Research Areas | Psychology

Although the graduate group is not divided into formal subareas, faculty in the Psychology Graduate Group have research interests that may be broadly classified into the following two areas:

Brain, Cognitive, and Decision Science

Clinical, Positive, and Social Psychology

The Psychology Graduate Group offers a broad range of research opportunities in brain and cognitive sciences. Faculty and graduate students study the neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying perception, attention, learning, memory, language, decision processes, foraging, and neuro-regulatory mechanisms.

Graduate training is based on a research apprenticeship model, but can also involve collaborations between principal investigators in different labs. Doctoral students participate in a rich campus-wide community of researchers from multiple departments and centers offering a wide range of colloquia and informal seminar series. Psychology graduate students studying Brain and Cognitive Sciences also interact closely with graduate students in Neuroscience, Bioengineering, and Linguistics.

The Psychology Graduate Group offers a broad range of research opportunities in clinical, positive, and social psychology. Faculty and graduate students in these areas study a variety of topics that cross traditional boundaries of psychology.

Clinical Psychology has a proud history at the University of Pennsylvania, beginning with Lightner Witmer, who founded the first psychology clinic in the United States at Penn in 1896. The clinical training program aims to prepare highly qualified, creative clinical scientists.

The Positive Psychology Center is at the vanguard of a new field called Positive Psychology whose mission is to understand and build the emotions, strengths, and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.

Scholars working in the area of Social Psychology investigate a wide variety of domains ranging from individual decision making to large-scale phenomena such as social networks.

Below is a list of areas of research interest. By clicking on each link, you will find the faculty who have interests in each area. Many faculty also maintain lab Web sites that provide more detailed information on their research programs.