The psychology program at UC Davis is broad and includes students and faculty with a variety of interests. The department has developed around five core areas of psychology:

✔ Perception, Cognition, & Cognitive Neuroscience (PCCN) involves the study of awareness and thought, and includes such topics as perception, learning, memory, language and cognition.

✔ Biological Psychology covers a broad spectrum of topics including evolutionary, neurobiological, and molecular mechanisms of behavior.

✔ Social-Personality Psychology involves the study of the individual in their social environment and includes such topics as personality & individual differences, emotions, stereotyping & prejudice, intergroup relations, the psychology of religion and psychological health & dysfunction.

✔ Developmental Psychology involves the study of changes in behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and social abilities that occur throughout the lifespan. Typical and atypical development is examined using a variety of methods including behavioral, neuroimaging, and physiological assessments.

✔ Quantitative Psychology involves the study of linear & nonlinear models, psychometrics, mixed-effects models, and dynamic models, including experimental design, analysis of variance, regression, multivariate analysis, latent growth models, time series models, and factor analytic models.