Individualized Programs

Individualized Programs PhD Requirements

Specific course requirements within the individualized program are developed in consultation with the primary advisor and two additional faculty who form an oversight committee for the period that the student is enrolled in the graduate program. This committee evaluates the student once a year, reviewing accomplishments and assisting the student in working toward his or her long term goals.

Throughout their course of study, students are expected to take courses that will advance their research goals. At least three graduate level courses in statistics are strongly recommended. Other courses will primarily be in psychology, but may be taken in other schools as well.

Within the second or third year, students will complete a masters level research project. Next, students are expected to write a 50 page review of some research area that is reviewed by a four person committee. This specialty exam serves as the comprehensive exam. Once this is completed, students will move on to proposing a dissertation. The dissertation should ideally be completed within the fourth or fifth year.

By the end of their graduate training, students should have written several conference papers and/or journal articles. They should also have developed experience in teaching. They should be prepared for an academic position or for a position involving research.

Individualized Programs Research

Irene Hanson Frieze, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, Professor of Psychology. Students wishing to work with Dr. Frieze should apply for an individualized program. Dr. Frieze is now accepting students who wish to work on cross-cultural studies of gender, work attitudes, or on violence in close relationships.

For further information, e-mail frieze@pitt.edu.

Donald H. McBurney, PhD, Brown University, Professor of Psychology. Dr. McBurney is accepting graduate students for individualized study programs. He has two related areas of research. The first is the psychophysics of taste and smell, with a current focus on chemical irritation. He currently is studying adaptation to capsaicin, the active ingredient in chili peppers, in human subjects. Together with Dr. Carey Balaban of Pitt’s medical school, McBurney is developing a mathematical model of sensory adaptation, using the psychophysical response to capsaicin as the experimental model.

His second area of research is evolutionary psychology. Together with Dr. Steven Gaulin of Pitt’s Department of Anthropology, he is examining gender differences in spatial memory.
Another project concerns the effects of paternity uncertainty on investment in one's nieces, nephews, and grandchildren.

For further information, e-mail mcburney@imap.pitt.edu.