University of UtahDepartment of Psychology  
 
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Cross-Areas
Environment-Behavior
Clinical-Developmental
Cognitive Clinical Neuro
Persuasion-Decision Making
Interpersonal Processes
Social-Developmental
Self-Regulation
Diversity
Health
 
Interpersonal Processes
  • How do people (couples, mothers and children) work together to manage difficult life tasks?
  • How is our memory for our own past influenced by the people we talk to about our experiences?
  • How do couples establish intimacy in a new relationship?
  • How do the people around us influence our strivings to achieve in work, school, home or health?
Interpersonal relationships are fundamentally important to our emotional and physical health across the entire lifespan. Here at the University of Utah, our faculty are on the cutting edge when it comes to considering the relational context of human behavior. The approaches taken vary from examining interpersonal relationships as contexts within which psychological and biological processes unfold, to looking at the way relationships can create developmental change, to examining relationship change over time, rather than individual change. The resulting research programs and course offerings provide numerous exciting and innovative possibilities to students at all levels.

Faculty: James F. Alexander
Lisa Aspinwall
Lorna Smith Benjamin
Cynthia Berg
Lisa Diamond
Paul Florsheim
Alan Fogel
Monisha Pasupathi
Frederick Rhodewalt
Carol Sansone
Timothy W. Smith
Bert N. Uchino
Paul H. White

Sample Graduate Courses
  • Seminar on social relationships
  • Development of peer relations
  • Social and systemic perspectives on psychopathology
  • Seminar on self and interpersonal behavior
  • Seminar on Interpersonal processes
  • Intimate relationships over the lifespan
  • Seminar on Social Neuroscience
Sample Undergraduate Courses
  • Introduction to Social Psychology
  • Intergroup relations
  • Advanced seminar in social and personality development
  • Psychology of love
  • Psychology of interpersonal relationships
  • Psychology of family pathology