Graduate Program in Demography
Demography Dual-Ph.D. Curriculum
(minimum of eight academic courses required)
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Core Demography Training Courses
I. Disciplinary Survey Courses
(one course required for Masters and Ph.D.)
- Anthropological Demography
- Social Demography
- Economic Demography
- Biometry of Human Reproduction+
II. Demographic Methods
(minimum of two courses required for Ph.D.; a third course can count as an elective population studies course)
- Demographic Techniques (required)
- Mathematical Demography
- Event History Analysis
- Spatial Demography
- Multilevel Models
III. Seminars in Demographic Process
(minimum two seminars required for Ph.D.)
- The Demography of Human Fertility
- Fertility, Population Change, and Development
- Race, Ethnicity, and Family Processes+
- Family Demography
- Global Health and Mortality
- Infectious Diseases in Human Populations+
- Health Disparities+
- Internal and International Migration
- Immigration, Incorporation, and Inequality+
- Sociology of Aging
IV. Portfolio of Elective Population Studies Courses
1. FAMILY DEMOGRAPHY
- Family Demography
- Family Disorganization
- Race, Ethnicity, and Family Processes
- Introduction to Family Studies
- Sociology of the Family
- U.S. and International Social Policy and Demographic Changes
- Population and Gender in Africa
2. DEMOGRAPHY OF CHILDREN AND DEVELOPMENTAL TRANSITIONS
- Demography of the Life Course
- Poverty, Policies, and Child Development
- Children and Youth in Developing Countries
- Education and Demographic Change
- Poverty, Race, Ethnicity, and Child Health
3. POPULATION AND INEQUALITY
- Social Demography of Poverty
- Health Disparities
- Immigration, Incorporation, and Inequality
- Race, Ethnicity, and Residence
- Demography of Social Stratification
4. POPULATION, LABOR MARKETS, AND ENVIRONMENT
- Rural Labor and Labor Markets
- Urban Sociology
- Population, Food, and Traditional Agriculture
- International Economic Development and Agriculture
- Labor Economics
5. BIODEMOGRAPHY
- Biometry of Human Reproduction
- Biosocial Perspectives on the Family
- Infectious Diseases in Human Populations
6. POPULATION AND PUBLIC POLICY (from above portfolios)
- Education and Demographic Change
- Poverty, Policies, and Child Development
- Social Demography of Poverty
- Children and Youth in Developing Countries
- Poverty, Race, Ethnicity, and Child Health
- U.S. and International Social Policy and Demographic Changes
V. PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE
- Demography Colloquium (1 credit required each year in the program)
+ Also can be used as elective population studies courses
CORE COURSES IN DEMOGRAPHY
For official course descriptions, please see: www.psu.edu/bulletins/whitebook
Demography 590 Colloquium: Professional Development Seminars and Workshops
Disciplinary Survey Courses
Anthropology 408 Anthropological Demography: Analysis of demographic studies in traditional and very small populations.
Sociology 423 Social Demography: Social demographic perspectives on fertility, mortality, morbidity, migration, demographic transitions, immigration, family, aging population, and minorities.
Anthropology 462 The Biometry of Human Reproduction: Survey of statistical studies of human fertility and reproductive biology.
Economics 463 Economic Demography: Economic aspects of growing versus stationary populations; historical interrelationships between demographic and economic factors; economic welfare and policy implications.
Demographic Methods Courses
Demographic Techniques (SOC 573) is required for all dual-degree and doctoral minor candidates, and one additional seminar is required for dual-Ph.D. candidates. A third demographic methods course can count as an elective population studies course.
FIRST-LEVEL COURSES
Sociology 573 Demographic Techniques: Survey of demographic research methods; demographic data; measures of health, mortality, fertility, and migration; life tables; population projections. (Required)
ADVANCED-LEVEL COURSES
Sociology 576 Applied Mathematical Demography: Survey of mathematical models used in the study of population growth; survivorship; fertility, migration, stability, kinship, labor force projections.
