Life-Span Developmental Psychology
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Research Training and Specializations
The Ph.D. in developmental psychology at West Virginia University combines breadth of conceptual training in a variety of perspectives on normal development across the life span with depth and rigor of research training in an area of life-span development selected by the student. The program is designed to train disciplined researchers. This goal is met through early and continued student involvement in independent research. The research experience can occur in a variety of laboratory or applied settings with a variety of age ranges; the research is conducted on a topic of the student's choice, insofar as possible, supervised by and in collaboration with one or more faculty mentors. Graduate students work with faculty mentors as junior colleagues. Mentors serve as a guide to the intricacies of graduate training inside and outside the classroom.
The developmental curriculum is organized so that breadth of training in life-span developmental psychology is obtained through courses in infancy, childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, adulthood and aging, and conceptual and methodological issues in developmental psychology. Research specialization in age periods and topical areas occurs through research, elective courses, and topical seminars in developmental psychology.
Most students specialize in a selected age period--infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aging, or some combination of these periods--and within the selected age period most students specialize in a topical area such as gender development, stress and coping, family caregiving, sleep, or emotion regulation, among other options. Life-span specialization in a topical area is also available.