Graduate Certificate in Quantitative Psychology

Plan Description

The certificate in Quantitative Psychology provides graduate students with advanced training in statistical, psychometric, methodological, and computational procedures.  The certificate equips students to improve the quality of their substantive research and helps students obtain favorable positions in academia, industry, and the private sector upon graduation.

All admitted UNLV graduate students are eligible to pursue the Quantitative Psychology certificate.  Students who participate in this certificate are typically drawn from doctoral students who are enrolled in the Psychology Department.  However, the Quantitative Psychology certificate is not restricted to psychology doctoral students.  Students who are pursuing a Psychology doctoral degree with an emphasis on Quantitative/Experimental are not eligible for the certificate.

For more information about your program, including your graduate program handbook and learning outcomes, please visit the Degree Directory.

Plan Admission Requirements

Application deadlines

Applications available on the UNLV Graduate College website.

To be admitted to the program, you must:

1. Be an admitted UNLV graduate student.
2. Submit a completed application and required application fee.

Students are accepted into a degree program as described in the Graduate Catalog.  The faculty and corresponding sub-disciplines and sub-plans within the described programs are subject to change at any time.

Plan Requirements

Total Credits Required: 12

Course Requirements 

Complete 12 credits of the following or other approved courses:

PSY 707 - Research Methods  

PSY 710 - Multivariate Analysis in Psychology  

PSY 711 - Advanced Seminar in Psychological Statistics  

PSY 712 - Psychometrics  

PSY 713 - Developmental Research  

PSY 717 - Cognitive Methods 
 

Certificate Requirements 

1. The certificate in Quantitative Psychology requires students to take 12 credits of approved courses, these courses cannot include the 6 credits that are required of all psychology doctoral students (PSY 708  and PSY 709  ).  The courses listed above are automatically approved.

2. Additional courses from the Department of Psychology and other departments can count towards the certificate in Quantitative Psychology.

   1. To obtain approval to take a course, a student should consult their primary mentor.  If the course is offered in another department, students may also need permission from the instructor.

   2. To obtain approval to count a course towards the Quantitative Psychology certificate, the student should submit the syllabus to the coordinator of the Department of Psychology Quantitative/Experimental Emphasis.

3. PSY 766 - Independent Study   and PSY 768 - Independent Research  can count towards the certificate in Quantitative Psychology with the approval of the coordinator of the Quantitative/Experimental Emphasis.  These courses may be appropriate in four circumstances:

   1. The student will gain expertise in an advanced technique that is not taught at UNLV.
   2. The student will write a paper concerning recent advancements (e.g., up-to-date research) in a particular statistical area (e.g., range tests, SEM).
   3. The student will conduct a quantitative research project (e.g., write a program, conduct a Monte Carlo study, or complete an original derivation), separate from his or her master’s thesis or dissertation.
   4. The student will author or co-author an empirical paper that requires an advanced analysis, and will have primary responsibility for the analysis and presentation of results.  This paper must be independent of the student’s master’s thesis or dissertation.
4. A brief written proposal (1-2 pages) must be approved by the student’s advisor and the coordinator of the Quantitative/Experimental Emphasis before the student registers for PSY 766  or PSY 768  .  To count the course towards the certificate, the student should submit the completed product to the coordinator of the Quantitative/Experimental Emphasis, along with a description of the contribution the student made to the project.
5. A grade point average of at least 3.0 for course work required for the certificate.

Plan Certificate Completion Requirements

The student must submit all required forms to the Graduate College and then apply for  graduation in MyUNLV by the appropriate deadline.