Villanova University
Psychology
Villanova, Pennsylvania
Overview
Villanova University is a private institution founded in 1842 by the Augustinian Fathers. Graduate programs were first administered separately in 1931. Currently, there are six academic units in addition to Graduate Studies—the Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Commerce and Finance, Engineering, and Nursing; the University College (for part-time students); and the School of Law.
Approximately 20 students representing all geographical sections of the United States are selected for admission each year from approximately 150 applications. About 30 percent of the class comes from the Philadelphia area. The majority (58 percent) of students come from out of state, and a large proportion are from outside the Mid-Atlantic region (e.g., California, Arizona, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Florida, Georgia, and Virginia).
While the program is not specifically designed to provide terminal training for mental health professionals, some graduates continue on to Ph.D. programs in clinical or counseling psychology. Others accept positions in the private sector as science writers, lab technicians, data analysts, and marketing researchers. The program enjoys a strong national reputation, thereby contributing to the success that a large proportion of graduates have in gaining admission to some of the top Ph. D. programs in psychology (e.g., Brown; Columbia; Cornell; Tufts University; University of California, Berkeley; University of California, San Diego; University of Colorado; University of Illinois; and Johns Hopkins). Additional information about graduates of the program can be found on the Web at the address given in this description.
The Location and Community
Located in the heart of the Philadelphia Region's Main Line suburbs, the University occupies more than 200 handsomely landscaped acres in the town of Villanova, 12 miles west of Philadelphia. The location combines the advantages of a tranquil suburban setting with proximity to a large metropolitan city known for its outstanding contributions in the areas of culture, education, history, recreation, religion, and sport.
Programs of Study and Degree Requirements
The Villanova Department of Psychology has offered a Master of Science (M.S.) degree in general psychology since 1961. This M.S. degree program is particularly well suited to provide a strong foundation for individuals seeking entry into Ph.D. programs in most subfields of psychology. In addition, the program serves the needs of students who are unsure of their future professional goals, of individuals who want a more gradual transition between undergraduate and Ph.D.-level work, and of those seeking a terminal master's degree.
The two-year curriculum is designed to provide excellent training in research skills. Students gain expertise in the formulation of research designs and in the acquisition, analysis, and interpretation of data. Laboratory courses in cognitive psychology, statistics, and physiological psychology are complemented by electives in many of the other subfields of psychology. In addition, students may elect to take a graduate course in a department other than psychology to round out their area of special interest. Biology, chemistry, computer science, human organization science, and statistics have been of particular interest in this regard. Students are required to complete a total of eight courses, including statistics and at least two laboratory courses, and to conduct an original piece of research under faculty supervision in the form of a thesis. The elective courses are designed to allow students the flexibility to tailor the program to their particular goals. The master's thesis is required, and additional independent research is strongly encouraged. There is no comprehensive examination or foreign language requirement.
The psychology faculty has maintained a consistently strong record for productivity and scholarly research. During a recent three-year period, seventy-seven journal articles, fourteen book chapters, three books, and fifty-eight convention presentations emerged from the psychology department. Graduate students frequently coauthor the research published by their mentors, thereby enhancing their graduate education and preparation for a top-quality doctoral program. Villanova's master's program in psychology has been ranked among the top ten M.S.-only-granting departments (95th percentile) in the United States and Canada with regard to research productivity. Several of the department's faculty members hold research grants from various government agencies.
Facilities & Resources
The University library contains more than 780,000 volumes and 5,600 current periodicals. Public computing facilities that consist of networked Windows-based microcomputers are available in a number of campus locations, including Tolentine Hall (the location of the psychology department). All facilities are available to University students and faculty members. Computer facilities that are dedicated to the psychology department and laboratories within the department are also available.
Expenses and Aid
Graduate tuition was $810 per credit hour. In addition, there is a University fee of $50 each semester.
Financial Aid:
A limited number of University-funded assistantships and tuition scholarships are awarded to psychology graduate students on a competitive basis. These include research/teaching assistantships that carry a remission of tuition and fees and, in some instances, a monthly stipend. Students with assistantships and tuition scholarships are assigned to faculty members to help with their teaching and/or research efforts. Depending on the type of award, assistants and tuition scholars are expected to work from 7 to 20 hours per week under the supervision of their faculty mentor. Additional research assistantships, supported by extramural grants, are awarded by faculty members who hold the grants. Villanova University also has a number of additional scholarships and graduate assistantship, for which psychology program students may be eligible.
Housing/Living Expenses:
The University does not maintain accommodations for graduate students, but second-year students are eligible for positions as resident counselors in the dormitories. The area has a wide selection of living quarters that are convenient to the campus.
How to Apply
Application forms and the Graduate Studies Viewbook may be obtained from the Graduate Studies Office. Additional information about the psychology program may be obtained by contacting the psychology department. In addition to forwarding the completed application form, GRE scores, and official college transcripts, applicants must also arrange to have three letters of recommendation submitted on their behalf. Submission of a personal statement, describing the nature of the applicant's interest in psychology and in the Villanova program, is also suggested. There is an application fee of $50.
