Psychology of Gender
and Sexual Fluidity
Specialization

Students in this course will be prepared for success in the psychology doctoral program at the University. Students are introduced to relevant academic communities, professional standards, and doctoral-level expectations. Essential skills needed to pursue a doctoral degree in psychology are emphasized, including critical thinking, comprehending complex scholarly texts and research articles, and effective written communications. Students will identify and begin to explore potential research topics for use in their doctoral studies and complete the course with a roadmap to navigate their way to degree completion.

This course focuses on scholarly and academic writing with an overarching goal of critically analyzing and thoughtfully synthesizing research findings while adhering to APA style and the principles of Academic Integrity. The emphases in this course are on how to (a) conduct effective literature searches; (b) critically review and summarize research studies; (c) write comprehensive, critical, and synthesized reviews of research literature; (d) formulate ideas and convey them in an ethical fashion; and (e) use feedback to revise and improve one’s work.

This doctoral-level course focuses on the fundamentals of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods approaches to psychological research. Students gain an understanding of the strengths and limitations of each approach, and how these methods apply to a research topic. The concepts of critical evaluating, published research, research ethics, and developing a research proposal will also be explored and practiced. In addition, it provides a foundation for subsequent research courses in preparation for successfully completing a dissertation at the University.

This course provides an introductory exploration of statistics for the graduate student. It includes instruction on the calculation, use, and interpretation of descriptive statistics, and introduces inferential statistical analysis. The emphasis of this course is on providing a working knowledge of basic statistical concepts to help the student understand statistical methodology used in psychology, and also more generally, developing a working knowledge of statistical usage in everyday life.

This doctoral course in tests and measurements provides the student conceptual as well as practical guidelines in test and scale construction. This course will expose the students to concepts and theories including: the nature of psychological constructs and concepts, measurements and measurement error, item construction and analysis, Classical Test Theory, and the different approaches to establishing instrument reliability and validity. Students will have the opportunity to apply the skills and concepts to a construct relevant to their own research interests.

This doctoral-level course will introduce the student to psychological test construction, administration and interpretation as well as current research in the area. Commonly used tests to assess cognition and personality will be studied.

This course will provide a foundation for knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods used in the social sciences, including psychology. Knowledge of research methods is essential both for successful completion of the dissertation and for being a skilled consumer and creator of scholarly knowledge in your field. Topics explored will include the purposes of the two basic research methods (quantitative and qualitative), the nature of multiple research designs within each method, analytic strategies used within each method, factors in quality research within each method, and ethical issues in research methods. Scholarly writing and appropriate use of the scholarly literature will also be reinforced through all topics. This course is intended to provide a broad understanding of research methods to support deeper exploration and application using more refined resources in future courses.

The purpose of this course is to acquire deeper knowledge of the quantitative and qualitative designs. The focus is on active learning to develop applied research skills that will help you in design development, data collection, and data analysis reporting phases. During the course, you will also examine how your research reflections and analysis are grounded in the empirical literature.

This course focuses on how to conduct effective literature searches, specifically in preparation for the dissertation, develop a plan for writing comprehensive, critical, and synthesized reviews of research literature, and critically review and write about underlying theoretical frameworks that lay the foundation for future research. The overarching goal of this course is for students to conduct an extensive search of the peer-reviewed empirical and theoretical literature in their topic area and identify potential areas of inquiry for their dissertation.

The Pre-Candidacy Prospectus is intended to ensure students have mastered knowledge of their discipline prior to candidacy status and demonstrated the ability to design empirical research as an investigator before moving on to the dissertation research coursework. Students will demonstrate the ability to synthesize empirical, peer-reviewed research to support all assignments in this course. The Pre-Candidacy Prospectus is completed only after all foundation, specialization, and research courses have been completed.

Students in this course will be required to complete Chapter 1 of their dissertation proposal including a review of literature with substantiating evidence of the problem, the research purpose and questions, the intended methodological design and approach, and the significance of the study. A completed, committee approved (against the minimum rubric standards) Chapter 1 is required to pass this course successfully. Students who do not receive approval of Chapter 1 to minimum standards will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of Chapter 1.

