Research Labs
- Advancing Learning Lab
- Building Knowledge Lab
- Brain Development Lab
- Children's Learning Lab
- Communication and Language Lab
- Computational Cognitive Development Lab
- Conversation Lab
- Diagrammatic Reasoning Lab
- Early Development Lab
- Exploration & Learning Lab
- Hands-On Play Lab
- Language Development Labs
- Little Learners Lab
- Mood, Emotion, and Development Lab
- Social Cognition Lab
- Stress and Coping Lab
- Stress and Early Adversity Lab
- Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth
- Vietnam Icohrta Project
- Research Opportunities for Undergraduate
Department Overview
The Department of Psychology and Human Development is committed to building a diverse and inclusive department in which each student, faculty member, and staff person can thrive and contribute to the university and their respective disciplines. We come from a variety of backgrounds, current circumstances, and personal and social identities and celebrate our various strengths.
Researchers use and develop state-of-the-art methods to examine biological, behavioral, and psychological processes and the contexts in which they occur. Faculty direct several specialized research labs.
A collaborative and interactive group, department members work together with each other, with faculty across the Vanderbilt campus and at other universities to answer research questions. Collaborators include other departments at Peabody College, in the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, in the College of Arts and Science, as well as at other universities nationally and internationally.
Undergraduate Programs
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Child Development
Focusing on children from infancy through adolescence and the contexts in which they live--including family, peer, school, community, and cultural influences--this program offers excellent preparation for graduate work in psychology, medicine, nursing, social work, education, or public policy. -
Child Studies
An interdisciplinary major with a broader focus than child development, child studies enables you to work with children outside formal educational settings. -
Cognitive Studies
If you are intrigued with the process of learning itself, this major will shed light on how people think, solve problems, and reason. The program frequently sends students on to graduate work in the social and behavioral sciences or areas such as medicine and law that stress inquiry and clear thinking.
Master’s Programs
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Child Studies
Solve the most pressing challenges facing children and families today by connecting scholarship and practice through the M.Ed. in Child Studies. -
Quantitative Methods
This program provides students with strong quantitative methods training for applied research settings. Alumni work in school systems, government, industry, dedicated research institutes, academic settings, and medical school research settings. -
Cognitive Psychology in Context
The program focuses on how cognitive processes unfold in everyday contexts. You'll have the opportunity to design a master's thesis that reports the results of your student-directed research project. You will develop this independent research project working in close collaboration with our internationally renowned faculty, acquiring the critical skills for master's students to successfully pursue future advanced research in a Ph.D. program or enter the job market.
Doctoral Program
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Psychological Sciences
This program is a joint offering of the College of Arts and Science and Peabody College. Candidates choose from six specializations: Clinical Science, Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognition in Context, Developmental Science, Neuroscience, and Quantitative Methods. Students benefit from access to several world-class research centers, such as the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and the Vanderbilt Vision Research Center.