Faculty
Jennifer Ablow, associate professor (developmental psychopathology, attachment, interpersonal emotional arousal and regulation). BA, 1988, Colorado, Boulder; PhD, 1997, California, Berkeley. (1999)
Nicholas Allen, Ann Swindells Professor of Clinical Psychology (adolescent development and mental health, mood disorders, developmental social and affective neuroscience). BS 1985, MS, 1988, PhD, 1993, Melbourne. (2013)
Holly Arrow, professor (group dynamics, psychology of war). BA, 1977, Elmira; MFA, 1982, Colorado; MA, 1995, PhD, 1996, Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. (1996)
Dare A. Baldwin, professor (language acquisition, semantic development, cognitive development). BA, 1982, California, Berkeley; MSc, 1984, California, Santa Cruz; PhD, 1989, Stanford. (1993)
Elliot Berkman, assistant professor (affective neuroscience, self-regulation, quantitative methods for neuroimaging). BA, 2002, Stanford; PhD, 2009, California, Los Angeles. (2010)
Paul Dassonville, associate professor (cognitive neuroscience, perception, sensorimotor integration). BS, 1986, Texas A & M; PhD, 1992, California, Los Angeles. (1999)
Dagmar Zeithamova Demircan, assistant professor (cognitive neuroscience, memory). MA, 2003, Charles University, Prague; PhD, 2008, Texas, Austin. (2014)
Caitlin M. Fausey, assistant professor (development, language and cognition, experience sampling). BA, 2004, Northwestern; MA, 2008, PhD, 2010, Stanford. (2014)
Philip A. Fisher, professor; Philip H.Knight Chair, Department of Psychology (prevention research, stress neurobiology, foster care). BA, 1986, Bowdoin College; MS, 1990, PhD, 1993, Oregon. (2008)
Jennifer J. Freyd, professor (trauma psychology). BA, 1979, Pennsylvania; PhD, 1983, Stanford. (1987)
Gordon C. Nagayama Hall, professor (sociocultural context of psychopathology, sexual aggression). BS, 1977, Washington (Seattle); PhD, 1982, Fuller Theological Seminary. (2001)
Sara D. Hodges, professor (social cognition, construction of social judgments). BA, 1989, Rhodes; MA, 1992, PhD, 1995, Virginia. (1995)
Heidemarie K. Laurent, assistant professor (biology of stress regulation, interpersonal relationships, mindfulness). BA, 2001, Scripps College; PhD, 2008, Massachusetts, Amherst. (2013)
Robert Mauro, associate professor (social, emotions, psychology and law). AB, 1979, Stanford; MS, 1981, Yale; PhD, 1984, Stanford. (1984)
Ulrich Mayr, Robert and Beverly Lewis Professor in Neuroscience (cognitive neuroscience, cognitive aging). BA, 1988, PhD, 1992, Berlin. (2000)
Jeffrey Measelle, associate professor (developmental psychology, emotional development, family). BA, 1985 Brown; PhD, 1997, California, Berkeley. (1999)
Pranjal Mehta, assistant professor (social neuroscience, status hierarchies, social decision-making). BA, 1999, Williams College; PhD, 2007, Texas, Austin. (2011)
Louis J. Moses, professor (social and cognitive development). BA, 1983, Western Australia; PhD, 1991, Stanford. (1993)
Helen Neville, Robert and Beverly Lewis Endowed Chair in Neuroscience; professor (cognitive neuroscience). BA, 1968, British Columbia; MA, 1970, Simon Fraser; PhD, 1975, Cornell. (1995)
Jennifer Pfeifer, associate professor (developmental and social cognitive neuroscience, adolescent self-perception and emotion processing). BA, 2000, Stanford; MA, 2003, PhD, 2007, California, Los Angeles. (2008)
Gerard Saucier, professor (personality beliefs and values, psychometrics). BA, 1978, North Carolina, Chapel Hill; MA, 1984, PhD, 1991, Oregon. (1997)
Margaret E. Sereno, associate professor (visual cognition, neural network modeling, brain imaging). BA, 1983, Northern Illinois; PhD, 1989, Brown. (1991)
