Reply To: Need Some Advice

[Michael Sofis]

Hi Alicia,

Thanks for reaching out. My name is Mike Sofis, the events and resources coordinator for the sig. I’ve also been doing physical activity research for a few years at the University of Kansas. Your inquiry is a good one and a bit complicated, but I will tell you what I know.

A big part of your decision lies in how important it is to you to stay in behavior analysis. If you do not mind drifting outside of behavior analysis, then your best bet is to look up health psychology or clinical programs that may have a nice behavioral tinge. With that being said, there are rarely accredited PhD programs only in health and wellness. Usually, it’s a psychology department with several subdisciplines including health psychology or clinical psychology.one good example of a researcher in this area is Janet Audrain-McGovern.

If, however, you would like to stick in behavior analysis, then focus more in individual labs publishing health and wellness research in behavior analysis. My lab, under David Jarmolowicz, has published and us continuing to work in this area. Jesse Dallery may be the most dedicated to this area of researchers in behavior analysis so I would inquire with him. Bethany Raiff at Rowan us another good option.

Interestingly, there may be more phd program opportunities with researchers more on the basic to translational side. It may also be,easier to get out a lot of research in grad school to position yourself for that dream job. A more Applied behavior analysis program may be great too, but to date, I don’t know anyone doing a majority of their research on health and wellness.

In regards to your goals, I think they became noticeably more achievable if you are okay teaching and doing research in a department that is a mix of psychology and behavior analysis. Just like your degree is in Psychology, so are many great programs.

I hope this helped some and please feel free to follow up with any other questions!

Best,
Mike