Doctor's degree in Health and Social Behavior at Harvard University

 

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Doctor's Degree in Health and Social Behavior at Harvard University

Harvard University
Doctor's degree
Health and Social Behavior

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-Degree Requirements-
The doctoral program trains students as scholars and researchers who will identify new social and behavioral risks, work in health and social policy, and test innovative social interventions; or as practitioners who will design, implement, and evaluate health-enhancing interventions or public policies. Recent graduates are working in research and academic settings, including schools of public health.

Most students enter the doctoral programs with a strong foundation in the social and behavioral sciences and with an earned master's degree. The department accepts a small number of students without a master's degree directly into the doctoral program.

The department highlights three areas of interest. Doctoral students declare an area of interest.

HSB areas of interest are as follows:

Health and social policy
A wide range of social policies including but not limited to labor, poverty, family, housing, and educational policy have a dramatic impact on health. This area of interest prepares students to design new and improve existing social policies and focuses on strategies for the successful implementation of social policies that improve health. Students who study in this area may be interested in working on public policy through research, within the government, or in a nonprofit organization.

Planned social change
This area of interest focuses on the application of theory in the design of intervention programs, as well as on research and evaluation methodology. The area includes work on interventions using randomized clinical trial designs and quasi-experimental approaches. Attention is given to the following design steps: problem diagnosis, assessment, formative research, program design, and evaluation. The social settings for interventions may be communities, workplaces, schools and colleges, and health care facilities. Populations of interest include those who are underserved, marginalized, and in special need. Intervention strategies include educational interventions, community organizing and development, social marketing, communication, adult-learning approaches, and advocacy.

Social determinants of health
This area of interest focuses on the analysis of the major social conditions that affect the health of populations. Research emphasizes socioeconomic position, social and economic inequality, discrimination, social networks and support, social capital, work conditions, and psychological states. Seminars, tutorials, and courses enable students to explore a range of health consequences of various social factors by studying varied subgroups, at different times and places and under diverse and changing conditions. Students examine mechanisms and processes through which social factors exert their impact, and also investigate mechanisms that mediate or moderate relationships between social factors and health outcomes.

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