Azim Shariff, assistant professor (religion, morality, cultural and evolutionary psychology). BSc, 2004, Toronto; MA, 2006, PhD, 2010, British Columbia. (2010)
Paul Slovic, professor (judgment, decision-making, risk assessment). BA, 1959, Stanford; MA, 1962, PhD, 1964, Michigan. (1986)
Matt Smear, assistant professor (systems neuroscience, olfaction). ScB, 1998, Duke; PhD, 2005, California, San Francisco. (2014)
Sanjay Srivastava, associate professor (interpersonal perception and self-perception, social functions of emotions, personality dynamics and development). BA, 1995, Northwestern; PhD, 2002, California, Berkeley. (2004)
Don M. Tucker, professor (emotion, cognition, neuropsychology). BA, 1969, Colorado; MS, 1972, PhD, 1974, Pennsylvania State. (1984)
Nash Unsworth, associate professor (working memory, memory and attention differences, memory search and retrieval). BS, 2001, Idaho State; PhD, 2006, Georgia Institute of Technology. (2010)
Michael Wehr, associate professor (systems neuroscience, auditory neurophysiology, cortical circuits). ScB, 1991, Brown; PhD, 1999, California Institute of Technology. (2005)
Emeriti
Lewis R. Goldberg, professor emeritus. AB, 1953, Harvard; MA, 1954, PhD, 1958, Michigan. (1960)
Barbara Gordon-Lickey, professor emerita. AB, 1963, Radcliffe; PhD, 1966, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. (1969)
Marvin Gordon-Lickey, professor emeritus. AB, 1959, Oberlin; MA, 1962, PhD, 1965, Michigan. (1967)
Douglas L. Hintzman, professor emeritus. BA, 1963, Northwestern; PhD, 1967, Stanford. (1969)
Ray Hyman, professor emeritus. AB, 1950, Boston University; MA, 1952, PhD, 1953, Johns Hopkins. (1961)
Carolin Keutzer, associate professor emerita. BA, 1960, MA, 1963, PhD, 1967, Oregon. (1967)
Daniel P. Kimble, professor emeritus. BA, 1956, Knox; PhD, 1961, Michigan. (1963)
Peter M. Lewinsohn, professor emeritus. BS, 1951, Allegheny; MA, 1953, PhD, 1955, Johns Hopkins. (1965)
Edward Lichtenstein, professor emeritus. BA, 1956, Duke; MA, 1957, PhD, 1961, Michigan. (1966)
Richard A. Littman, professor emeritus. AB, 1943, George Washington; PhD, 1948, Ohio State. (1948)
Richard Marrocco, professor emeritus. BA, 1965, California, Los Angeles; PhD, 1972, Indiana. (1973)
Michael I. Posner, professor emeritus. BS, 1957, MS, 1959, Washington (Seattle); PhD, 1962, Michigan. (1965)
Mary K. Rothbart, professor emerita. BA, 1962, Reed; PhD, 1967, Stanford. (1969)
Myron Rothbart, professor emeritus. BA, 1962, Reed; PhD, 1966, Stanford. (1969)
Marjorie Taylor, professor emerita. BS, 1979, MS, 1981, Acadia; PhD, 1985, Stanford. (1985)
Robert L. Weiss, professor emeritus. BA, 1952, PhD, 1958, State University of New York, Buffalo. (1966)
The date in parentheses at the end of each entry is the first year on the University of Oregon faculty.
Undergraduate Studies
All students participate in and collaborate on research as part of the academic course sequence. Students are encouraged to gain additional research experience through research assistant positions in faculty labs and the undergraduate honors thesis program. The psychology major affords students great flexibility in selecting upper-division courses to fit individual goals and interests. Classroom and internship opportunities are enriched by numerous faculty research programs that range in levels of analysis and intellectual focus. An undergraduate degree in psychology provides the background for a broad range of careers, including social services, education, law, or graduate programs in psychology.
