Educational Psychology (PhD)

What is A Educational Psychology (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, store, and retrieve the things that they have learned.  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.

People in the field with Master’s degrees in Educational Psychology primarily work in school settings or agencies helping children and young adults with learning disabilities and other psychological problems related to their school lives.  But, most PhDs in the field work at universities and colleges, teaching education and psychology courses and conducting research.  So, in a PhD program in Educational Psychology you will devote more than half of the time studying various elements of psychology that relate to learning theory and also gain extensive knowledge of research design, statistical analysis of research data, resulting in the completion of an original research study which is reported in a dissertation.  Most doctoral candidates will also select an additional field—an area of study outside of ed psych—that has applications in the major field—a field like curriculum, pedagogy, or even business.

The video below discusses a “typical” program, so it should help regardless of which school you are considering.