Sociology 577 Techniques of Event History Modeling: In-depth review of survival analysis methods for the analysis of change in discrete dependent variables.
Sociology 579 Spatial Demography: Spatial analysis tools applied to demographic research, including issues in the collection, integration, manipulation, visualization, and analysis of both primary and secondary demographic data sources in GIS.
MULTILEVEL MODELS
(Students may count one but not both of the following courses toward the Ph.D. demographic methods (requirement.)
Sociology 578 Multilevel Models: Contextual analysis and growth modeling as applied to characteristics of schools, neighborhood, geographic regions, and individual outcomes. Two-level and three-level models, multilevel analysis of discrete dependent variables, and latent variable models.
Human Development and Family Studies 517 The General Linear Mixed Model: Analysis of both general linear mixed models and the multilevel formulation, i.e. the hierarchical linear model (HLM). Emphasis on longitudinal (growth curve) models.
Seminars in Demographic Processes
Sociology 521 Family Demography: Current theoretical, methodological, and substantive issues in family demography; nuptiality, divorce, household composition, female employment, migration, and fertility.
Sociology 523 Internal and International Migration: Theories, frameworks, and policies related to internal and international migration patterns in developed and developing nations.
Sociology 524 The Demography of Human Fertility: Overview of major issues and methodological approaches in the demographic study of human fertility in developing and developed countries.
Rural Sociology 525 Fertility, Population Change, and Development: Fertility and population growth in less-developed countries; theories of fertility change, agricultural development, and population policies.
Sociology 535 Sociology of Aging: Major theoretical and empirical research on aging. Demographic and sociological perspectives for understanding key social problems confronting older population members and policy makers.
Anthropology 566 Infectious Diseases in Human Populations: Population aspects of infectious disease demography, ecology, and epidemiology; interactions between human host and its microparasites; and the implications of infectious diseases in modeling human population dynamics and ecology.
Sociology 597 Global Health and Mortality: Major issues in international health and mortality from a demographic perspective. Special attention to global South health and mortality patterns and to health/mortality data quality issues.
Sociology 597 Race, Ethnicity, and Family Process: Cultural and structural explanations of racial and ethnic variation in family processes, and their implications for inequality in child and adult well-being in the United States.
Sociology 597 Immigration, Incorporation, and Inequality: Current research in incorporation and assimilation of immigrants; linkages among immigration, inequality, and racial stratification.
Sociology 597 Health Disparities: Analysis of health outcomes, the social conditions that are related to population health disparities, and some of the demographic mechanisms through which these patterns are produced.
Demography 596 Individual Studies
Seminars in Population Studies
Economics 516 Labor Economics II, Topics in Labor Supply: Analysis of microeconomic models of labor supply, human capital, hedonic wages, job search, fertility, and marriage. Emphasis is on applied work in econometric methodology.
Educational Theory and Policy 516 Education and Demographic Change in the United States and Abroad: Interrelationship between schooling and employment, marriage, fertility, and migration. Focus comparatively on the United States and developing countries.
Sociology 522 Demography of the Life Course: Theoretical bases, critical concepts, and methods of life course analysis; applications to age and gender population cohorts.
Human Development and Family Studies 525 Introduction to Family Studies: Interdisciplinary introduction to issues pertaining to family studies, and relationships to demography.
Sociology 530 Sociology of the Family: In-depth analysis of major issues and demographic empirical research in family, work, and gender; social class and families; father and grandparents: family law and policy issues.
Rural Sociology 530 Sociology and Demography of Poverty in the United States: Theory and measurement of poverty with an emphasis on the United States; social and demographic characteristics of the poor, urban underclass, and vulnerable rural groups; social welfare policy.
Sociology/Human Development and Family Studies 531 Family Disorganization: Theory and research on population-related family processes, including family formation, parent-child relations, divorce, and family in remarriage.
