Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Psychology (Ph.D.)

Offered by: Psychology (Faculty of Science)
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Program Description

All candidates for the Ph.D. degree must demonstrate broad scholarship, mastery of current theoretical issues in psychology and their historical development, and a detailed knowledge of their special field. Great emphasis is placed on the development of research skills, and the dissertation forms the major part of the evaluation at the Ph.D. level.

Ph.D. students in Clinical Psychology must fulfil similar requirements to Ph.D. students in the Experimental Program and must also take a variety of specialized courses, which include practicum and internship experiences.

Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please refer to Visual Schedule Builder. A technical issue is causing the "Terms offered" field to incorrectly report "this course is not currently offered" for many courses in the Course Catalogue.

Thesis

A thesis for the doctoral degree must constitute original scholarship and must be a distinct contribution to knowledge. It must show familiarity with previous work in the field and must demonstrate ability to plan and carry out research, organize results, and defend the approach and conclusions in a scholarly manner. The research presented must meet current standards of the discipline; as well, the thesis must clearly demonstrate how the research advances knowledge in the field. Finally, the thesis must be written in compliance with norms for academic and scholarly expression and for publication in the public domain.

Required Course

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 701	Doctoral Comprehensive Examination.	0
Doctoral Comprehensive Examination. Terms offered: Summer 2025 An examination that must be passed by all doctoral candidates in order to continue in the doctoral program. See course page for more information

Complementary Courses (12-24 credits)

12 credits (one course per term in Year 2 and Year 3) chosen from the following list:

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 712	Comparative and Physiological Psychology 3.	3
Comparative and Physiological Psychology 3. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 715	Comparative and Physiological Psychology 6.	3
Comparative and Physiological Psychology 6. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 722	Personality and Social Psychology.	3
Personality and Social Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in personality and social psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 723	Personality and Social Psychology.	3
Personality and Social Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 724	Personality and Social Psychology.	3
Personality and Social Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 725	Personality and Social Psychology.	3
Personality and Social Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 727	Personality and Social Psychology.	3
Personality and Social Psychology. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in comparative and physiological psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 728	Ethics and Professional Issues.	3
Ethics and Professional Issues. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Clinical psychology as a profession, with particular emphasis on ethical issues. See course page for more information
PSYC 729	Theory of Assessment.	3
Theory of Assessment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Issues related to psychological measurement and assessment. See course page for more information
PSYC 730	Clinical Neuroscience Methods.	3
Clinical Neuroscience Methods. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Techniques used in the study of biological aspects of clinical disorders, including methods in epidemiology, course and outcome, behavioural and molecular genetics, neuroimaging, psychophysiology and psychopharmacology. See course page for more information
PSYC 732	Clinical Psychology 1.	3
Clinical Psychology 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of clinical psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 733	Clinical Psychology 2.	3
Clinical Psychology 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Review of clinical psychology. See course page for more information
PSYC 734	Developmental Psychology and Language.	3
Developmental Psychology and Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in developmental psychology and language See course page for more information
PSYC 735	Developmental Psychology and Language.	3
Developmental Psychology and Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in developmental psychology and language. See course page for more information
PSYC 736	Developmental Psychology and Language.	3
Developmental Psychology and Language. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in developmental psychology and language See course page for more information
PSYC 740	Perception and Cognition.	3
Perception and Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in perception and cognition. See course page for more information
PSYC 741	Perception and Cognition.	3
Perception and Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in perception and cognition. See course page for more information
PSYC 742	Perception and Cognition.	3
Perception and Cognition. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in perception and cognition. See course page for more information
PSYC 746	Quantitative and Individual Differences.	3
Quantitative and Individual Differences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in quantitative and individual difference. See course page for more information
PSYC 747	Quantitative and Individual Differences.	3
Quantitative and Individual Differences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in quantitative and individual difference. See course page for more information
PSYC 748	Quantitative and Individual Differences.	3
Quantitative and Individual Differences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in quantitative and individual difference. See course page for more information
PSYC 749	Quantitative and Individual Differences.	3
Quantitative and Individual Differences. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in quantitative and individual difference. See course page for more information
PSYC 750	Applied Bayesian Statistics.	3
Applied Bayesian Statistics. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Bayesian statistics, emphasizing applications to commonly encountered models in the social sciences (regression analysis, mediation and moderation, and latent variable models). Focus will be on differences between classical and Bayesian statistics, Bayesian analyses for several commonly used models in psychology, reporting results of a Bayesian analysis, and critical evaluation of methods and results sections of papers in psychology journals that used Bayesian analysis. See course page for more information
PSYC 752D1	Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change.	3
Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A practice-oriented course. Staff and students discuss current cases being treated with a variety of psychotherapeutic and behavioural change techniques. See course page for more information
PSYC 752D2	Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change.	3
Psychotherapy and Behaviour Change. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See PSYC 752D1 for course description. See course page for more information
PSYC 753	Health Psychology Seminar 1.	3
Health Psychology Seminar 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced area seminar on a topic in health psychology. See course page for more information

0-12 credits from the following (students without a master's degree from McGill need to take all 12 credits):

Course List
Course	Title	Credits
PSYC 650	Advanced Statistics 1.	3
Advanced Statistics 1. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A course in advanced statistics with specialization in experimental design. See course page for more information
PSYC 651	Advanced Statistics 2.	3
Advanced Statistics 2. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. A course in advanced statistics with specialization in multivariate techniques. See course page for more information
PSYC 660D1	Psychology Theory.	3
Psychology Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Professors representing the various research areas within the Department discuss critical issues and developments within their fields of expertise. See course page for more information
PSYC 660D2	Psychology Theory.	3
Psychology Theory. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. See PSYC 660D1 for course description. See course page for more information

Note: The Department of Psychology does not ordinarily require an examination in a foreign language however, all students planning on practicing clinical psychology in the province of Quebec will be examined based on their proficiency in French before being admitted to the professional association.

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