Preparation
High school preparation should include courses in social sciences as well as the natural sciences (physics, biology, chemistry). Language and mathematical skills are also highly desirable. In general, the broad liberal-arts training that prepares students for college studies is appropriate for majoring in psychology at the university.
Careers
Some students major in psychology to prepare for graduate training and careers in related fields such as personnel relations, vocational and personal counseling, medicine and dentistry, social and case work, marketing, administration, the legal profession, or counseling in the public schools. Others prepare for careers as academic psychologists (teaching and research), clinical psychologists (mental health centers, institutions, and private practice), industrial and organizational psychologists, and government psychologists (testing, research, and administration).
Career information is also available on the American Psychological Association website.
Review of Courses
Lower-Division Courses
Among lower-division courses, psychology is introduced as a social science by the following courses:
Transfer students should plan to take no more than two lower-division courses before starting upper-division work. The introductory courses should be chosen with an eye toward prerequisites for upper-division courses and toward providing a broad background in the field. Transfer equivalents for lower-division courses are evaluated case by case. Check with the department’s head advisor to determine equivalency of completed introductory work.
Upper-Division Courses
Upper-division courses fall into three categories:
- Courses that teach research skills and methodologies (Statistical Methods in Psychology (PSY 302) and Research Methods in Psychology (PSY 303)).
- Other 300-level courses are of broad interest to many different majors throughout the university as well as to psychology majors
- Area courses, numbered 410 to 480, designed for psychology majors, may be open to other students who fulfill the prerequisites by obtaining instructor approval
Group Requirements
For psychology courses approved to fulfill social science or science group requirements, see the current course list on the registrar’s website, registrar.uoregon.edu/common/group_courses.php
.
Major Requirements
Required courses must be taken for letter grades and passed with C– or better. Elective psychology courses may be taken pass/no pass. Students must take 12 elective credits, 8 of which must be actual content courses.
Bachelor of Arts Degree Requirements
| MATH 111 | College Algebra (or equivalent) 1 | 4 |
| or MATH 243 | Introduction to Methods of Probability and Statistics |
| PSY 201 | Mind and Brain | 4 |
| PSY 202 | Mind and Society | 4 |
| 8 |
| College Composition I
and College Composition II | |
| College Composition I
and College Composition III | |
| PSY 302 | Statistical Methods in Psychology | 4 |
| PSY 303 | Research Methods in Psychology | 4 |
| Motor Control | |
| |
| Language and Cognition | |
| Psycholinguistics |
| Learning and Memory | |
| Cognition | |
| Human Performance | |
| Perception | |
| Brain Mechanisms of Behavior | |
| Human Neuropsychology | |
| Hormones and Behavior | |
| Cognitive Development | |
| Language Acquisition | |
| 8 |
| Psychology and Law | |
| Social Psychology | |
| Group Dynamics | |
| Decision-Making | |
| Cultural Psychology | |
| Imagination | |
| Motivation and Emotion | |
| Psychopathology | |
| Personality | |
| Psychology of Trauma | |
| Marital and Family Therapies | |
| Social Development | |
| Development and Psychopathology | |
| |
| Total Credits | 48 |
Bachelor of Science Degree Requirements
| MATH 111 | College Algebra (or equivalent) 1 | 4 |
| or MATH 243 | Introduction to Methods of Probability and Statistics |
| PSY 201 | Mind and Brain | 4 |
| PSY 202 | Mind and Society | 4 |
| 8 |
| College Composition I
and College Composition II | |
| College Composition I
and College Composition III | |
| PSY 302 | Statistical Methods in Psychology | 4 |
| PSY 303 | Research Methods in Psychology | 4 |
| Motor Control | |
| |
| Language and Cognition | |
| Psycholinguistics |
| Learning and Memory | |
| Cognition | |
| Human Performance | |
| Perception | |
| Brain Mechanisms of Behavior | |
| Human Neuropsychology | |
| Hormones and Behavior | |
| Cognitive Development | |
| Language Acquisition | |
| 8 |
| Psychology and Law | |
| Social Psychology | |
| Group Dynamics | |
| Decision-Making | |
| Cultural Psychology | |
| Imagination | |
| Motivation and Emotion | |
| Psychopathology | |
| Personality | |
| Psychology of Trauma | |
| Marital and Family Therapies | |
| Social Development | |
| Development and Psychopathology | |
| |
| Total Credits | 48 |
Planning a Program
Besides attending lecture courses, students may participate in seminars, reading and conference courses, laboratory work, and other means of gaining experience. Departmental requirements for a psychology major are designed to maximize individual curriculum planning. Students are encouraged to schedule frequent consultations with their advisors to ensure completion of all requirements. Peer advisors can help students create a two- or four-year plan.
