Math Psychology?

[neuropsych76]

Hello, I'm asking this question for my girlfriend

She is a double major in math and psych and wants to know the difference between applied math doctorate programs and quantitative psychology programs. What kinds of things can one do with a applied math degree and quantitative psych and vice versa? We have had trouble finding good information online for what these programs are like other than the specific program websites.

Thank you for any help or direction on where to look for information!

[PsychPhD]

The American Psychological Association recently had a task force (2006) for increasing the number of quantitative psychologists in the field. Here is a great website with more information about Qpsych: http://www.apa.org/research/tools/quantitative/index.aspx.

In short, departments all over the country are advertising considerably more jobs for Qpsych people than are being trained--these folks have the easiest (and perhaps the most lucrative) job search in the psychology field today. Hope this helps, and tell her good luck!

[luggage]

She is a double major in math and psych and wants to know the difference between applied math doctorate programs and quantitative psychology programs. What kinds of things can one do with a applied math degree and quantitative psych and vice versa? We have had trouble finding good information online for what these programs are like other than the specific program websites.

Hi.

Quant Psych is mostly composed of psychometrics, which is basically an area that creates mathematical techniques for other psychologists. Academics in this area generally work closely with people in educational psychology and test making, though there are other areas. A smaller area of quant psych is mathematical psychology. In addition to using statistics, mathematical psychology uses techniques from areas in math other than statistics to model human behavior. It is similar to applied math.

The difference is applied math is more general, and therefore more theoretical. Getting a PhD in quant psych (unlike in applied math) may involve working with real psychological data. A student in quant psych is trained in applied math specifically as it applies to psychology, while an applied math student is trained in applied math in general.

The best resource for finding out about these things seems to be applying to and visiting quant psych programs. The area is so small that they have trouble advertising themselves.

[psygrad81]

I don't know much about other programs, but I considered applying to the University of Rhode Island's PhD program:

http://www.uri.edu/artsci/psy/behsci_research.shtml

Maybe that can give you some info as a starting point.

[honkycat1]

Hi.

Quant Psych is mostly composed of psychometrics, which is basically an area that creates mathematical techniques for other psychologists. Academics in this area generally work closely with people in educational psychology and test making, though there are other areas. A smaller area of quant psych is mathematical psychology. In addition to using statistics, mathematical psychology uses techniques from areas in math other than statistics to model human behavior. It is similar to applied math.

The difference is applied math is more general, and therefore more theoretical. Getting a PhD in quant psych (unlike in applied math) may involve working with real psychological data. A student in quant psych is trained in applied math specifically as it applies to psychology, while an applied math student is trained in applied math in general.

The best resource for finding out about these things seems to be applying to and visiting quant psych programs. The area is so small that they have trouble advertising themselves.

not necessarily psychometrics, there is a lot of work in probabilty modeling done with math psych people. and more and more people are getting into bayesian stuff too...

there is an annual conference for math psych, you should check out the website and the journal to see what kind of work is done there. Our lab actually has a grad student and a postdoc that both presented at the math psych and we are a cogntive lab that does no psychometrics... mostly modeling.

Edited February 24, 2011 by donnyz89

[neuropsych76]

Thank you all for the replies! To follow up, my gf did learn more about quant psych (in fact she got accepted into quant psych phd programs so far ). It seems to be a quickly growing field. Hopefully, more people learn about it and allow it to continue to grow!

[luggage]

I guess since we're on the topic. I got into the quant programs in Ohio State, U of Illinois, and UNC. What do you all think? I am so far interested in doing decision modeling, but I feel like I know so little about it that my interests are subject to change.