Social Psychology Requirements
Synopsis of the program
The social psychology concentration for Psychological & Brain Sciences graduate students at the University of Delaware is designed to provide coursework in social psychology (one per semester) until all degree requirements are completed, complemented with at least a two-year sequence of courses in statistics. While undertaking these courses, we require substantive research experience in the form of first-year and second-year projects. Once these requirements have been met, a qualifying exam in the form of one or more theoretical or literature review papers provides an entrée to candidacy for the doctoral degree. A description of each of these requirements follows.
First-year project
The first-year project must be empirical and completed by the end of the first year. A written proposal in the form of a memorandum summarizes the intended project/research idea to be submitted to the faculty advisor by the end of December of the first year. A presentation at a brown bag meeting of these initial ideas occurs in the first semester. A presentation of the final project takes place at the end of the spring semester of the first year or early in the fall semester of the second year. A final written paper is completed before the beginning of the second year.
Second-year project
Before fall semester of the second year begins, students will obtain agreement of a minimum of two social psychology faculty to be sponsors of their second-year project. By the end of the fall semester of the second year (but preferably earlier) there will be a meeting in which the student meets with committee members to discuss proposal ideas. Following the meeting, a 2–5 page abstract of the proposal/ideas discussed at the meeting is prepared. The second-year project is presented at a brown bag meeting at the end of the second year. A final written paper in APA style is written prior to the beginning of the third year.
[Note: If a student elects to obtain a Master's degree, this paper will be formatted according to Graduate College requirements and submitted as a master’s thesis.]
Social psychology qualifying exam philosophy
The qualifying exam (quals) is conceived as a scholarly exercise, completed in the student's third year that accomplishes the primary goal of qualifying a student for independent research and scholarship required to conduct a doctoral dissertation. Moreover, this exercise is meant to demonstrate that the student has an excellent chance of becoming a contributing independent scholar and scientist in the general area of social psychology and its many applications. We believe that the quals should further the student’s work leading to a successful dissertation, while allowing for a fair assessment of the student’s knowledge in the broad area of research interest, as well as his or her scholarly, methodological, conceptual and writing abilities. To be regarded as a student in good standing, the qualifying exam should be completed before the beginning of the sixth semester.
Structure and processes of exam
The qualifying exam will consist of one or more review/integration paper(s) in a format comparable to Psychological Bulletin or Psychological Review.
The content of the exam is determined in the following manner:
- Student writes a statement of research interests and indicates who in addition to his or her advisor would be an appropriate member of the exam committee.
- In consultation with the advisor, a three-person committee, chaired by the advisor, is formed consisting of at least two faculty in the social program.
- The student then defines the area(s) of the exam by a) listing three or more topics about which it would be appropriate to write, and b) proposes a reading list of at least 20 articles/books that define the important works in the general area of interest.
- In consultation with the committee, the student then finalizes the reading list and the exam project by writing a 2–5 page overview of the goal and value of the proposed work. Once this is reviewed, discussed and approved by the committee, the student is free to work on the paper(s) to completion.
Program requirements
Coursework
Students must complete required coursework, a first- and second-year research project, pass the qualifying exam, and a dissertation. The social psychology program of study requires a minimum of 80 credits from coursework, attendance of colloquia, and research hours. Course topics include neuroscience, psychology, statistics and research.
Social psychology seminar series
Students in their fourth year (or beyond) of the social psychology concentration may elect to register for social program courses as an auditor (i.e., as a listener) by gaining the approval (in writing) of the student’s primary advisor and then petitioning the director of the social psychology concentration explaining in writing why auditing the course would be beneficial to the student’s professional development. The director and the social psychology faculty will decide whether to grant the student’s request. Also, students may elect to audit social psychology courses after passing the qualifying exam. In the latter case, students should simply inform the director of the social psychology concentraton and the course’s instructor in writing of their intention to audit the course.
Each semester, full-time graduate students are required to present during the seminar series at least once per year. Seminar series bag presentations are meant to serve a variety of potential purposes. We want to give students practice presenting in front of an audience; the opportunity to refine their study ideas and hypotheses; and practice presenting data and making accurate conclusions based on their results. To this end, we want students to focus on having high-quality presentations that encourage discussion about theoretical developments, study of design issues, or interpretation of data. Students should avoid presenting the same ideas or data in more than one seminar series unless there is a specific purpose for revisiting the same topic.
