General Objective

The general objective of the Doctoral Program is to provide its students with a graduate training of excellence, which enables them to perform at the highest level in their academic career, with an emphasis on research in the various areas of psychology and its applications. The Program is based on a study plan that allows students to conceptually and methodologically design a rigorous research process that concludes in an original and novel thesis.

The Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile offers this program at its School of Psychology, which also offers two other doctoral programs: PhD in Psychotherapy (in association with the University of Chile and the University of Heidelberg, Germany) and PhD in Neurosciences (in association with the Faculties of Chemistry, Biology and Medicine of our University).

A great strength of the PhD in Psychology is that it gives the possibility for students to take subjects taught in those other programs, as well as in other programs offered by the different Faculties of the University.

Specific Objectives

1. To train students at a high level in research for their academic career, supporting it in an updated vision of psychological theories;
2. To train students capable of facing research problems in psychology with high scientific and methodological rigor, with research designs and data analysis techniques that are consistent with the problem and its formulation;
3. To enable students as researchers capable of addressing challenges in basic research and in problems of social relevance. Mainly in the areas of: experimental psychology, social psychology, developmental psychology, as well as in the interdisciplinary fields of health, education, and cognitive neurosciences, so that they contribute to the scientific development of psychology at a national and international level;
4. To link students with the national and international scientific community, offering opportunities for collaboration with the most prestigious academic institutions and their researchers.

Graduate Profile

The study plan of the Phd in Psychology, together with the development of the doctoral thesis from the fifth semester, account for the graduate profile of the Program, which emphasizes the development of abilities to exercise various academic activities (generation of research projects, data analysis, preparation of works for scientific dissemination, among others) with an updated view of the current theoretical debate in psychology, and applying appropriate statistical techniques and data analyses to different research problems.

The aforementioned can be corroborated by observing the productivity of our students in the generation of scientific products, such as presentations at conferences and the development and publication of scientific articles.

In this way, the graduate of the Doctorate in Psychology is able to carry out research and other academic activities with an up-to-date perspective of psychological theories and creatively applying appropriate statistical and data analysis techniques to different research problems. The main competencies that the Program seeks and manages to develop are:

Cognitive skills:

• To update and deepen theoretical and applied knowledge in psychology.
• To delve into research designs and methodologies used in the discipline.

Practical skills:

• To use appropriate research methods for problem solving.
• To analyze a study critically and constructively.
• To apply their knowledge to new contexts and problems.
• To communicate disciplinary knowledge to the scientific environment (written and oral).

Attitudinal skills:

• Autonomy in the design and execution of projects.
• To create original and well-founded solutions.
• To make decisions according to ethical considerations.
• To work with people from diverse disciplines and cultures.

DEGREE AWARDED / PHD IN PSYCHOLOGY