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Graduate Program
Experimental Training Program

Experimental Faculty

  • Dr. Stephen Fountain
    • Stephen Fountain
  • Biopsychological and computational approaches to understanding behavior and cognition.
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  • Dr. Kathy Kerns
    • Kathy Kerns
  • Children's attachments to parents and implications for socioemotional development
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  • Dr. Kristin Mickelson
    • Kristin Mickelson
  • Effects of stress and socioeconomic status on social support; gender attitudes.
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  • Dr. John Updegraff
    • John Updegraff
  • Health communication; cognitive and emotional processes in well-being.
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  • Dr. Maria Zaragoza
    • Maria Zaragoza
  • False memory; trauma and memory; source monitoring, eyewitness suggestibility.
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About the Experimental Psychology Ph.D. Training Program at Kent State University

The Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology is primarily a basic research degree with a structure that reflects this orientation. However, some of the faculty also conduct applied research and provide students with applied experience. The Applied Psychology Center facilitates and coordinates applied research and training experiences  in various areas of psychology.

The program offers five areas of concentration: Biopsychology, Cognitive, Developmental, Experimental Health, and Social Psychology. The program has graduated more than 100 Ph.D.s since 1967. Most of these graduates are employed in colleges and universities across the country, where they are engaged in research and teaching. Other graduates have pursued more applied goals and are employed in research institutes, laboratories, and human service settings. The chief aim of the program is to provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to attain their own goals as researchers and teachers in psychology.

The program is designed to be completed in four years, with an emphasis on course work in the first year, completion of the M.A. thesis in the second, preparation for and completion of the candidacy examination in the third, and completion of the Ph.D. dissertation in the fourth. Some students take longer than four years to complete the   program.  The minimum requirements for the Ph.D. are the following:

  • Three core courses.
  • Three statistics/methodology courses.
  • Seven additional courses, including College Teaching of Psychology.
  • A first-year research project, including an oral presentation of results.
  • M.A. thesis, including an oral exam.
  • Written candidacy examination in one of the five areas of concentration.
  • Fourth year oral presentation of research program
  • Ph.D. dissertation, including an oral defense.
In addition to these requirements, students are expected to develop a program of research in collaboration with one  or more faculty members. These experiences in the laboratory and field are designed to refine and solidify skills and knowledge acquired in coursework. Extensive laboratory facilities are readily available, including animal laboratories for learning and physiological research, and numerous rooms for human research. In addition, a variety of field settings, such as hospitals, the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine, the Family Child Learning Center, day-care centers, and schools are available for research beyond the Kent Campus.

All graduate students in the experimental program are eligible to receive financial support, usually in the form of a graduate assistantship, which is viewed as an integral part of the program. Both research and teaching skills are advanced by the graduate assistantships. Through a research assignment, students are involved directly in research with faculty. In later years, students develop teaching skills through instruction of undergraduate psychology classes.