Educational Psychology, Cognition and Development (PhD)

What is A Educational Psychology, Cognition and Development (PhD) Degree?

Psychology is the scientific study of human behavior and mental processing–the mind.  It’s a field that people really enjoy studying because what’s not to like about basically learning about you?!  The field has a very broad application, even though many people think it’s mainly about counseling people and helping them with their problems.  The field of Educational Psychology looks specifically at how people learn and use information.  Using psychological principles, Educational Psychologists figure out ways to improve the learning process for people of all ages and abilities and develop strategies that help people be more successful in their lives.

Most PhDs in the field work at universities and colleges, teaching education and psychology courses and conducting research.  In this type of a program, you will devote more than half of the time studying various elements of psychology that relate to learning and gain extensive knowledge of research design including statistical analysis of research.  The program ends with the completion of an original research study which is reported in a dissertation. With specialization in Cognition and Development, the program will cover the core elements of cognition and human development and then move pretty quickly into research and seminar work into the student’s primary area of interest—something like cognitive neuroscience or creativity.

The videos below discuss “typical” programs, so they should help regardless of which school you are considering.