Psychology

About the Department

The General Psychology Program focuses on exposing students to the broad spectrum of approaches in each psychology field; from behavioral, developmental, cognitive, and social approaches to applied, evaluate and also biological approaches. The Hunter College Psychology Graduate Program reflects the diversity of psychology as a science and a profession. Course offerings range from clinical, social, and developmental psychology to ethology, biopsychology and behavioral neuroscience

The program’s diverse faculty members are actively involved in reaching both in human participants and a wide variety of animal species. A broad range of applied and research opportunities are available to our students within the department in developmental psychology, social psychology, animal behavior, physiological psychology, biopsychology and cognitive psychology. The program’s departmental affiliations with mental health and community organizations make it possible for students to integrate their academic studies to supervised practical experience by means of observational field placements and opportunities for applied research. The psychology major, as part of the master’s degree program, prepares the student for many career possibilities in psychology, education, social and welfare services, and health services.

Our program also offers a concentration and certificate program in Animal Behavior and Conservation. designed to provide students with the skills needed for successful careers in animal behavior, conservation and welfare. The coursework applies psychological, ecological and evolutionary principles to the study of animals and their behavior, their communication and their cognitive, physiological, and psychological processes. Students will have opportunities to develop skills in research methods through projects conducted in laboratories, wildlife facilities, and field placement. Students completing the concentration will also receive formal recognition of their training in the form of a Certificate in Advanced Psychology of Animal Behavior and Conservation registered with New York States Education Department.

Psychology Programs and Courses

Programs and Courses in Psychology

Biopsychology: Behavioral Neuroscience

Subprogram of the PhD Program in Psychology

The specialization in Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience within the CUNY doctoral program in psychology is located at Hunter College. MA students may take some of the doctoral courses with permission of the instructor. Information on the PhD subprogram in biopsychology and applications can be obtained from the Biopsychology Office, Room 611 Hunter North, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10065 or at the CUNY Graduate Center, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016.

Administration and Faculty

Department Office:

611 North
(212) 772-5550
Website:http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/psychology/

Chair:

Vanya Quinones-Jeneb (acting)
611 North
(212) 772-5550
vanya.quinones@hunter.cuny.edu

MA Program:

611 North
(212) 772-5432
gradpsych@hunter.cuny.edu

Director and Adviser:

Sandeep Prasada
email:sprasada@hunter.cuny.edu
Website:www.hunter.cuny.edu/psychology/graduate-studies

Animal Behavior Concentration Coordinator:

Sheila Chase
(212) 772–5617
abcpsych@hunter.cuny.edu

Biopsychology, Behavioral Neuroscience
(CUNY PhD Program):

611 North
(212) 772-5621

Program Head:

Michael J. Lewis
email: mlewis@hunter.cuny.edu
Website: www.hunter.cuny.edu/psychology/graduate-studies/doctoral-studies-in-biopsychology-behavioral-neuroscience

Faculty

Christopher Braun, Associate Professor; PhD, University of California (San Diego); Sensory systems in animals,
neural substrates of vibration and sound detection, sensory variation, ecology, and evolution

Sheila Chase, Professor; PhD, CUNY; Experimental Psychology: Animal cognition, memory and Decision processes, computer models

Martin Chodorow, Professor; PhD, MIT; Experimental Cognition, Models of memory, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics

Darlene DeFour, Associate Professor; PhD, Illinois; Personality and Social Psychology: Coping with stress, psychology of women, Black psychology, culture and psychology

Tracy A. Dennis, Associate Professor; PhD, Penn State; Clinical and Developmental Psychology: Emotion regulation, developmental psychopathology, affective neuroscience, parenting and contextual Influences

Roseanne Flores, Associate Professor; PhD, CUNY; Developmental Psychology: Language acquisition, cognitive development, children and poverty, children and culture

Robert Fried, Professor; PhD,Rutgers; Psychophysiology: Biofeedback behavior physiology, EEG

Sarit Golub, Associate Professor; PhD, Harvard; Social and Health Psychology: Social, cognitive, and emotional factors that influence health behavior, with special emphasis on the interaction between behavior and the formation and maintenance of individual identity

James Gordon, Professor; PhD, Brown; Visual Psychophysiology: color vision, pattern vision, human visual development

