Zuckerman received his Ph.D. in psychology from New York University, Graduate
School of Arts and Science in 1954 with a specialization in clinical psychology.
After graduation, he worked for three years as a clinical psychologist in state
hospitals in Norwich, Connecticut and Indianapolis, Indiana. While in the latter
position the Institute for Psychiatric Research was opened in the same medical
center where he was working as a clinical psychologist. He obtained a position
there with a joint appointment in the department of psychiatry. This was his
first interdisciplinary experience with other researchers in psychiatry,
biochemistry, psychopharmacology, and psychology.
His first research areas were personality assessment and the