The American Psychological Association (APA), which is the most important professional organization for the field, is divided into more than 50 divisions for different subfields (e.g., clinical psychology) and different topics of special interest (e.g., the teaching of psychology). No psychology department could be strong in all the subfields and topics; every department must select certain areas of emphasis. For several years, the Department of Psychological Sciences has included faculty and graduate students in eight areas of focus that correspond to eight of the major subfields. Listed alphabetically, these subfields are: behavioral neuroscience, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, learning and memory, mathematical and computational cognitive science, and social psychology.

The distinctions between the different areas of focus are not absolute. A few faculty members are formally affiliated with two areas, and many faculty members have interests that overlap with those of faculty in other areas. In several cases, the overlap of interests has led to the formation of collaborative research programs. Nevertheless, the areas differ in many important ways, so knowing more about each area is essential to understand the department's structure.

Behavioral Neuroscience.

    This program focuses on the study of the relationships between brain and behavior.  Diverse behaviors are studied, including motivation, perception and learning.  Chemical, electrical, and structural techniques are used in these investigations.  Problems studied by the behavioral neuroscience area include: physiological bases of motivated behaviors (i.e., appetitive, sexual, maternal and drug seeking behaviors), sensory coding, neural and hormonal bases of learning and memory, and molecular and genetic determinants of behavior.

A number of interdisciplinary programs exist which provide valuable training for behavioral neuroscience students.  Of particular interest are the Purdue Interdisciplinary Graduate Neuroscience Program and the Ingestive Behavior Research Center.  The neuroscience program brings together investigators from many disciplines who share a common interest in the properties of the brain.  The neuroscience program organizes regular special lecture and colloquium series that bring distinguished neuroscientists to Purdue.  The Ingestive Behavior Center is an interdisciplinary program that offers a variety of training options such as special lecture series and opportunities to participate in collaborative research on bases of ingestive behavior, eating disorders, and obesity.

Clinical Psychology.

    The Clinical Psychology Area works toward expanding knowledge of human adjustment and psychopathology, and preventing or treating psychological disorders among children, adults, and families.  The Area runs a generalist “scientist-practitioner” (“Boulder model”) doctoral Program—continuously accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) since 1948—and created the in-house Purdue Psychology Treatment and Research Clinics (PPTRC) to train graduate students in offering evidence-based specialty psychological services to the community.

     The four primary training goals of the Program are: excellence in the generation of original research, knowledge of the theoretical and empirical bases of the field of clinical psychology, competence in the evidence-based planning and delivery of professional psychological services, and equipping students for ongoing contributions to the field through exemplary professional conduct. Although science and practice are taught as necessarily mutually informative, the Program emphasizes research competence as the key to building the evidence base of the field as well as to honing the critical thinking capacities that are essential to effective practice.  Students in the Program are educated first as scientific psychologists, second as clinical psychologists, and finally as specialists. 

Cognitive Psychology.

     The term "cognitive psychology" encompasses most topics in human experimental psychology.  It includes the fields of sensory and perceptual processes, attention, human learning, memory, information processing, psycholinguistics, judgment, problem-solving, and human factors.  Research in those areas includes an integration of empirical approaches and quantitative modeling. All students are expected to participate actively in research.  New students should begin research projects with their major professor in the first semester.  New students are expected to present the results of this research in the Cognitive Colloquium in their second semester, and a paper based on their project is due August 1st.

Developmental Psychology. 

     The basic philosophy of this program is that the student should be (1) capable of creating and evaluating alternative conceptual models of development and (2) knowledgeable regarding a wide variety of methods for obtaining evidence that bears on developmental issues and problems.  Students typically focus either on cognitive or social aspects of development or specialize in a particular phase of development from infancy through adolescence.  The program is designed to provide a flexible framework in which the student and major advisor organize a course of graduate study that will lead to one of the many career options in developmental psychology. 

Industrial/Organizational Psychology.

     This program is composed of two related subspecialties both concerned with understanding the behavior of individuals in organizations and applying psychological knowledge to organizational problems.  Organizational psychology is concerned with topics such as job attitudes, work motivation, leadership, individual and group decision-making, and organizational communication.  Personnel psychology is concerned with performance appraisal, personnel selection and placement, training, and job analysis.  Special emphasis in both of these subspecialties is placed on quantitative techniques and experimental design.  Research experience is an important part of the program.  Students are expected to actively participate in research throughout their training.

Learning and Memory.

     The Learning and Memory area specializes in research and theory in instrumental/operant conditioning, Pavlovian conditioning, motivation, and animal perception and cognition.  The area faculty primarily work with non-human animals, and their specific interests currently include topics such as categorization and acquired equivalence, numerosity discriminations, reward memories and outcome expectancies, serial learning, reward schedule effects, modulatory and other conditioning processes in feeding, and the neural substrates of learning and memory. Faculty in other areas (e.g., Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience) have research interests complementing those of the Learning & Memory faculty, thus providing good opportunities for collaborative research and other interactions.

Mathematial and Computational Cognitive Science.

      Students in the Mathematical and Computational Cognitive Science program acquire a solid background in mathematics, psychology, and statistics to use as a base for creating mathematical models in a wide range of psychological areas.  Academic study within this area includes modeling of psychological phenomena (cognitive psychology, learning, memory, visual and auditory perception, and psychophysics), experimental design, probability, and applied statistics.  Student thesis research is preferably directed toward theoretical and/or methodological problems within a content area of psychology, such as experimental, social, clinical, or industrial psychology.  Students are also encouraged to take advantage of the excellent opportunities at Purdue to delve into neighboring disciplines such as artificial intelligence, neurophysiology, robotics, computer science, systems theory, and linguistics.

Social Psychology.

     The Social Psychology program emphasizes a scientific, research-oriented approach to the study of human social behavior and is concerned with establishing general principles and theories of behavior.  Research areas covered within the social area include attitudes and attitude change, close relationships, group interaction, health psychology, sex roles and sex differences, social cognition, social influence, stereotypes/prejudice, and violence.  All students are expected to participate actively in research, at first under the close supervision of their major professor, then with increasing independence as their graduate careers progress.