The Doctor of Philosophy in Educational Psychology focuses on human learning, development
and motivation. The role of educational psychology is to bring together theory and
research from psychology and other related disciplines in order to facilitate healthy
human development and effective teaching and learning. Our graduates go on to teach at college or universities, work in public education or conduct research
in educational, corporate or government settings.
The Educational Psychology faculty are active researchers and encourage and support
student-led research. Recent projects include communication technologies and youth’s
psychosocial development, social media and psycho-emotional well-being, the relationship
between mindset and socioeconomic status, meaning-making processes in collaborative
learning contexts,the psychological climate of online learning environments and self-regulation, predictors
of psychological well-being, teachers’ social perspective-taking ability and the relationship
of student openness to multicultural instruction and ESL teachers’ sense of responsibility.
Faculty expertise includes:
How group discussion — face-to-face and online — impacts the learning process
Adolescents' and emerging adults’ psychological and social development in the digital
age
Transcripts from all previously attended institutions (2.5 minimum undergraduate GPA
and 3.5 minimum graduate GPA required)
Current vita
Three letters of recommendation
GRE scores (within the last five years. GRE total score of at least 300 for two subtests of verbal and quantitative, with
a minimum of 150 for each subtest; the writing subtest minimum of 3.5 is strongly
recommended)
Professional goal statement (approximately two pages, double-spaced)
Professional writing sample (scholarly paper, thesis or other publication)
The OSU Fellowship in Educational Psychology provides four-year support for PhD student-scholars whose research interests focus
on instruction, learning, development and/or motivation in reducing educational disparities
of under-represented and historically marginalized students in the state of Oklahoma
and beyond. Application materials must be submitted by Feb. 15.
Graduate assistantships, which provide a monthly stipend as well as tuition and health
insurance, are offered annually on a competitive basis. Students interested in applying
for an assistantship through the educational psychology program should email