Studying Persuasion & Social Influence at the University of Maryland offers special advantages:
A mentoring environment. Our highly selective graduate program attracts students of unquestioned ability interested in the study of persuasion and social influence. The favorable faculty-student mentoring ratio provides opportunities for stimulating graduate student-faculty collaboration and opportunities for close work on faculty research.
An emphasis on the building of theory. The focus of our research is on building theories of persuasion and social influence. The excitement of our program is in research contributing directly to advance our understanding of cognitive processes.
The strength of preparation in research methods. Both our department and university provide resources for studying research methods, which are among the richest of any Communication Department in the country. Within the department, we offer course work in research design, and in a range of data analysis methods (including structural equation modeling and Galileo techniques). And there are other resources at Maryland as well, including excellent classes in the Department of Measurement, Statistics, and Evaluation in the College of Education and in the Joint Program in Survey Methodology.
The opportunity to study the effects of culture on persuasion. One of the important influences on persuasion is its cultural context. With our strong program in intercultural communication, we encourage intercultural work to understand the influence of this critical variable on cognitive processes and message production.
Our location in the Washington metroplex. Washington is, of course, a cosmopolitan, international city with advantages in the arts, culture, and politics. This location provides special opportunities for those studying persuasion and social influence. On the one hand, headquarters for many funding agencies that support social science research are located here, including the National Science Foundation and many private foundations. On the other hand, the diverse business and governmental activities of our metropolitan area are unmatched for the opportunities that they provide for you to apply your knowledge of persuasion into contexts beyond the academy.
