Research Centers and Institutes
Researchers in the Department of Psychological Sciences contribute to interdisciplinary centers and institutes across the University. These entities support UConn’s research, teaching, diversity, and outreach missions. They also provide an extensive network through which our faculty and students can work across disciplines to extend the boundaries of knowledge.
Department Centers
The Psychological Services Clinic offers mental health services to clients at UConn and in the surrounding community. It also provides assessments to schools and parents who require an evaluation of children for various programs.
The Clinic is a training site for doctoral students in our clinical psychology concentration. It also supports the Department’s clinical psychology research program. Faculty affiliated with the Clinic are experts in the areas of child and adult neuropsychology, clinical health psychology, developmental psychopathology, autism, and quantitative methods.
Industrial Psychology Applications Center
The Industrial Psychology Applications Center (IPAC) is a non-profit applied research center that offers a wide range of professional services to organizations. By establishing partnerships with public- and private-sector businesses, the Center carries out activities designed to meet three primary goals:
- to enhance the functioning of local, state, and regional businesses and organizations through the application of current scientific knowledge about workplace design and effective organizational practices;
- to create a forum where doctoral students in the industrial and organizational psychology concentration can gain valuable applied experience by interacting professionally with organizational representatives and applying classroom knowledge to organizational problems; and
- to promote basic and applied research on organizational effectiveness and to secure funding for this research by establishing relationships with the business community.
The Center’s projects are staffed by faculty in our industrial and organizational psychology research program and advanced doctoral students in our industrial and organizational psychology concentration. Faculty affiliated with the Center have expertise on a variety of organizational topics, including human resource management practices, ergonomic workplace design, organizational behavior, occupational safety, and shiftwork.
Recent projects carried out by the Center include: administration/analysis of a national recruitment practices survey; design and administration of a large all-organization survey; development and validation of a participatory ergonomics evaluation tool; job task analysis; workplace safety and hazard analysis. Some of these projects are sufficiently managed by students to fulfill their Field Research requirements.
For more information or to discuss how your organization can partner with the Center, please contact Janet Barnes-Farrell.
Affiliated Centers and Institutes
The Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC) facilitates scientific discovery and theoretical innovation in cognitive neuroscience and other fields by providing access to state-of-the-art equipment, methods, and training. Its facilities support both brain and whole-body imaging and research across the life span and on a range of clinical and nonclinical populations. The Center also provides educational, research, and outreach programs for students in the Department of Psychological Sciences.
The Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA) provides an organizational structure for research across disciplines that focus on the themes of perceiving and acting. The Center supports extensive collaboration among faculty and students, especially psychological sciences doctoral students concentrating in ecological psychology.
The Institute for the Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS) serves as both a beacon and incubator for research across the brain and cognitive sciences at UConn and beyond. It also promotes and supports the interdisciplinary science of the mind and its realization in biological and artificial systems.
The Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy (InCHIP) brings together individuals with diverse scientific, clinical, and methodological expertise in the areas of public health and well-being. It also provides support for faculty and students as they evolve into collaborative investigators who conduct innovative interdisciplinary research.