Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

Clark University

G. Stanley Hall, the first president of Clark University, founded the American Psychological Association at Clark in 1892, and established ''adolescence'' as a stage of human development. Professor Edmund Sanford was the first to use mazes to study rat behavior. Child development pioneer Arnold Lucius Green studied twins and was first to use film to observe children’s behavior. And in 1920, Francis Cecil Sumner, the ''father of black psychology,'' was the first African-American in the U.S. to earn a doctorate in psychology.Graduate students in the Frances L. Hiatt School of Psychology follow in the groundbreaking footsteps of Hall, Sanford, Green, and Sumner by exploring a variety of theoretical approaches and participating in ongoing research programs in the intimate atmosphere of our small research university. We are committed to the idea of the unity of psychology and strive, theoretically and through empirical research, to understand human development within a socio-cultural context. Although various sub-specialties and methodological approaches are represented in the department - Clinical Psychology, Developmental Psychology, and Social Psychology - we respect different approaches and find ways to integrate them.