Students in this course will be required to work on completing Chapters 1-3 of their dissertation proposal and receive committee approval for the Dissertation Proposal (DP) in order to pass the class. Chapter 2 consists of the literature review. Chapter 3 covers the research methodology method and design and to includes population, sample, measurement instruments, data collection and analysis, limitations, and ethical considerations. In this course, a completed, committee-approved Chapters 2 and 3 are required and, by the end of the course, a final approved dissertation proposal (against the minimum rubric standards). Students who do not receive approval of the dissertation proposal will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of these requirements.

Students in this course will be required to prepare, submit, and obtain approval of their IRB application, collect data, and submit a final study closure form to the IRB. Students still in data collection at the end of the 12-week course will be able to take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to complete data collection and file an IRB study closure form.

In this dissertation course students work on completing Chapters 4 and 5 and the final Dissertation Manuscript. Specifically, students will complete their data analysis, prepare their study results, and present their findings in an Oral Defense and a completed manuscript. A completed, Committee approved (against the minimum rubric standards) Dissertation Manuscript and successful Oral Defense are required to complete the course and graduate. Students who do not receive approval for either or both their Dissertation Manuscript or defense can take up to three supplementary 8-week courses to finalize and gain approval of either or both items as needed.

In this doctoral-level course, you will critically engage in materials designed to explore the diverse processes in which gender concepts are constructed using biological, psychological, and social lenses. You will explore gender, including transgender, cisgender, gender queer, gender non-binary, and gender-fluid. Along with exploring the many forms of gender, you will identify how gender can be experienced as performative rather than as an essential quality. Additionally, you will discuss implications for research and professional practice.

The specific focus of the course is on the processes and dynamics of interaction within family relationships as they relate to concepts of gender identity, sexual orientation, and the intersection of larger social discourses. In this course, you will examine diverse family units (e.g., LGBTQ families, open-relationships), roles, rules, and conflict resolution in families, and an exploration of socio-contextual factors.

In this course you will explore the intellectual and social movements (such as Marxism, post-structuralism, critical race studies, queer studies, indigenous studies, and postcolonial and transnational studies) that have influenced the development of theories and concepts in gender studies as they relate to research and practice in psychology. You will engage critically in deepening understanding of how theories and epistemology influence the constraints and possibilities in the psychology of gender and sexuality. This is meant to be a theory introduction course to set the stage for the remaining courses in this specialization and engage your thinking in how these theories influence research, teaching, and advocacy.

This course will involve an exploration of human sexuality through a socio-contextual lens regarding the psychological and political influences on sexual identity development, sex, and sexuality. The focus of the course will be upon research and advocacy in relation to issues often arising from oppressive cultural discourses of sex and sexuality. You will address topics including sex, sexual orientations, sexual behaviors, intersexuality, and interpersonal challenges from family and the culture. Using a social-constructionist frame, this class will acknowledge and deconstruct discourses that give rise to the oppressive effects of intolerance, homophobia, sexism, and assumptions of hetero-normativity.

In this course you will build on the ideas of developmental psychology to further explore how developmental tasks (e.g., LGBTQ identity development, coming out, dating, love, relationships, marriage, parenting, career, aging) unfold and are affected by the developmental stages throughout lifespan and in the context of societal and institutionalized heteronormativity and homo/bi/trans-phobia. Additionally, the intersection of moral and religious/spiritual development will be explored in relation to LGBTQ lifespan development.

This course will look at the intersection of social, relational, and political dynamics that impact the policies related to LGBTQ individual and family lives from a global perspective. This will include the ways that organizational policies (e.g., APA) and laws across countries impact the psychology profession, research, practices and advocacy. Policies to be covered include adoption/surrogacy, second-parent rights, marriage, medical transitioning, homelessness/drug policy, divorce/relationship dissolution, HIV, researcher and advocacy bias, social media.