Dipartimento di Psicologia Dinamica, Clinica e Salute

Topic Area and aim of doctorate

The doctorate includes the following topic areas: 
1) Assessment of Development along the lifecycle
Language and communication development and its assessment, Development of theories of mind, Affect development and establishment of attachment bonding. Planning of research in developmental and clinical areas. 
2) Psychopathology of Development and Diagnostic Instruments:
Early identification of disorders in self regulation and in attachment, and of stable distortions in development. Psychopathology of autism. Learning and language disorders. Early feeding disorders. Diagnostic classification systems and creation of new diagnostic insturments. Psychosomatic disorders. Psychopathology of adolescence. Prevention programmes in early infancy. Effects of at-risk parenting on child development.. 
3) Dynamic Psychology
Communication modalities in family relationships, relational/attachment models and psychopathological processes, observation and assessment models of triadic relationships in "normal" and "dysfunctional" families, study of clinical implications of intersubjectivity. Personality disorders, defensive and dysfunctional processes in individuals, in marital and parental couples, in groups. Judicial assessment and family mediation. Methods of analysis of treatment efficacy. dell'efficacia dei trattamenti. 4) Clinical Psychology
Request analysis, implementation and effects of psycbological interviews, intervention in families, evalution of results, psychological counseling and network interventions. 
5) Basic reserach and assessement in the clinical domain: cognitive preocesses (perception, attention, memory, thought), communication, creativity and affective processes. Basic reserch applied to clinical and forensic psychology. Psychological aspects of security. Methods of assessment in the clinical and forensic domains. Techniques of stress management. Victimology. Each curriculum focuses on specific topics. Training activity, in all curricula, includes: 
A) Taking part in courses and research congresses, both general and specialistic, with particular attention to methodological issues;

B) Planning and implementing a research project, for the final exam; 

C) Training periods abroad, at foreign Universities, in partnership with our University.
Training courses of our Phd involve the following topics (curricula):

• 1) Assessment of Development over the life cycle curriculum refers to: Motor-sensory development and assessment tools in early childhood. Development of communication and language. Early stages of language development. Vocabulary and syntax development. Meta-linguistic skills and referential communication. Assessment tools of language development. Development of theories of mind. Theory of mind and fiction games. Referencing in mental states using language. Comunicative, affective and cognitive processes during life time. Emotional development and creation of attachment bonds. Quality of relationships with parents and mental models of the Self. Planning research in the developmental and clinical field. Methodologies and qualitative and quantitative techniques of data analyses.
• 2) Developmental Psychopathology and Diagnostic Tools curriculum refers to: Identification of early adjustment disorders of the Self and stable developmental disorders. Depression and maternal mental models of attachment. Psychopathology of autism and early diagnosis. Theory of mind deficits in autism. Communication and language problems in learning and language disorders. Early eating disorders. Disorders of parental functions and family relationships. Diagnostic classification systems in childhood and adolescence. Construction of new diagnostic tools and adaptation of international tools in the Clinical field. Models for the construction of psychological tests and sampling problems
• 3) Dynamic Psychology curriculum refers to: Mental representations of relationships and their development in infant-adult interactions. Study of family relationships through the application of specific observational methods. Intergenerational transmission of patterns of attachment. Applications of the intersubjectivity construct. Relational models and psychopathological processes. Analysis of verbal and non-verbal communications, in the therapeutic relationship. Procedures of assessment of triadic family relationships, even in dysfunctional situations. Diagnostic models for a dynamic assessment of mental disorders and adaptation problems.
• 4) Clinical Psychology curriculum refers to: Demand-analysis and different ways to request a psychological intervention. Methods of conducting a clinical interview and its psychological effects on the therapeutic processes. Prevention and treatment of psychosomatic and psychopathological disorders, through intervention on families and groups. Assessment models on results of various clinical interventions and process in individual psychotherapy. Psychological Counseling with University students. Network interventions for psychophysical disabilities.
• 5) Basic research and evaluation applied to clinical field curriculum refers to:Theoretical and technical research paradigms on cognitive processes (perception, attention, memory, thinking), communication processes, creative processes and affective processes. Basic research applied to clinical, legal and forensic psychology and to the history of the psychology. Psychological aspects of road and urban safety. Assessment methods in clinical and forensic fields. Stress management techniques. Victimology.

Research doctorate courses

Faculty

Criteria of selection