Applications are accepted for fall admission only. Admissions are on a rolling basis, and applications are accepted for the following fall throughout the year. However, to receive full consideration for financial aid, completed applications should be received before March 15.
Who to Contact
Graduate Admissions Committee
Department of Psychology
Villanova University
Villanova, Pennsylvania 19085-1699
610-519-4720
Faculty
The Department of Psychology is comprised of 15 full-time faculty members, most of whom maintain active research laboratories in their specialties. Strong research specializations within the department are provided in animal learning, clinical, cognition, developmental, human factors, organizational, perception, personality, physiological, and social psychology.
Cognitive Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience/Human Factors
• Dr. Diego Fernandez-Duque's research spans cognitive and social neuroscience. Within cognitive neuroscience, he studies how different aspects of attention change due to aging and pathology and why visual perception sometimes occurs in the absence of awareness. Within social neuroscience, he investigates impairments in social cognition brought about by brain insult, using frontotemporal dementia as a model disease in which to explore empathy and metacognition.
• Dr. Charles Folk has been studying the nature of visual distractibility. What kinds of events capture attention, and to what degree is such capture under voluntary control? The outcome of his work has important implications for applied settings, such as aircraft cockpits, as well as for theoretical models of selective attention.
• Dr. Thomas Toppino investigates human cognitive processes and the development of those processes in children. Most recently, he has studied fundamental factors underlying the effects of repetition and order of presentation in learning and memory. He also investigates the relationship between sensory and higher cognitive processes in visual perception, focusing especially on factors affecting the perception of ambiguous patterns.
Developmental Psychology
• Dr. Pamela Blewitt's program weaves together several research strands concerned with children's learning of words and their knowledge of hierarchical relationships among words. Some of her studies of language acquisition explore the ability to define words by placing them into superordinate categories and the ability to draw inferences from categorical hierarchies.
• Dr. Rebecca Brand is interested in infants' knowledge acquisition across several domains. In the language domain, she has recently been investigating the development of inhibitory control and its role in early vocabulary development. In the action domain, she has been investigating the specialized action adults present toward infants (“motionese”) and its role in infants' understanding of new action sequences.
Clinical/Social/Personality and Organizational Psychology
• Dr. David Bush investigates gender differences in work-related issues such as gender stereotyping of jobs, performance appraisal, compensation, and negotiating strategies. He also conducts research on organizational changes related to downsizing and reorganization and their consequences for the organizational culture.
• Dr. Deborah Kendzierski's social psychology research program focuses on the links between intentions and behavior in the context of adherence to health-behavior regimens. She is interested in the role of self-concept in linking intentions and such health behaviors as exercising and dieting.
• Dr. Douglas Klieger's research program focuses on establishing an empirical basis for the measurement of anxiety, fear, and phobias. Secondary to this, he is interested in developing new measurement techniques that apply generally to questionnaires, inventories, and personality scales.
• Dr. Steven Krauss examines normal and disordered mood expression and personality across cultures. He also investigates the relationships between values, moral reasoning, relationship models, and individualism/collectivism from a cross-cultural perspective.
• Dr. John Kurtz studies issues and techniques related to psychological assessment and the diagnosis of mental disorders. His recent research is concerned with factors related to change versus stability in personality traits during adulthood and the use of informants in personality assessment.
• Dr. Patrick Markey's research program is focused on two broad issues: How people differ and if these differences are related to how they actually behave. Much of this research has related personality attributes to behaviors in diverse contexts, including Internet chat rooms, marital interactions, face-to-face communications among college students, and interactions between preadolescent children and their mothers.
Sensation/Perception
• Dr. Gerald Long has focused on the validity and reliability of various visual assessment tasks that are often used to screen our visual abilities, including color vision, contrast sensitivity, and dynamic visual acuity. Another productive line of research has involved examination of the processes underlying certain classes of visual illusions. These illusions have proven to be useful research tools in identifying sensory and cognitive effects in perception.
• Dr. Paul Sheldon's interests lie in cutaneous sensitivity. He has studied the relationship between pain sensitivity and personality characteristics and, most recently, the effect of interpersonal interactions upon tickle sensitivity.
Comparative/Physiological Psychology
• Dr. Michael Brown's laboratory has been concerned with understanding basic cognitive processes by studying the behavior of nonhuman animals. Most recently, this research has centered on spatial abilities and decision processes in rats and spatial memory in honey bees.
• Dr. Matthew Matell is interested in the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying the perception of time and sequence. Primary techniques include ensemble electrophysiological recordings, pharmacology, and lesion techniques in rats, with a current focus on the role of cortical-striatal-thalamic interactions. Computational models of timing are also being developed.