We strongly encourage that students use their seminar series presentation to develop new study ideas whenever it would be helpful. Students can either have a seminar series that is solely dedicated to study development, or they can devote time during their presentation (e.g., 40 minutes) to discussing their plans for future data collection so that they can receive feedback from faculty and fellow students at a time that it will be maximally beneficial.
From year one through graduation, we expect progression in seminar series content that follows this generic form:
- Year 1: First year project
- Year 2: Second year project plans or results
- Year 3 and 4: Content of manuscripts almost ready for publication, dissertation ideas, grant submissions, conference presentations, or publication plans
- Year 5: Dissertation data and job talks.
Make sure to plan your seminar series talks in coordination with your primary advisor, in order to make sure they are going to help you reach the goals we have in mind for these presentations.
Seminar series sessions are also used to acquaint program members with the work of guest speakers within and outside of social psychology, professional development regarding such topics as goal setting, daily writing habits, grant writing, work/life balance, the job or post-doctoral fellowship search, or discussing an interesting current article.
Research requirements
Students meet the research requirement, in part, by completing a grant application (to a reputable funding sources, e.g. NSF, NIH, Ford Foundation or UD based awards) or a pre-registered project proposal in year one of the program. This constitutes the first-year project. Students must also complete a second-year project; both the first and second year projects should be summarized with final written reports distributed to the student's advisory committee. If the advisory committee members believe the write-up of either the first- or second-year project needs revision before they can approve the research, they will provide specific feedback. The student will have at least one opportunity to revise the final document. In the event of an unsatisfactory performance on the first- or second-year project paper, the social area faculty will convene to critically evaluate the student's record to date.
First-year research
Students submit to their advisor a written proposal in memorandum form (e.g., the grant submission or preregistered project proposal) that summarizes the student's idea and research plan. The student also presents these ideas at a social psychology brown-bag meeting during the first or second semester of graduate study. Toward the end of the second semester or possibly early in the fall (not later than Sept. 15) of the third semester, the student gives an oral presentation of the project at a social psychology brown bag meeting. The goal of this requirement is to give students immediate experience conducting research during their first year.
Second-year research
The second-year project requires the participation and approval of the student's advisory committee. To begin, the student prepares a written abstract of the proposed research that must be signed by the student's advisory committee and presented at a social psychology brown bag session by the end of the fall semester in the second year, not later than December 1. This brown bag presentation should be used to help develop and refine the student's ideas. The results of the second-year project must be presented at a social psychology brown bag meeting by the end of the second year. In addition, the student must submit a written paper describing the research to their advisory committee no later than September 1 of the third year. This paper must be approved by the student's second year project advisory committee. The members of the student's advisory committee have two weeks to provide feedback in writing to the student and other committee members. If this paper is submitted during the summer or winter-session periods, members of the student's advisory committee may provide this feedback two weeks into the next fall or spring semester. Feedback will be similar to that obtained by authors who submit papers to journals and if a revision is required, committee members will detail any changes that need to be made. If necessary, the student will have one month following this feedback to revise and resubmit the second year project paper. Grading is pass/fail.
Master's degree
Once the student passes the second year project requirement, the student may elect to obtain a master of science degree (M.S. in Psychological and Brain Sciences) based on the second-year project by reformatting the written document according to Graduate College requirements. If any changes are introduced to the previously approved second-year project paper, the student's advisor must approve all changes. If the student wishes to obtain a master's degree based on research other than the approved second-year project final paper, at least two social faculty members must approve the final document prior to the student submitting the document to the Graduate College. The goal of this requirement is to develop a research idea that could result in a publishable empirical paper.
Qualifying exam
The qualifying exam should be completed by the end of the fall semester of the third year or at the very latest by the end of the spring semester of the third year. Before embarking on the qualifying exam, the student will complete the first and second year project and clear all previous incomplete grades. In consultation with the student’s exam committee (heretofore defined as three social faculty PLUS up to two external members from other programs), a student will choose one of the following options for the qualifying exam:
Four question-based essays
The four question-based essays will be based on 60 readings that cover classic and important readings within social psychology. These readings are selected by the social faculty. Ten additional readings can be lab-specific and are chosen by the student's advisor.