Human Development and Family Studies/Sociology 537 Biosocial Perspectives on the Family: Theoretical and measurement advances in knowledge about family processes resulting from the integration of information from the fields of behavioral endocrinology (study of hormones), behavioral genetics, evolutionary psychology, and demography.
Health Policy and Administration 541 Poverty, Race, Ethnicity, and Child's Health: This graduate seminar focuses on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in the health and well-being of infants, children, and adolescents, as well as policies and programs aimed at improving children's health and reducing disparities.
Agricultural, Environmental, and Regional Economics 550 International Economic Development and Agriculture: The economic development process with particular emphasis on agriculture and population.
Sociology 560 Urban Sociology: Examination of the structure and dynamics of North American cities and the residents' experiences in such settings.
Anthropology 575 Population, Food, and Traditional Farming: Examination of theories and evidence about population and preindustrial agriculture and formulating new models of the traditional farming household as a demographic enterprise.
Human Development and Family Studies 577 Poverty, Policies, and Child Development: Interrelationships among demographic trends in family change, poverty, and social policies.
Agricultural, Environments, and Regional Economics 597 Rural Labor and Labor Markets: Theoretical and empirical research on rural and agricultural households, including male, female, and child labor supply, time allocation in household income and population production, and labor supply and migration in local labor markets.
Human Development and Family Studies 597 U.S. and International Social Policy and Demographic Changes: A comparative perspective on social policies (i.e., maternity leave, child care, employment, income support, etc.) that influence the well-being of children and families in relation to national demographic changes.
Rural Sociology 597 Children and Youth in Developing Countries: Survey of economic development and comparative family structure, child mortality and mobility, schooling, children working, children in agriculture, street children, migrant children, and child welfare policy.
Sociology 597 Population and Gender in Africa: The impact of gender roles on family dynamics, health, fertility, and AIDS in Africa.
Sociology 597 Race, Ethnicity, and Residence: Residential experiences, regional redistribution, suburbanization, segregation, home-seeking behavior, housing market discrimination, neighborhood preferences, and local social relations in different types of race/ethnic settings (ghettos, barrios, Chinatowns, etc.).
Sociology 597 Demography of Social Stratification: Analysis of the recent significant increase in inequality patterns and shifts in social mobility; patterns and feedback loops whereby social inequalities and unequal social structures influence family demographic processes.
RELATED (Non-Core) COURSES IN RESEARCH METHODS AND STATISTICS
Anthropology
- Anthropology 458, Ethnographic Field Methods
- Anthropology 509 Research Design in Anthropological Fieldwork
- Anthropology 561 Field Methods in Anthropology
- Anthropology 562 Laboratory Methods in Anthropology
Sociology/Rural Sociology
- Sociology 513 Sociological Research Methods
- Rural Sociology 573 Methods of Survey Data Analysis
- Sociology 574 Statistical Methods for Social Research
- Sociology 575 Statistical Models for Nonexperimental Research
Human Development and Family Studies
- Human Development and Family Studies 519 Methods of Statistical Analysis in Human Development
- Human Development and Family Studies 521 Qualitative Methods in Human Development and Family Studies
- Human Development and Family Studies 526 Measurement in Human Development
- Human Development and Family Studies 536 Research Methods in Developmental Processes
- Human Development and Family Studies 597 Latent Class Analysis
Economics/Agricultural Economics
- Economics 490 Introduction to Econometrics
- Economics/Agricultural Economics 510 Econometrics I
- Economics/Agricultural Economics 511 Econometrics II
- Agricultural Economics 525 Research Methods in Rural Social Sciences
Applied Statistics Minor Program (Department of Statistics)
- Statistics 501 Regression Methods
- Statistics 502 Analysis of Variance and Design of Experiments
- Statistics 503 Design of Experiments
- Statistics 504 Analysis of Discrete Data
- Statistics 505 Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis
- Statistics 506 Sampling Theory and Methods
- Statistics 508 Applied Statistical Distribution Theory
- Statistics 510 Applied Time Series Analysis
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