Sample Program
The sample program shown provides an idea of a typical course load during the freshman year for a student working on a bachelor's of science.
| First Year |
|---|
| Fall | Credits |
|---|
| Art and Letters elective | | 4 |
| WR 121 | College Composition I | 4 |
| Mathematics | | 4 |
| Science elective | | 4 |
| Winter |
|---|
| Arts and letters elective | | 4 |
| WR 122 or 123 | College Composition II | 4 |
| Mathematics | | 4 |
| Social science elective | | 4 |
| Spring |
|---|
| Arts and letters elective | | 4 |
| PSY 201 or 202 | Mind and Brain | 4 |
| Mathematics | | 4 |
| Science elective | | 4 |
| | Total Credits: | 48 |
Departmental requirements for a psychology major are designed to maximize individual curriculum planning. This should be done in close and frequent consultation with the advisor.
Peer Advising
The psychology department’s peer advisors work to make academic advising more effective, welcoming, and efficient. Questions about the university system and specific inquiries about the department’s norms, opportunities, and courses are welcome. During the academic year, the peer advisors hold regularly scheduled office hours in 229 Straub Hall.
Preparation for Graduate Study
A bachelor’s degree is seldom sufficient qualification for professional work in psychology; at least a master’s degree is required for most positions. Students should not undertake graduate work unless their grades in undergraduate psychology and related courses have averaged mid-B (3.00) or better.
Prospective graduate students in psychology are advised to take courses in related fields such as anthropology, biology, computer science, chemistry, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, physics, and sociology. Strong preparation in quantitative methods is advisable. Reading knowledge of at least one second language appropriate to psychology also may be useful.
Honors Curriculum
Students with excellent records who plan to pursue a career in psychology may consider applying to the departmental honors program upon completion of PSY 303. The honors program centers on an independent research project, which the student develops and carries out under the supervision of a departmental committee. Information about admission criteria and how to apply is available online, psychology.uoregon.edu/undergraduate/academics/honors-program
.
Minor Requirements
Special Studies: [Topic] (PSY 199) does not count toward the minor.
PSY 201
& PSY 202 | Mind and Brain
and Mind and Society | 8 |
PSY 302
& PSY 303 | Statistical Methods in Psychology
and Research Methods in Psychology | 8 |
| 12 |
| Motor Control | |
| Experimental Course: [Topic] (Evolutionary Psychology) | |
| Psychology and Law | |
| Learning and Memory | |
| Cognition | |
| Human Performance | |
| Perception | |
| Psycholinguistics | |
| Language and Cognition |
| Brain Mechanisms of Behavior | |
| Hormones and Behavior | |
| Social Psychology | |
| Group Dynamics | |
| Decision-Making | |
| Cultural Psychology | |
| Imagination | |
| Motivation and Emotion | |
| Psychopathology | |
| Personality | |
| Psychology of Trauma | |
| Marital and Family Therapies | |
| Language Acquisition | |
| Social Development | |
| Development and Psychopathology | |
| Total Credits | 28 |
All 28 credits must be taken for letter grades and passed with a C– or better. At least 16 credits must be upper-division courses taken in residence at the University of Oregon.
Middle and Secondary School Teaching Careers
The College of Education offers a fifth-year program for middle-secondary teaching in social studies. This program is described in the College of Education
section of this catalog.
The department emphasizes graduate work at the doctoral level, but an individualized master’s degree program is available to a limited number of students.
