Northwestern University, Human Development and Social Policy Program

Founded in 1981 under the leadership of Dr. Bernice Neugarten, the Human Development and Social Policy (HDSP) Program prepares students to conduct research to understand and to attack the very human problems that pose the greatest challenges to society in this new century. This research informs decisions about policies, programs, and interventions. (For more information, see http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/Programs/HDSP/Index.html.)

Over the life course, human beings learn, develop, and interact within families, communities, schools, workplaces, and the particular political and economic order within which their lives are embedded and defined. The overarching aim of HDSP scholarship is to improve human lives by examining and understanding how policies affect the lives of people through the life course and how people can analyze and affect policy. It does so by promoting an interdisciplinary understanding of how people develop, how various experiences and contexts affect human lives, the underlying logic of program design and evaluation, the ways in which political agendas are set, and how political forces distribute opportunities in a democracy.

Uniquely combining training in human development and training in public policy, HDSP furthers both scientific discovery and effective practice in understanding and enhancing human lives. The core curriculum in HDSP provides training in human development, qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as policy development, implementation, and evaluation. More specialized training is offered in child development and social policy, adult development and social policy, and human development and education policy.

The HDSP doctoral program is highly selective and admits four to seven graduate students each year. Successful applicants have diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and demography. Many have worked for a number of years after graduating from college. All share an interest in interdisciplinary approaches to public policy issues.

Graduates are trained to bridge the social sciences and social policy-making arenas, to teach and carry out research in academic and nonacademic settings, and to occupy strategic positions in government and nongovernment agencies where policies are created. Graduates of the HDSP program have assumed teaching and research positions in colleges and universities such as Cornell, Duke, Johns Hopkins, and the Universities of Wisconsin and Washington. HDSP graduates are especially well trained to become professors in other interdisciplinary programs in areas such as human development, social ecology, and family studies. In addition, they bring an interdisciplinary perspective to traditional academic departments such as psychology and sociology or to schools of public policy.

Some graduates assume professional positions in government or governmental agencies, where they are research directors or policy analysts. Examples include the General Accounting Office, Congressional Budget Office, the Rand Institute, and the Urban Institute. Some HDSP graduates are employed in businesses and corporations as directors of programs or as consultants. A recent graduate is the director of adult education and training programs at a major international corporation. Other graduates work at independent research centers or at foundations.

The program has a diverse set of faculty, with collective expertise in developmental and social psychology, sociology, political science, economics, education, and statistics. Faculty members include Emma K. Adam and P. Lindsay Chase-Lansdale, both developmental psychologists; Fay Lomax Cook, a politicial scientist who also directs the Institute for Policy Research; Greg J. Duncan, an economist who has directed the Northwestern University/University of Chicago Joint Center for Poverty Research; Alexandra M. Freund and Barton J. Hirsch, both developmental psychologists; Syros Konstantopoulos, an education statistician; Dan A. Lewis, a political scientist; Jelani Mandara, a social and personality psychologist; Dan P. McAdams, a personality and life span developmental psychologist and director of the Foley Center for the Study of Lives; James E. Rosenbaum, sociologist; and James P. Spillane, an education policy evaluator.

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