Psychology Graduate Program
Master's Program
Review of applications begins February 1.Graduate Faculty: D. A. Simon, Ph.D. department head, (California-Los Angeles) - cognition, learning and performance; J. R. Cowie, Ph.D. (Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland) - automatic language processing, psycholinguistics; I. Dolgov, Ph.D. (Arizona State University)- perception and action, natural user interfaces, embodied cognition, human factors; M. J. Guynn, Ph.D. (New Mexico) - human memory; T. Ketelaar, Ph.D. (Michigan)-social psychology, emotion; J. K. Kroger, Ph.D. (California-Los Angeles) - biopsychology, cognitive neuropsychology; J. MacDonald (Purdue) - engineering psychology, auditory perception; L. J. Madson, Ph.D. (Iowa State) - gender, sexuality; M. J. Marks, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana- Champaign)- social psychology, sexual behaviors, relationships; J. E. McDonald, Ph.D. (New Mexico State University) - cognitive psychology, engineering psychology; S. Rice, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) - engineering psychology, applied cognition; L. A. Thompson, Ph.D.(California-Santa Cruz) -developmental psychology, cognitive psychology; D.Trafimow, Ph.D. (Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) - social cognition.
Support Faculty: P. Foltz, Ph.D. (Colorado) - cognition, human-computer interaction; D. Gillan (Texas) - human-computer interaction, perception; D. Hunt (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Ohio State) - human factors; V. S. Johnston (Emeritus), Ph.D. (Edinburgh) - biopsychology, comparative, psychopharmacology, neuropsychology; A. Y. Lee, Ph.D.(Colorado) - cognition, learning, human-computer interaction; W. C. Ogden, Ph.D. (New Mexico State) - human computer interaction, natural language processing; K. Paap (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Wisconsin) - psycholinguistics; R. Schvaneveldt (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Wisconsin) engineering psychology, aviation; W. Stephan (Emeritus) Ph.D. (Minnesota) - stereotyping and prejudice, cross-cultural psychology.
Admission
The Department of Psychology offers graduate work leading to the Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy degrees. To maximize consideration for admittance, candidates should submit applications by February 1.
Students will be admitted to graduate study on the basis of their potential for achievement in research, scholarship, and teaching. The most promising applicants will be accepted. Because the number of students that the department can successfully accommodate is limited, it will not always be possible to admit all qualified applicants. The admissions committee will consider any material that a candidate for admission wishes to present. To apply, follow the instructions for prospective graduate students at http://prospective.nmsu.edu/graduate/apply/index.html. In addition, send an unofficial report of your GRE scores directly to the Department of Psychology along with a letter explaining your research experience and interests, including names of the faculty members whose work is of particular interest to you.
Graduate School policy requires a minimum GPA of 3.0. The Psychology Department gives priority consideration to students whose scores on the Graduate Record Examination meet or exceed the following:
MA program: 500 (Verbal), 600 (Quantitative), and 4.5 (Analytical Writing)
PhD program: 560 (Verbal), 720 (Quantitative), and 5.0 (Analytical Writing)
Students with bachelor degrees should apply for admittance to the master's program even if their eventual goal is a Ph.D. Students who earn their M. A. at New Mexico State University will be automatically considered for admission to the doctoral program after the oral defense of their thesis. Following a recommendation from the student's committee, admission is determined by a vote of the entire faculty.
Admission of students with a Master of Arts degree from other institutions is determined by the department's Graduate Committee. Admission to the doctoral program is frequently made conditional upon one or more of the following: completion of a research thesis, completion of either course work or qualifying exams in three of the core course areas; and completion of either course work or qualifying exams in masters-level quantitative methods. Students with a written M.A. thesis from another established program can be considered for admission directly into the doctoral program.
A number of potential minors are available to interested students, including a minor in statistics. Additional information about a minor may be found in the listing of the home department earlier in this chapter.
Master of Arts
The department offers an M.A. degree in general experimental psychology. Students are required to complete 36 credit hours including: (1) a first-year research project; (2) take three of the nine core courses (history & systems, perception, learning, biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive, developmental, engineering or human performance, and social; (3) take three required courses in quantitative skills; and (4) complete a research thesis. The program provides students with sufficient electives to emphasize a particular subarea of experimental psychology. The program is designed to provide graduates with the tools and knowledge necessary for further training at the doctoral level or for employment in industry or government.
Ph.D. Program
At the Ph.D. level, students can select one of three emphases: engineering psychology, cognitive psychology, and social psychology. Students are required to 1) take four of the nine core courses (history & systems, perception, learning, biopsychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive, developmental, engineering or human performance, and social); (2) take six additional credits (beyond the three required courses) in quantitative skills or methods; (3) complete written and oral comprehensive exams; (4) complete an empirical dissertation; (5) teach a course OR complete an internship of at least 3 months duration.
The engineering psychology emphasis is within the realm of human factors and usability. The research conducted by the engineering psychology analyzing how trust affects operator responses to automation recommendations, how operators monitor and control multiple unmanned aerial vehicles, visual search during luggage screening tasks, perceptual and cognitive processes in reading, simulation of human auditory perception, biases in the perception of moving objects, and selective attention. Students completing a degree in engineering psychology typically take positions in the computer industry working in the design and evaluation of user interfaces.
The cognitive program has a joint emphasis on basic and applied research. As a consequence of the applied focus, several faculty members hold joint appointments in both cognitive and engineering psychology. In addition, students completing their masters and Ph.D.'s in cognitive psychology at NMSU often take applied jobs in usability engineering in the computer and telecommunications industries. Faculty interests in cognitive psychology include language processing, cognitive and perceptual development, and prospective memory.
Like the cognitive program, the social psychology program has a focus on both basic and applied research. Social faculty research interests include social cognition, evolutionary psychology, close relationships, attitude formation, emotions, sexuality, and gender. Recent social graduates have taken positions in both academia and industry.
All baccalaureate level students who enter the PhD program enroll initially as master's students. Upon completion of the master's degree, a student may be admitted into the Ph.D. program, contingent on the recommendation of the student's master's committee and the vote of the whole faculty. In addition, students who have completed their master's degrees at another institution can be admitted directly into the Ph.D. program.
Financial Assistance
Financial aid for graduate students is awarded on the basis of potential for research and teaching in the form of an assistantship. Up to 20 hrs. may be awarded for each of the fall and spring semesters. Up to 40 hrs. may be awarded over the summer. To request more information contact Dr. Laura Madson.
Minor in Psychology at the Master's or Ph.D. level
Any master's or doctoral student can declare a minor in Psychology in addition to their major area of study. All minors must be approved by the minor department head and dean of the Graduate School and normally will consist of nine credits of substantive Psychology graduate classes. Students will be required to declare the Psychology minor on a Program of Study and Committee Form for the Master's and doctoral level. Demonstration of competency in the minor area will be required at both comprehensive and final examinations.
Students will also need to include someone from the Psychology department on their thesis, comprehensive, and/or dissertation committees. Additionally, the representative from the minor department can also serve as the Dean's Representative on the committee.
All Graduate Student Services Forms are available at their web site.