Master’s
Degree Program
The individualized master’s degree program does not lead to a PhD. The degree—either a master of arts (MA) or a master of science (MS)—requires 45 credits of course work. Program and application information may be obtained from the department website. Clinical training is not available in the master’s program.
Doctoral Degree Programs
The five chief PhD program options are clinical, cognitive-neuroscience, systems neuroscience, developmental, and social-personality.
The department maintains a psychology clinic; specialized facilities for child and social research; experimental laboratories for human research, and well-equipped animal laboratories.
Applicants to the PhD program in psychology must take the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) and provide official results to institute code 4846 and department code 2016. Applicants must also provide three letters of recommendation, curriculum vitae, writing sample, statement of purpose, and official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended. Instructions, deadlines, and a complete list of required materials may be obtained from the department website.
During the first year of graduate work, students acquire a broad background in psychology and are introduced to methods, research, and ethics. Each student’s program is planned in relation to background, current interests, and future goals. Research experience and a dissertation are required of PhD candidates; teaching experience is recommended, and opportunities to teach are available.
Requirements for Doctoral Students
| PSY 611–613 | Data Analysis I-III | 12 |
| |
| PSY 607 | Seminar: [Topic] (three terms: Research, Ethics, Research) | 1-5 |
| |
| |
| |
| 1 | |
| |
More detailed program and application information may be obtained from the department website.
For general regulations governing graduate work at the university, see the Graduate School
section of this catalog.
Clinical Psychology
The clinical psychology program has been continuously accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1958 (Commission on Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street NE, Washington, D.C. 20002-4242, 202-336-5979); it is also accredited by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System, and is a member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science.
The program endorses a clinical scientist model for graduate training. This model emphasizes multilevel conceptualizations of psychopathology, comprising neurobiological, developmental, psychosocial, and multicultural perspectives. Doctoral students receive training in infant, child, and adult psychopathology; culture and diversity; infant, child, family, and adult assessment; and neuropsychology. All practicums and clinical training experiences have a strong focus on evidence-based treatments. Students receive training in the clinical techniques and practices as well as the methodology for development, implementation, and evaluation of these interventions. Both psychotherapeutic interventions and prevention programs are included in the training.
The major goal of doctoral training is to support promising doctoral students in developing careers as scientist-practitioners. Students interested primarily in clinical practice would most likely prefer a program less research-oriented than the Oregon Clinical Psychology Training Program.
The research and clinical opportunities available to doctoral students depend on current activities of the clinical and departmental faculty, and may also encompass ongoing projects in research institutes located in the Eugene community that are affiliated with the clinical program. These institutions include the Oregon Research Institute, Oregon Social Learning Center, Decision Research, and Electrical Geodesics.
Members of the clinical faculty and other instructors with clinical interests have ongoing research in several areas, including the neurobiology of early stress, brain development and neural plasticity, behavior and molecular genetics, infant mental health, emotion and attention, prevention science, school readiness, child welfare system research, pubertal development and the transition to adolescence, depression, anxiety, personality measurement and theory, cognitive therapy, child and family assessment, social and emotional adjustment of children and adolescents, drug and alcohol abuse, cross-cultural psychology, sexual aggression, interpersonal violence, child abuse, institutional betrayal, and traumatic stress.
The department places a particularly high priority on translational research, encouraging multidisciplinary collaborations with colleagues from other areas of psychology and other academic departments. Currently, faculty research is funded by the National Science Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institute on Child Health and Development, and the Institute of Education Sciences.
Additional information regarding course requirements for clinical students is provided in the Guide to the Clinical Program and the Doctoral Student Handbook, located on the department website.
Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience
The Department of Psychology at the University of Oregon has played an important role in the development of the field of cognitive neuroscience, and current researchers are continuing that tradition. Research areas include the cognitive and neural basis of perception, visual cognition, selective attention, working memory, long-term memory, executive control, action, language processing, and brain plasticity. Also under investigation are how these processes are altered by development in impoverished environments, aging, traumatic brain injury, autism, and other conditions. Studies employ a wide range of methods, including behavioral experiments, analyses of individual differences, functional imaging, electrophysiology, and transcranial magnetic and direct current stimulation.
