work,
individual work with faculty members, vertical research teams led by faculty members
and informal research experiences.
What Can You Do With a Behavioral Science Ph.D.?
A Doctor of Philosophy degree in Behavioral Science will help you move into prominent roles as a researcher or professor at a university or as a research consultant with a counseling center, hospital, mental health center, medical school or rehabilitation services agency.
Behavioral Science Ph.D. Courses You Could Take
Cognitive and Affective Bases of Behavior (3 hrs)
Theories of research on social, psychological and biological dimensions of learning,
cognition, affect, memory and motivation (e.g., culture, self-concept, perception,
cognition, emotion, genotype and maturation).
Behavioral and Biopsychosocial Challenges within LGBT Communities (3 hrs)
Understanding the health-related behaviors and psychosocial factors associated with
sexual minorities (LGBT: lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered), primarily in the
U.S. Designed for healthcare workers, educators, service providers and individuals
who work with or are interested in LGBT communities.
Biological Bases of Behavior (3 hrs)
Study of biological bases of behavior, including human neuroanatomy, neuropathology,
behavioral correlates of cerebral dysfunction and neurological disorders.
Independent Research (3 hrs)
Initiation and conduct of advanced research projects and the dissemination of the
results. The purposes are to engender appreciation for scholarship and engage students
in research projects with a high probability of journal publication.
Better Living through Behavioral Science (3 hrs)
Continues an advanced discussion of the strategies and tactics of experimental research
in behavior analysis. Primary is a survey of common and not-so-common methods in behavior
analytic research and the principles that define appropriate methodology in behavior
analytic research.
Human Development (3 hrs)
Integrated rather than specialized view of the biophysical, sociocultural, psychoemotional
and intellectual development of human beings in Western culture. Development is viewed
as a product of the interaction of genetic endowment with the environment.
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