The Developmental Psychology program at the University of Waterloo is primarily a scholarly, research focused program, and provides opportunities for individual and collaborative research in diverse areas, with a focus on social and cognitive development, especially with respect to their implications for communication. Students work closely with their primary advisor, but are also encouraged to work with other faculty members to gain experience in different domains of study and research methods. Faculty and students associated with the program are currently conducting research with infants, toddlers, preschool and school age children, and adolescents. Research is conducted in laboratory and field settings. Major topics of study include: infant-caregiver communicative interaction; theory of mind; narrative, pragmatic, and conversational development; conceptual development, semantic development, and vocabulary acquisition; mother-child discourse; young children's ability to resolve conflicts with family members; young children's bullying, and young adolescents' delinquency and decision-making.
The developmental psychology program has been highly successful in placing its graduates in excellent academic and applied positions after graduation. On the academic side, Waterloo graduates have held or currently hold faculty positions at many Canadian universities including Brock, Carleton, Concordia, Mount Allison, Queen's, Simon Fraser, University of Guelph, University of Manitoba, University of Victoria, University of Western Ontario, and York University. On the applied side, Waterloo graduates hold research positions at RAND Corporation in California and at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, clinical positions at Stanford Children's Hospital in California and at the Children's Hospital in Vancouver, and school psychologist positions for the Scarborough, Whitby, Peterborough, and Wellington School Boards in Ontario.
To find more program information and faculty research areas visit the Department of Psychology Graduate website at: http://www.psychology.uwaterloo.ca/gradprog/programs/phd/developmental/index.html