PhD Courses

The doctoral student must pass three of the courses below (or equivalent courses at another university, see below):

• Biological psychology, 7,5 credits
  
• Clinical psychology, 7.5 credits
  
• Cognitive Psychology, 7,5 credits
• The Psychology of Perception, 7.5 credits
• Personality Psychology, 7,5 credits
• Social psychology, 7,5 credits
• Developmental psychology, 7,5 credits
  

If a doctoral student who at another higher education institution, or at another department within Uppsala University, has passed a course that is equivalent to one of the courses, the doctoral student can apply to have this course credited as a Subject Theory Course in Research Methods (see information on crediting below). Approved subject theory courses in addition to the compulsory three can be included in the degree as an optional course.

Subject theory courses are offered in spring semesters (2-3 courses per spring semester in a rolling schedule), see:

Planned PhD courses, 2024-2026

and that they should be carried out in cases where at least three of the department's doctoral students have expressed interest (at the end of the autumn semester).

15 credits of optional courses are required for a doctoral degree in psychology. Optional courses are chosen in consultation with the supervisor. An optional course can be a "regular" course (with lectures, classmates, course literature, etc.) or a reading course (see information on reading course below), it can be studied at Uppsala University, at another higher education institution or at another department within Uppsala University.

For the department to offer an optional course as a regular course with lectures, classmates and so on, at least three of the department's doctoral students must have submitted a request for interest to the director of studies for the doctoral programme. The request for interest should contain a short course description and a proposal for the semester in which the course should be given. The request for interest regarding any optional courses during the autumn/spring semester is sent out at the end of the spring/autumn semester. The course is cancelled if less than three of the department's doctoral students register. If one or two of the department's doctoral students are interested in taking a course of their choice, the course should be offered as a reading course (see information on reading course below).

For inspiration, here is a list of courses that have previously been included in the optional course category:

• Academic Writing for Psychology, 7,5 credits
• Behavioral Genetics, 7,5 credits
• A Practical Introduction to Bayesian Statistics, 7,5 credits
• Advanced Personality Psychology I, 7,5 credits
• Affektiv och kognitiv neurovetenskap, 7,5 credits
• Biological Psychology II, 7,5 credits
• Introduction to Scientific Programming, 7.5 credits
• Kognitionspsykologi II: Bedömningar och beslutsfattande, 7,5 credits
• Personlighetspsykologi II, 7,5 credits
• Introduction to Cognitive Models, 7,5 credits
• MATLAB for Psychology Research I, 7,5 credits
• MATLAB for Psychology Research II, 7,5 credits
• Psykometri I: Klassisk testteori, 7,5 credits
• R for psychology research 7.5 credits
• Social Perception and Eye Tracking, 7,5 credits

A reading course is a course that includes self-study of a variety of literature (about 200 book pages or 100 pages of articles per 1.5 credits) and an examination. A reading course can be taken by one or more doctoral students. A doctoral student who is interested in a specific reading course is responsible for engaging a potential examiner (the examiner must be a researcher/teacher with a doctoral degree and in-depth knowledge of the theme of the course). The examiner is responsible for creating a syllabus that is sent to the doctoral education committee (FUN) for review. The syllabus can be written in Swedish or English and it should include information about the following:

• The course name in Swedish and English
• Number of credits (hp)
• Information that the course is given at postgraduate level
• Name of the PhD student(s)
• Course goals and content
• Information that the course is a reading course
• Form of examination
• Literature list
• Examiner

After agreement with the principal supervisor, it is possible for the doctoral student to follow courses that are part of third-cycle education at another higher education institution or at another department at Uppsala University. After completing the course, the doctoral student has the opportunity to apply for credit transfer within the framework of his/her degree. A doctoral student also has the opportunity to apply for credit transfer for third-cycle courses that the doctoral student took before he/she was admitted to the third-cycle programme. The application for credit transfer must be sent to the doctoral programme board and must contain:

• Justification of relevance to the thesis work (signed by both PhD student and supervisor).
• Degree certificate
• Course syllabus