Research and internship opportunities will allow students to apply, in real-world settings, the theories and concepts learned in the classroom. This specialization will prepare students for careers and graduate work in fields including education (researcher, K-12 teacher and administration, health educator, college professor, guidance counselor, school psychologist, etc.), healthcare (PA, nursing, genetics, social work, occupational therapy, applied behavioral therapy, etc.), public health, human development, mental health counseling, other psychology disciplines (cultural or multicultural psychology, clinical psychology, community psychology, educational psychology), public policy, law, researcher (policy analyst, statistician, program evaluator), and non-profit or community-based organizations.
Please contact the Developmental Coordinator, Dr. James A. Graham for more details.
Developmental Specialization Handout
Faculty affiliated with the Developmental Psychology Specialization:
Core Developmental Faculty
- Dr. James A. Graham (Specialization Coordinator) | Social Emotional Learning and Development Lab
- Dr. Aimee Stahl | Cognitive Development Lab
- Dr. Adaurennaya C. Onyewuenyi | Identity Development across the African Diaspora (IDAD) Lab
Affiliated Faculty
- Dr. He Len Chung (Clinical and Counseling) | REACH Lab
Developmental Psychology Course Requirements
Method Sequence Courses (Taken in sequence)
- PSY 101 – General Psychology
- PSY 121 – Methods and Tools of Psychology
- PSY 203 – Design and Statistical Analysis
- PSY 299 – Research Seminar
Foundation Courses (Choose 3):
- PSY 220 – Development across the Lifespan (or equivalent – ECE 201, ELE 201, SPE 203 or NUR 110)
- Other Foundation Courses (Choose 2)
- PSY 212 – Biopsychology
- PSY 214 – Cognitive Psychology
- PSY 215 – Social Psychology
- PSY 217 – Psychological Disorders
- PSY 219 – Clinical Psychology
- PSY 267 – Organizational Psychology
- PSY 213 – Learning & Memory
Specialized Courses (Choose 3):
- The Developmental Specialization requires students to complete 2 specialized courses from the following options:
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- PSY 316 – Applied Behavior Analysis
- PSY 320 – Origins of Social Cognition
- PSY 321 – Children’s Social and Personality Development
- PSY 322 – Children and the Media
- PSY 323 – School Psychology
- AAS/PSY 324 – Racial and Ethnic Development
- PSY 370 – Developmental Seminar [may take more than once]
- Subtopics include: Peer Relationships, Child Therapy, Child Development, Adolescent Development
- The THIRD specialized course may be any 300 or 400-level course approved by the Psychology Department as a specialized course. In addition, any of the following options will also count towards this requirement if it has a Developmental focus:
- PSY 390 – Laboratory Learning*
- PSY 393 – Individual Study*
- PSY 397 – Instructional Internship*
- PSY 399 – Internships
Psychology Elective Requirement (1 Course) (formerly “Psychology Option”)
- One course (Recommended at 300-Level or 400-Level)
* Students may apply one of these courses as a Psychology Elective.
Senior Experience (Choose 1)
- The Developmental Specialization requires students to complete a senior experience that has a Developmental focus:
- PSY 470 – Senior Topics Study Group
- PSY 492 – Laboratory Learning*
- PSY 493 – Senior Individual Study
- PSY 487 – Senior Internship
[Please check PAWS for the semester offerings]
Experiential Learning Opportunities
Apply to EloPSY opportunities.
Students interested in Developmental Psychology should see Dr. Graham for research and/or internship opportunities.
Recent Individual Studies:
- Effective male mentoring within a Life-Skills program for elementary students
- Language Acquisition in Infants
- Implementing an anti-bullying curriculum in primary- and secondary-schools
- Empathy development in undergraduates at the KidsBridge Museum
- Relationships between attention and imaginative play
- Emotional regulation and meaning making processing in sexually abused youth
- Content and frequency of children’s worry
Recent Internships:
- Internship: Celebrate the Children (school for special-needs children)
- Internship: Office of the Child Advocate
Developmental Psychology Careers
- School Counselor
- Research Position
- Infant Stimulation Programmer
- Education/Recreational Programmer
- Hospital/Hospice Facilitator