The research efforts of the cognitive neuroscience laboratories benefit from the collaborative atmosphere at the University of Oregon, both within psychology and across other departments, allowing for an exploration of cognitive processes at many levels of analysis. Labs are located within the state-of-the-art facilities of the Robert and Beverly Lewis Integrative Science Building, in close proximity to the many other labs of the Institute of Neuroscience
. The building also houses the Lewis Center for Neuroimaging
, a research-dedicated facility with a 3T MRI scanner that supports ongoing research and training with functional and structural magnetic resonance imaging.
One of the most important aspects of the cognitive neuroscience graduate program is its informal atmosphere. At the same time, there is an emphasis on the development of imagination and intellectual independence. Students are encouraged to explore their research ideas from many different perspectives, with the assistance of the expertise from researchers in several labs within the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Neuroscience.
Developmental Psychology
The Department of Psychology has recently expanded the scope of its developmental psychology program with the addition of new faculty members and new emphases in the graduate curriculum. The department offers extensive coverage of development during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, with some additional interest in aging. Several areas of research are strongly represented, including cognitive development, socio-emotional development, developmental psychopathology, and developmental social and affective neuroscience.
Several exciting clusters of expertise exist within these broad areas. Research on theory of mind and perspective-taking as well as imagination and creativity links to research on the development of executive functioning and self-regulation. This cluster also dovetails with research on self-evaluation; affective and appetitive motivations, and decision-making. Yet another active area of work looks at infant processing of action, language, and the statistical and temporal properties of everyday visual and linguistic environments. In addition, many researchers share a strong interest in social contextual effects on infant, child, and adolescent well-being, ranging from the small-scale (familial and peer influences, early adversity) to the large (cultural and global contexts of development).
Members of the developmental psychology faculty also have strong collaborative links with the Oregon Social Learning Center
, Prevention Science Institute
, Oregon Research Institute
, and the interdisciplinary Institute of Cognitive and Decision Sciences
. Current and previous funding sources for the faculty and students in developmental psychology include the National Science Foundation, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Oregon Medical Research Foundation. Graduates from the program have risen to faculty and postdoctoral positions at the University of Minnesota, Swarthmore College, Queen's University, Vanderbilt University, the University of California at Davis, the University of Michigan, Hamilton College, the University of Utah, Oregon Health and Science University, the University of Oregon, and Brown University, among others.
Social and Personality Psychology
Research in social and personality psychology at the University of Oregon reflects an intellectually diverse approach to understanding intrapersonal and interpersonal processes and individual differences. The program concentrates on high-quality research and training combined with substantive and methodological breadth. Faculty members conduct research spanning a broad spectrum of human behavior using innovative approaches. Areas of particular focus include
- Emotion and motivation—emotion regulation, social functions of emotions, self-regulation, goal pursuit, stress and physiology
- Self- and social cognition—self-perception and interpersonal perception, perspective-taking and empathy, self-other comparisons
- Groups, networks, and organizations—status hierarchies, social power, psychology of war and sociopolitical violence, group dynamics, online social networks
- Culture, values, and worldviews—moral psychology, culture and belief systems, psychology of religion
- Personality structure and development—structure of personality attributes, culture and personality description, lifespan development
- Decision-making and risk perception—neuroeconomics and valuation, social and financial decision-making, decision-making in applied contexts (e.g., legal, aviation, risk assessment)
Research in these areas draws upon a wide range of methods, including dyadic and group methods, psychophysiology, neuroimaging, neuroendocrinology, experience sampling, longitudinal studies, surveys, computational methods, and field studies. Students have the opportunity to develop their skills through course work and through collaboration with faculty mentors.
Training in the program exposes students to a wide range of topics through small seminars, lab meetings, and a variety of other opportunities. Students often work with multiple instructors and researchers, including faculty members from other areas of psychology, from other departments and units on campus, and from other institutions. Students may flexibly tailor their own graduate program under the guidance of faculty advisors, making the social and personality psychology program a distinctive training experience for each graduate student.
