Doctoral program in Psychology

The area of social and political psychology addresses the way in which individuals and the context in which they develop, articulate, and interact, focusing on the specific characteristics and variables of individuals, groups and the social environment, and studying antecedent factors, mediators (mechanisms) and moderators of social phenomena. In this sense, this area investigates, among others, issues related to social conflict, processes of social change and collective actions, discrimination and prejudice, social identity, social norms, and inequality in different contexts, such as gender inequality and sexism, or inequality between different social groups. This area also addresses issues associated with the way in which politics affects the members of a society, such as the effects of political violence. Both experimental and non-experimental methods are used in this research, with a strong emphasis on longitudinal studies.

The goal of this area is to experimentally study cognitive and interactional processes (such as language, emotions, attention, and consciousness). In this area, the study of cognition is approached with a variety of techniques, such as electrophysiology, motion capture, electromyography, and eye-tracking, among others.

The focus of this research area is the study of human developmental processes throughout life, with special emphasis on social and emotional processes in childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood. From this perspective, we study the trajectories of change in identity dimensions, the achievement of autonomy, prosocial, civic, and political development and their relationship with socialization experiences in family, educational, work and community contexts.

This area addresses all those cognitive, social, emotional, and interpersonal processes involved in both formal and informal educational spaces, in the different stages of the life cycle. Research in this area emphasizes the relational character of the teaching-learning processes, addressing both the subject who learns and the subject who teaches. It also considers research on individual differences in various cognitive abilities, as well as personality traits, which have a direct or indirect role in human learning and development. Researchers working in this area use experimental and correlational designs and conduct both laboratory and field work.

The area of health psychology focuses on issues associated with health problems at both the individual and public health levels, such as obesity, tobacco and other substance use, and the consequences and management of situations such as natural disasters. It also deals with psychology in the context of health, such as pain management and the doctor-patient relationship, among others.

This area addresses the use of statistical models as a tool in psychological research, including the development of measurement instruments and the analysis of their psychometric properties, the design of longitudinal and multilevel studies, and the analysis of experimental designs in psychology. Research in this area integrates these fields in light of methodological developments in the application of generalized linear latent variable modeling in psychology research.

1. Applying to the Doctoral program requires holding a Professional Degree, Bachelor’s Degree or Master’s Degree. Although the desirable undergraduate training is Psychology, applicants from related careers will be accepted, as long as they comply with the entrance requirements indicated in these regulations.
2. All applicants to the Doctoral program in Psychology, regardless of the undergraduate degree that qualifies them to apply, must have taken at least one course in Inferential Statistics prior to their application. If they do not a course in statistics, they must take a brief informative course about the required knowledge of statistics, to be held in January in order to identify topics to be studied by the student, and to orient such study.
3. Proficiency in the use of computer programs, such as word processors and statistical analysis packages.
4. Certificate of English language comprehension at an upper-intermediate level (ALTE 2 or equivalent).

• To have approved the study plan.
• To have the doctoral thesis approved by the thesis committee, in its written version and its oral defense.
• To have spent a minimum of four semesters in the program.
• To have accredited a command of the English language at an advanced level and with application in academic fields, equivalent to ALTE level 3 (Association Language Testers of Europe).
• To be the main author of at least one scientific article accepted for publication in a mainstream journal or book. Exceptionally, the respective doctoral committee may authorize non-compliance with this requirement when it is considered that this could favor the subsequent publication of articles of greater impact.
• To have passed at least three transversal skills workshops offered by the Graduate School in which at least one must be the Ethics and Integrity in Research Workshop.
• To carry out a research stay/internship abroad, with teams working on topics related to their thesis. In duly justified cases of force majeure, the doctoral committee will be empowered to analyze and consider the exemption of this requirement.