The Graduate Program in Psychology (PPgPsi / UFRN) was created in 1999 within the Department of Psychology of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN). As a background, the university already had an Undergraduate Program in Psychology (created in 1976), a Specialization Program in Psychology as a pilot experiment for the Master's Degree (offered in 1996 and 1998), a specialized scientific journal, Psychology Studies (created in 1996) and a medium-term planning for the qualification of its faculty and the creation/consolidation of research groups in Psychology and related areas. These research groups structure the teaching/lecturing, research and outreach activities of the faculty and have become a fundamental element of the organization of the PPgPsi/UFRN.

Throughout these fourteen years (until December 2013), 213 students successfully completed, through the PpgPsi/UFRN, the master’s degree and 28 students, the doctoral degree.

The purposes of the PPgPsi/UFRN are:

(1) to study and produce knowledge about the psycho-social processes and psychological practices in the various fields of human activity, with a view to training/educating high-level human resources for the research and teaching of Psychology and related areas;

(2) enabling these human resources to reflect and develop strategies that promote socially relevant changes in their field of practice, as well as the individual and social well-being of the target population of their work.

Considering the proposed objectives, the expected profile of the PPgPsi graduate is that of a master or a PhD who is technically, ethically and politically competent in the development of all teaching/lecturing and research activities in the fields in which he/she specializes. It is important to state, therefore, that the graduate must develop a set of teaching/lecturing and research skills. With respect to the research skills, the PPgPsi graduate must be able to identify socially and scientifically relevant research problems; propose appropriate research strategies and conduct ethically and rigorously the activities inherent to scientific research - preferably inserted in research networks and groups; to communicate -orally and through the elaboration of documents- the knowledge produced, in addition to critically consuming the knowledge produced in Psychology and related areas, in addition to those subareas (s) in which he/she dedicates in a more specialized manner. With respect to the teaching/lecturing skills, considering those specifically developed within the scope of PPgPsi and those under the responsibility of the Teaching Initiation Courses(CID), promoted by the UFRN’s Vice-Presidency of Graduate Studies (an activity that is compulsory for scholarship students) and those enrolled in the courses “Teaching/Lecturing Practice in Psychology (I, II and III)”, it is expected that the graduate is able to adequately conduct the teaching-learning process, inside and outside the classroom, in addition to mastering the resources that are part of the everyday life of a lecturer, such as, to prepare course syllabuses, lesson plans and classroom didactics.

In order to reach the corresponding objectives and competencies, the PPgPsi/UFRN is structured in a Concentration Area, Psychology, which divides into two Lines of Research, (1) Psycho-social Processes and (2) Psychology and Social Practices. The first group includes studies on the psycho-social processes that permeate human action in different social contexts. The second focuses on the theoretical and methodological basis of the evaluation of public policies and of social intervention projects that focus on topics such as health, social work, systems involving guarantee of rights, education, development, work/labor and human-environmental relations.

Beginning in 2017, 5 Lines of Orientation were created, representing the diversity and focuses of the PPgPsi/UFRN professors. These are:

I - Clinical practices and health;

II - Public policies, social movements and psychologist practice;

III - Person-Environment Interactions;

IV - Cognitive development and learning;

V - Work clinics and organizational processes: activity, meaning, intervention.

Currently, there are 9 research bases in the Department of Psychology linked to the Graduate Studies:

Study Group “Psychology and Health” (GEPS)

Study Group “Person-Environment Inter-Actions” (GEPA)

Research Group “Marxism and Education” (GPMeE)

Study and Research Group on Labor (GEPET)

Study Group “Subjectivity and Human Development” (GESDH)

Group “Modes of Subjectivation, Public Policies and Vulnerability Contexts”

Laboratory of Studies in Tanatology and Humanization of Health Practices (LETHS)

Laboratory of Research and Outreach in Neuropsychology (LAPEN-UFRN)

Center for Studies in Historical-Cultural Psychology

For further information on the research bases, visit http://www.psicologia.ufrn.br/pesquisa.php#menu3

Office’s Employees:

- Bruno Robson Simonetti Silva

- Lizianne Juline do Nascimento e Silva Martins

Office hours:

- From 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and from 01:00 p.m. to 05:00 p.m. (From 01:00 p.m. to 02:00 p.m. the service is internal only)

Postal Address:

UFRN/CCHLA

Programa de Pós-Graduação em Psicologia

Campus Universitário - Lagoa Nova - Caixa Postal 1622

Natal/RN - CEP 59078-970