Curriculum

Core Course Requirements and Research Methods Electives

Graduate students in Biobehavioral Health are required to take five core, three credit courses, (BBH 501, 502, 503, 504, and 505). In addition to this coursework, they are also required to take a minimum of 12 additional elective graduate course credits (500 level or above) that cover research methods relevant to their interests (see more below). They also participate in our BBH Colloquia series (for credit in the first year), and they take 3 credits of Professional Development Coursework (spread across two semesters).

Required (Core) Courses

• BBH 501 Biobehavioral Systems in Health and Development: Theory and Processes ("Intro to BBH")
• BBH 502 (PSY 502) Health: Biobehavioral Perspectives ("Health Psychology")
• BBH 503 Biobehavioral Systems in Health and Development: Processes and Integration ("Review of Biological Systems")
• BBH 504 Behavioral Health Intervention Strategies ("Interventions and Health Promotion"
• BBH 505 Behavioral Health Research Strategies ("Statistics/Methods")

Professional Development Courses

• BBH 597a Orientation to Graduate Training in Biobehavioral Health -- This course is aimed at 1st semester BBH graduate students
• BBH 597b Professional Development in Biobehavioral Health -- This course is aimed at 4th semester BBH graduate students

Research Elective Courses

Because the specific interests of BBH graduate students are so diverse, there is no one series of courses that would be suitable for everyone. To meet their Research Electives requirement, students elect to take courses based primarily upon their specific area(s) of research interest, in consultation with and as approved by their advisor and the Professor-in-Charge of the Graduate Program. These courses may be selected from offerings in other programs in the University including, but not restricted to, Human Development and Family Studies, Nursing, Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics, as well as courses offered by BBH.

Courses selected as electives are often (but not always) methods courses. BBH Graduate students who anticipate using statistical methods in their work often take BBH 597x/506 ("Advanced Biobehavioral Research Strategies" -- an additional statistics course that effectively forms a two-part progression started in BBH 505) toward their 12 required credits of Methods/Electives. Many other advanced statistical courses are offered (either by BBH or other departments) that can also be taken as electives (e.g., hierarchical linear modeling [HLM/MLM], longitudinal modeling, structural equation modeling [SEM]). However, any courses that further the research interests of our graduate students and which are approved by their advisor can count toward our electives requirement, including courses in fMRI techniques, “big data”, genomics, prevention research, developmental processes, survey development, any many many more.

Examples of Graduate Student Coursework by Interests