Developmental Science at FIU

Developmental Psychology Program

Department of Psychology

Florida International University

Miami, Florida 33199

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A young university, FIU has emerged at the beginning of the 21st century as a large, urban, research-extensive university with a diverse, multi-cultural student body. The student body of the Lifespan Developmental Science Program mirrors this diversity. The structure of the program curriculum, in combination with its unique integration of a life-span orientation with an interdisciplinary focus on both basic and applied developmental science, makes it possible to capitalize on an international, multicultural urban context that is unique. The program provides an extraordinarily rich and diverse setting for faculty research and scholarly activities with opportunities for students to participate in innovative programs of knowledge development in ways that are not available elsewhere.

Careers in Developmental Science

The goal of the program is to provide quality education in Lifespan developmental science at the doctoral level. This entails balancing the interests and goals of a diverse student body with the program’s goals of offering a graduate education that is broad, methodologically rigorous, and research-based. This combination of unique favorable conditions makes it possible for the program to offer students not only a diversity of educational opportunities, but also employment opportunities. Graduates of our program are employed in a varied of settings including academic research settings, public sector settings, and private sector settings. In academic research settings, for example, they are employed in university, college, and community college settings as faculty members involved in teaching, research and community service. In public sector settings, they are employed in research settings as project directors and research coordinators within national, state, and local government agencies and other pubic institutions. In private sector settings, they are employed as as research consultants or project directors, in scientific management capacities, and in applied settings as practitioners and planners, and in other service implementation and evaluation capacities. Where do program graduates work?

Southeast Florida and FIU are alike in their explosive growth, rich ethnic and cultural diversity, and quest for excellence. FIU is a leading institution located in Miami, Florida, one of the most dynamic, artistically expressive, and cosmopolitan cities in the United States, the gateway for Latin America and the Caribbean. FIU's strategic location adds to the growing global impact of the University.

Florida International University is located in a multicultural urban region where international and urban problems intersect with traditional psychological issues.  Miami is currently an urban center of international trade, communication, and finance that stands at the crossroads for North, Central, and South America and provides a large-scale field laboratory for the study of basic and applied psychological problems and issues.

The University and the Community offers the student a richness and diversity of experience and the extensive support of campus Student Life and Services. The Psychology Department and the Lifespan Developmental Science Program offer a similar richness and diversity of experience. The University offers courses on two campuses, and the Psychology Department has offices and laboratories on both campuses.  The Department currently has 23 full-time members and is one of the largest departments in the College of Arts and Sciences.  The Department's goal has been and continues to be one of providing to students the highest quality education possible.  At present there are 12 faculty members in the Lifespan Developmental Science Program.

Students in the program maintain an active SGA sponsored student organization,  the Developmental Mental Health Association (DMHA) (http://www.fiu.edu/~dmha). For more information see the DMHA website or contact the President of the association: