DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE

The Department of Family and Human Development offers a degree program leading to the Doctor of Philosophy degree with a major in Family Science. The Ph.D. in Family Science degree prepares researchers and clinicians with a focus on family processes, family relationships, and human development within the context of families. A clinical concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) at the Masters level also is available. The Ph.D. program is designed for graduates to assume leadership roles as directors in public or privately funded mental health agencies, private practice, or government, or as researchers and academicians in universities. Students in the MFT concentration also are prepared to practice as certified marriage and family therapists.

Admission. Admission to the Ph.D. in Family Science is determined by the following criteria:

-- official transcripts of all undergraduate and graduate course work;

-- verbal, quantitative, and analytical GRE scores;

-- statement of goals relevant to the Ph.D. program;

-- three letters of recommendation; and

-- an application for admission to the Graduate College.

Deadline is January 15. Admissions for Fall semester only.

Foreign Language Requirements. None.

Evaluation and Comprehensive Examinations. Progress through the program involves (1) annual evaluations of the student's performance and (2) comprehensive written examinations at the end of the student's course work.

Dissertation Requirements. The doctoral dissertation must be a work of original scholarship, make a significant contribution to knowledge about families, and reflect a mastery of systemic research methods.

Final Examinations. A final oral examination in defense of the dissertation is required.

Research Activity. The Department of Family and Human Development provides advanced graduate applied family studies and child development, including training in marital and family therapy. Specific areas of faculty research include evaluation of intervention and marital therapy, marital and family relationships, marital interaction, parent-child and parent-adolescent relationships, prevention research on children and families, early intervention for at-risk children, children's social and emotional development, children's gender-role development, sexuality, dating relationships, and ethnic and socioeconomic diversity in marital and family relationships. Strong emphasis is placed on the acquisition of sophisticated theoretical, methodological, and statistical skills necessary to acquire research funding, publish in professional journals, and make significant contributions to existing knowledge.

Research and Clinical Facilities.The department's research and clinical facilities include a marriage and family clinic, marital interaction laboratory, children's social development laboratory, child development laboratory, video coding labs, the Autism Research Center, and collaborative arrangements with the ASU Prevention Intervention Research Center. The Department of Family and Human Development also provides access to sophisticated microcomputing technology within the department as well as to centralized computing services at ASU. The department offers several fellowships and assistantships that provide students with research and teaching experiences.