Cheryl F. Harding, Professor; PhD, Rutgers; Behavioral Endocrinology: Brain neurochemistry and learning, effects of bacterial infection and/or mold exposure on brain structure and function

Mark E. Hauber, Associate Professor; PhD, Cornell; Animal behavior and conservation, social recognition systems, conservation, neuroethology of sound and color perception

Rebecca Farmer Huselid, Associate Professor; PhD, Kansas; Social Psychology: Effects of social identity on health and academic achievement; Effects of race, gender, and immigration on stress, psychological adjustment, substance use and abuse

Shirzad Jenab, Associate Professor; PhD, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Drugs of abuse, gene expression, neurochemistry and neuropharmacology, CNS degenerative diseases

Ellen Tobey Klass, Associate Professor; PhD, Chicago; Clinical Psychology: Guilt, morality, honesty

Joseph Lao, Lecturer; PhD, Teachers College; Developmental and Cognitive Psychology: Parenting skills, belief revision

Michael J. Lewis, Professor; PhD, Temple; Behavioral Neuroscience: Neurobiology of motivation and substance abuse; alcohol dependence and eating disorders.

Victoria Luine, Distinguished Professor; PhD, SUNY (Buffalo); Behavioral Endocrinology: Neurochemistry of hormone-dependent sexual behavior, hormonal influences on age-related memory loss

Douglas Mennin, Associate Professor; PhD, Temple; Clinical Psychology; Anxiety and mood disorders, worry, emotion regulation, physiology of emotion

Regina Miranda, Associate Professor; PhD, NYU; Clinical Psychology: Adolescent depression and suicide, hopelessness, depressive future-event schemas, the social-cognitive process of transference in depression

Peter Moller, Professor; PhD, Free University of Berlin; Animal Behavior: Multisensory integration, electrolocation & electrocommunication in electric fish, behavioral physiology, behavioral endocrinology

Helen M. Newman, Associate Professor; PhD, CUNY; Clinical Psychology: Intimate relationships, information-processing and social cognition, psychoanalytic theory, mind-body therapies

Jeffrey Parsons, Professor; PhD, Houston; Developmental Psychology: Adolescent development, risk taking, HIV/AIDS prevention, health psychology, gay/lesbian issues, substance abuse, sexual behavior

Sandeep Prasada, Associate Professor; PhD, MIT; Cognitive and Developmental Psychology: Conceptual & lexical representation in mind and brain, language acquisition

Thomas Preuss, Associate Professor; PhD, Tübingen; Biopsychology/Neuroscience: Neuroethology of escape behavior, neural decision making, neural plasticity, sensorimotor integration of biologically relevant visual and auditory inputs

Vanya Quiñones-Jenab, Associate Professor and Department Chair; PhD, Rutgers; Biopsychology/Neuroscience: Drug abuse effects on maternal behaviors and CNS/endocrine mechanism, ovarian hormones and pain pathways

Vita C. Rabinowitz, Professor; PhD, Northwestern; Social Psychology: gender Issues in health, coping, justice and helping, health

Diana Reiss, Professor; PhD, Temple; Experimental Psychology: Comparative cognition, animal behavior and communication, marine mammal cognition

Salomon Rettig, Professor; PhD, Ohio State; Social Psychology:Philosophy of science in psychology; Small groups (group therapy); Ethical decision making

Peter Serrano, Associate Professor; PhD, California (Berkeley); Biopsychology/Neuroscience: Long-term potentiation, depression and memory, developmental psychobiology and learning disorders; neural mechanisms of stress, fear, and post-traumatic stress disorder

Michael Siller, Assistant Professor; PhD, California (Los Angeles);Developmental Psychology: Development of early social cognition and language; parent-child communication; children with autism

Tricia Striano, Associate Professor; PhD Emory; Cognitive and Developmental Psychology: Infant development,autism, social cognition

Ofer Tchernichovski, Professor; PhD, Tel Aviv University; DVM, The Hebrew University. Animal behavior; Developmental learning; Vocal learning; Cultural evolution; Brain imaging; Sleep and learning; birdsong and music

Virginia Valian, Distinguished Professor; PhD, Northeastern; Cognitive and Developmental Psychology: First and second language acquisition, sex differences in cognition and achievement, gender equity

Jason Young, Associate Professor; PhD, Minnesota; Social Psychology: Attitudes and persuasion, political psychology, media influence, evolutionary psychology