Dear Colleague:
I am writing to ask you to share information about the Ph.D. Program in Life-Span Developmental Psychology at West Virginia University with your faculty colleagues and students. Highlights of the program appear below. Additional information can be found on our website: www.as.wvu.edu/psyc/
PROGRAM. WVU's Psychology Department received the "Innovation in Graduate Education Award" from the American Psychological Association in 2006. The award recognizes the junior-colleague model used to train graduate students in research, teaching, and service. Graduate training is seen as modeling and instruction in a variety of professional skills and roles, only some of which are acquired in the classroom. As junior colleagues, students and faculty collaborate in research, rather than students serving as research assistants assigned to individual faculty members. Students develop individualized plans of study. Contact among faculty and students outside the classroom is frequent and casual. WVU has an illustrious history in life-span development as one of the first programs in this field. Our program continues to provide in-depth training to the next generation of life-span developmental psychologists. Graduates are highly successful in obtaining employment and find positions in academia, government, research institutions, foundations, and applied settings.
RESEARCH TRAINING. Initially, faculty members provide a high degree of structure and guidance that is tailored to the students' entry-level research design and data analysis skills. By the end of training, students have developed a research specialty and can successfully design and execute all stages of a research project (e.g., data collection, analysis, dissemination of findings). Students attend professional conferences and present their research to regional, national, and international audiences. Students also regularly publish their work in scholarly journals and books. The department and college provide funds to support student research and travel to conferences.
TEACHING TRAINING. Graduate students receive structured, supervised, hands-on teaching experience. Students become proficient in a variety of teaching technologies and methods. When teaching for the first time, students enroll in a teaching seminar and learn lecture strategies and best practices for encouraging active learning, leading discussions, managing the classroom, assessing student learning, and dealing with ethical issues. Students create a teaching portfolio and write a teaching philosophy. Students rapidly develop high-quality teaching skills within a single semester. Advanced graduate students may design and deliver a course in their specialty area
OUR STUDENTS. We value a wide range of ages and cultural backgrounds among our students. All students receive 4 years of financial support via research or teaching assistantships (3 years if entering with a Master's degree), plus a tuition waiver.
THE NEW LIFE SCIENCES BUILDING. The $57 million award-winning Life Sciences Building houses state-of-the-art research and teaching facilities. Each graduate student has an office and a computer with internet access and the latest software (e.g., SPSS, Word). Graduate students conduct research in faculty members' laboratories, and in off-campus locations (e.g., schools, senior centers).
A COMMITMENT TO STUDYING THE LIFESPAN. West Virginia University is recognized as the birthplace of life-span psychology. Graduate students specialize in life-span processes (e.g., cognitive or social development) and/or in an age period (infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, aging).
WVU & MORGANTOWN. WVU has an enrollment of over 26,000 students and is a Carnegie Research Extensive University. WVU has highly successful Big East sports teams, intramural sports, plays, concerts, lectures, symphony, a new $34 million Student Recreation Center, and other leisure activities. Visit .
Faculty Research Interests & Contact Information
Stanley H. Cohen. Applied gerontology, quantitative methods, and instructional technology. Stanley.Cohen@mail.wvu.edu
Katherine Karraker. Socioemotional development in infancy, adult perception of infants. Katherine.Karraker@mail.wvu.edu
Hawley Montgomery-Downs. Pediatric sleep and sleep disorders, postpartum sleep disruption, relation between sleep and biobehavior, sleep instrumentation. Hawley.Montgomery-Downs@mail.wvu.edu
Julie Hicks Patrick. Social cognition, decision making, family caregiving in mid-life and old age. Julie.Patrick@mail.wvu.edu
JoNell Strough. Gender, friendship, everyday problem solving in adolescence through later adulthood. JoNell.Strough@mail.wvu.edu
INFORMATION & APPLICATION: Applications forms available online at: www.as.wvu.edu/psyc/ Or contact: dswinney@mail.wvu.edu, (304) 293-2001, ext 31628 APPLICATIONS DUE December 15, 2006. :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: JoNell Strough, Ph.D. Associate Professor & Coordinator, Life-Span Developmental Program Department of Psychology 53 Campus Drive West Virginia University Morgantown, WV 26506-6040 www.as.wvu.edu/psyc phone: (304) 293-2001 x31648 fax: 304.293.6606 email: JoNell.Strough@mail.wvu.edu Office: 2212 Life Sciences Building ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
