Diversity and Health Data Science Across the Lifespan

The Diversity and Health Data Science Across the Lifespan concentration is focused on understanding the social, emotional, cognitive, physical, and spiritual bases of human development, health, and well-being within the contexts of cultural and linguistic systems, educational and social systems (e.g., health care, criminal legal system), public health policy, and data-informed approaches to improving health equity. This area adopts a multidisciplinary lens to frame research questions at the intersection of human development, health, and sociocultural diversity. Students are prepared to conduct rigorous multidisciplinary research through course work in theoretical and methodological areas of diversity science, developmental science, health psychology, and qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as participation in a vibrant community of scholars and active engagement in faculty research. Students think critically about past and current research paradigms to determine their generalizability or adaptability with other worldviews as appropriate to the cultural group or context.

 

Core area research themes include the following:

  • Cognitive and socioemotional development across the lifespan
  • Cultural factors in cognitive assessment and health equity
  • Cultural centering of interventions and community-based participatory research
  • Implementation science to improve the healthcare system and increase health equity
  • Educational systems and family influences on development and adaptive functioning
  • Phenomenological and micro-phenomenological analyses of pre-reflective experience
  • Methodology to study complex psychological, educational, and health phenomenon
  • Integration of other worldviews (e.g., Indigenous science) to complement Western scientific frameworks and approaches
  • Culturally appropriate assessments including measures of social determinants of health

 

Students are prepared to conduct rigorous multidisciplinary research through course work in theoretical and methodological areas of diversity science, developmental science, health psychology, and qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as participation in a vibrant community of scholars and active engagement in faculty research. Students learn to span disciplinary and methodological boundaries by conducting research that crosses academic disciplines, engages community stakeholders, and combines diverse research approaches. Students learn how to design research that links sociocultural diversity, health, and policy across the lifespan. Students think critically about past and current research paradigms to determine their generalizability or adaptability with other worldviews as appropriate to the cultural group or context.

 

Program Requirements for PhD in Diversity and Health Data Science Across the Lifespan

 

All area students are required to complete the following four core courses in the Diversity and Health Data Science Across the Lifespan area (3 credits each), a Seminar in Diversity and Health Data Science Across the Lifespan when offered (2 credits), and at least one course in both qualitative methods and quantitative methods (3 credits each).

 

PSY 508--Research with Diverse Populations

PSY 510--Advanced Health Psychology

PSY 516--Health Disparities

PSY 629--Culture and Human Development

 

Qualitative and Quantitative Methods Courses (must take at least one from each category):

 

Qualitative Courses:

ANTH 541 Problems and Practice in Ethnography

CJ 605 Qualitative Research Design and Analysis

EDPY 645 Qualitative Research in the Psychological Sciences

LLSS 605 Advanced Qualitative Research Methods

NATV 560 Research Method and Practice in Indigenous Scholarship

PH 556 Community Participatory Based Research

 

 

Quantitative Courses:

EDPY 593 Multi-Level Modeling

EDPY 607 Structural Equation Modeling

PH 502 Epidemiologic and Biostatistics I

PSY 601 Multivariate Statistics

PSY 604 Latent Variable Modeling

PSY 650 ST: Analysis of Data

STAT 574 Biostatistical Methods: Survival Analysis and Logistic Regression

 

 

All students are required to select at least one additional elective course (3 credits) from the area to satisfy a total credit requirement (including core courses, but not including the seminar) of 18 units. The choice of electives and substitution of any alternative elective courses must be approved by the core faculty.

 

Elective Courses (must take at least one):

 

PH 501 Determinants and Equity in Public Health

PH 507 Health Care Systems

PH 552 Interventions for Health Equity

PH 554 Health Policy, Politics, and Social Equity

PH 564 Public Health and Health Care Communication

PSY 523 Socioemotional Development

PSY 528 Cognitive Development

PSY 623 Human Emotions

PSY 650 ST: Development and Evolution

PSY 650 ST: Effective Altruism

PSY 450/650 ST: Alternative Relationships

SOC 540 Medical Sociology and Health Policy

SOC 595 Health Inequities

 

Additional courses related to Diversity/Multiculturalism, Research Methods, Health Policy, and Health Equity are also provided in other UNM departments, such as the College of Population Health, Mathematics & Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Justice, and the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies, which may serve as elective courses. Students are encouraged to take courses in other academic disciplines based on their interests and research areas.

 

Faculty in the Diversity & Health Data Science Across the Lifespan Area

Primary Faculty

Davood Tofighi

Steven Verney

David Witherington

Secondary Faculty

Ben Clark

Sarah Erickson

Jeremy Hogeveen

Margo Hurlocker

Nathan Pentkowski

Bruce Smith

Kamilla Venner