The exam consists of 20 key terms and six essay questions. All questions are generated by the social faculty prior to the exam. Students select four of the six essay questions at the time of the exam. Importantly, the key terms are to be completed within a two-hour time period on campus (closed notes in front of adviser) while students will have 48 hours to answer essay questions at a place of their choosing (open notes, no advisor present).
Questions are typically submitted and returned via email, which provides documentation of start and end times for each question. Failure to submit the exam by the deadline decreases the likelihood of a passing grade.
Once completed, the student's exam committee will review all answers and determine the appropriate grade. The student is given written feedback on the answers to the questions within two weeks to allow for preparation for the oral exam. If one (or more) of the written answers gets a “fail" grade, the student will be given one opportunity to rewrite it. This extends the time of progression to the oral examination.
In the oral exam, the same questions are revisited and the student provides arguments and responses in an interactive setting. During the first part, the student will orally deliver an overview of the answer to each question. In the second part, the student is expected to defend answers and visit questions provided in the written feedback. The oral qualifying exam should be completed by the end of February or July.
The three potential outcomes of the qualifying exam are:
- Pass
- Conditional pass: Will be given if any kind of remediation is required by the exam committee. These most commonly (but not limited to) include: full or partial re-write of one (or more) questions; or, additional time will be given if one (or more) oral answers fail to meet the standards of the committee.
- Fail: If the student's performance during the oral examination or following specific remediation is viewed as unacceptable by the exam committee, the student will either be recommended for dismissal from the program or given the opportunity of a second oral exam that must be completed within a specified timeline decided by the exam committee.
The student will prepare a Psychological Bulletin (or Psychological Review or Personality and Social Psychology Review) type review paper summarizing a focal area of the student’s interest, which may very well lead to the formulation of a dissertation proposal. This paper should be of suitable quality to be submitted to a major journal and thus, this paper is expected to offer a valuable, unique perspective or theoretical analysis of the issues reviewed, rather than just a summary of research conducted in the field.
In consultation with the student’s advisory committee (with permission of the committee, it is permissible for a student to include an additional faculty advisor from some other program within or beyond the University of Delaware) the student and advisor will work together to generate a reading list of articles and books important to the focal topics and a general outline of the central questions, goals and value of the proposed project. The committee must approve the topic and final paper.
Students should begin discussing their qualifying paper topic with their advisor by the beginning of the second year in the program. The student’s topic should be one that will likely lead into their doctoral dissertation proposal.
The student will provide a draft of their qualifying exam paper to their advisor for feedback before submitting it for final approval to other members of the committee. Once approved by the committee, the student will distribute the qualifying exam to their exam committee (three social faculty PLUS two other external members of the committee, if they so choose) who will have an opportunity to comment and offer suggestions within two weeks of receiving the document.
- February 7 (Third Year): Due date for submitting the qualifying paper to each member of the exam committee (three social faculty PLUS up to two external members from other programs) and for the student to schedule an oral defense with members of the exam committee as close as possible to March 1.
- March 1 (third year): Approximate deadline for the student to have scheduled the oral defense of the qualifying exam paper. At the conclusion of the defense, the members of the exam committee will determine (pass/not pass) whether the document and oral defense, separately, warrant a “pass.”
If the majority of the student’s exam committee believes the student’s written qualifying exam is not of sufficient quality to warrant a “pass,” the committee together with the student will discuss changes that would be needed to be included in a revision to gain approval of the majority of the committee. Within one week, the student will send a written summary of the issues that he or she will address in the revised qualifying exam paper to their exam committee. At the discretion of a majority of the student’s exam committee, the student also can be asked to re-schedule an oral defense of the revised document.
- April 1 (third year): Deadline for student to resubmit a revised qualifying exam document (using track changes to clearly distinguish between the revised version and the originally submitted version). Also, if the student’s exam committee asked for the student to orally defend the revised qualifying exam document, the student will have scheduled this oral defense for some date as close to April 15 as possible.
- April 15 (third year): The student’s exam committee members have until April 15 to approve or disapprove (by majority vote) the revised qualifying exam.
In the event of an unsatisfactory revised qualifying exam, the exam committee will convene to critically evaluate the student’s record to date. In most cases, if all other requirements have been met, the student can opt to prepare their second year project final paper as a master’s thesis, so that when they leave the program they will do so having earned a master’s degree.
