Thinking of applying to a PhD program in Psychology? Here are some tips from the lab that we've gathered over the years, especially focused on Health Psychology or Positive Psychology.  

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How do I know WHERE to apply to a PhD in psychology?

Living in Southern California (let's face it, it's paradise!), we get a LOT of students who do NOT want to leave. Location, however, should be one of your last priorities when trying to identify the best place to go. Much better is to use some combination of research match and program quality. Go back through your old textbooks/course readings and find the names of researchers whose research really inspired you and matches the kinds of questions you want to ask as a researcher yourself. Graduate school is about developing the tools you need to be a stellar faculty member and researcher yourself. Some things you can learn anywhere (e.g., general research abilities, statistics). Others require HIGHLY specialized training, especially in health psychology research (e.g., learning how to do immune assays, how to monitor psychophysiological signals, analyze microbial data). You can't just teach yourself a lot of this, so you'll need a mentor who can provide you with the training you need. Think creatively though! You might need to reach out to professors in non-psychology programs, see whether you can collaborate across departments (e.g., psychology and someone in the medical school). You can also search by other methods. There are tons of websites and magazines that rank Psychology programs (not Health at this point), there are places where you can find listings of programs where you can peruse their faculty lists, and new resources with lists of faculty members and programs looking for students  generally as well as in personality/social/health psychology specifically.

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For positive psychology, it's a bit trickier- there are very few PhD programs for this new field. This is because at this point, most researchers doing this work are in other areas (e.g., clinical, counseling, health, social psychology, affective science). You will find many MA programs, but many of these are focused on helping professionals who already have a career apply positive psychology to their current work (i.e., by learning about the work and doing a capstone project focused on this implementation). Look for researchers in Positive Psych readings, journal articles, books, and then find where they are (which department and which areas of study). This is likely a more fruitful approach.

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Don't forget- before you spend your money applying to a slew of programs (the average student in our lab applies to 10-12 in a range of geographical locations and of varying ranking), make sure that you check that the professor(s) you are interested in is taking a student. Sometimes this is listed on their website or a general department website, but in other situations you'll have to directly reach out to the professor to find out. Remember: many departments use an apprenticeship approach to training (i.e., you work primarily with ONE mentor), so if the person that you are most interested in isn't taking a student, it may not be worth applying. Do note that some programs like ours take a team-based approach, and allow their students to build their own unique mentor team.

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Guidance on Graduate School Letters of Recommendation and Requests

I’m always happy to support students in their academic and career goals, but strong letters of recommendation require more than just a good grade in a large lecture course. For a letter to be effective, I need to know you well enough to speak in detail about your skills, work ethic, and potential for graduate study. If we've primarily interacted in a 400-person class, I likely can’t provide the kind of personalized, compelling letter that graduate programs value. Instead, I encourage you to seek recommendations from professors who have taught you in smaller classes and can discuss your engagement, critical thinking, and contributions to discussions. Field study and internship supervisors, research mentors, and faculty with whom you've built relationships through office hours or independent projects can also provide strong, meaningful letters. 

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That said, if you feel that I know you well enough to write a detailed and personalized letter—whether through multiple classes with me, extensive participation in a large class, frequent engagement in office hours, or working in my lab—please feel free to reach out. My PhD students and I can provide strong letters for those who have been involved in our lab, as we can speak extensively about your research skills, initiative, and performance. If this applies to you, contact me, and I will provide a link to the letter application process.