Curriculum
The Biological Psychopathology Training Program is designed for students interested in biogenetic aspects of deviant behavior who do not wish to undertake formal specialty training in clinical psychology. Students will be actively involved in psychopathology research beginning with fall semester of their first year and continuing throughout their graduate careers. Research training begins with an apprenticeship in the laboratories of program faculty, from which students are expected to acquire skills and interests leading to the development of their own research projects. During their second year, students complete an independent research project with the guidance of their advisor, which may be used to satisfy thesis requirements for a master’s degree along the way to earning their Ph.D.
The core curriculum consists of courses and seminars in the biological and psychosocial bases of adult and child psychopathology, and in psychophysiology and behavioral genetics. This curriculum is supplemented by courses in psychobiology offered through the Departments of Psychology and Child Development. Students can also elect to take other courses in these departments depending on their interests, as well as basic biological science courses in other departments, including those affiliated with the University’s Medical School.