Areas of Specialization

The Department of Psychology at the University of California, Davis, has five areas of specialization: Biological Psychology; Developmental Psychology; Perception, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience; Quantitative Psychology; and Social Personality Psychology.

Biological Psychology

Biological Psychology covers a broad spectrum of topics including evolutionary, neurobiological and molecular mechanisms of behavior. Research topics include neurobiology of monogamy, psychoneuroimmunology, evolutionary neurobiology, mathematical modeling of social behavior, environmental psychology, mate choice and reproductive relationships, effects of stress on social behavior, epigenetics and social behavior, and neurobiology of learning and memory.

Developmental Psychology

Developmental Psychology is a research-oriented graduate program focused on development throughout life and its applications. Faculty are prominent in their fields, skilled at mentoring students and professionally active, involving their students in exciting and cutting-edge research programs

Perception, Cognition & Cognitive Neuroscience

Perception, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience faculty investigate the processes and structures involved in high-level perception and human cognition, including the neural bases of these human attributes.

Quantitative Psychology

The quantitative program emphasizes applied methods for the analysis of data resulting from psychological experiments and correlational studies. The program covers standard topics, including analysis of variance, regression analysis, and multivariate analysis. More advanced courses are offered in structural equation modeling, factor analysis, hierarchical linear and nonlinear modeling, psychometric theory, and longitudinal data analysis.

Social Personality Psychology

The goal of graduate training in Social-Personality Psychology at UC Davis is to produce researchers and teachers of the highest caliber.