Graduation Requirements
To be eligible for graduation with the PsyD in Clinical Psychology degree, students must meet the following requirements:
- Successful completion of a total of 98 semester credit hours, including:
- 71 credit hours of core course requirements*
- 12 credit hours of elective course requirements
- 12 credit hours over two years of practicum and practicum seminar
- 3 credit hours of Clinical Research Project
- Successful completion of the Clinical Competence Examination
- Successful completion of a one-year, full-time predoctoral internship or its equivalent
- Successful completion of the Clinical Research Project
- A final cumulative GPA of at least “B” (3.0 on a scale of 4.0)
- Submission of a completed Petition to Graduate form to campus administration
Students are expected to complete coursework and practicum by the end of the fifth year of matriculation. All program requirements must be completed within seven years of matriculation into the program, unless an extension is approved by the program chair.
*Core course requirements are comprised of the following distribution areas: Psychological Bases, Applied Psychology, Research Methodology, Core Assessment, Intervention, and Professional Development.
Research Training
Consistent with our practitioner-scholar model and goals, this program can help you learn the knowledge and skills needed to critically evaluate professional literature, use this literature to inform your professional practice, and engage in research that aligns with your career objectives. Across the curriculum, your studies will be informed by current empirical research, and you will be taught to critically evaluate the literature and assess outcomes in a manner consistent with the model of the local clinical scientist. Formal training in research methods and statistical analysis occurs in two required semester-long courses, and, with this knowledge and experience, you may then begin work on your Clinical Research Project (CRP).
The Clinical Research Project (CRP)
The CRP is designed to develop and refine the skills necessary to integrate your clinical knowledge with research literature to produce original, scholarly research in clinical psychology. During this project, you will be expected to:
- Significantly deepen your knowledge about a particular area (or areas) of clinical psychology
- Sharpen your critical thinking and writing skills
- Develop and apply skills in research methodology
The CRP requires you to analyze and synthesize the psychological literature and to develop original research questions. To successfully complete this project, you must investigate these questions and draw conclusions based on your study results. CRPs may involve original empirical research using quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methodologies, or a comprehensive literature review with an original contribution?such as strategies for enhancing current treatments, a proposal for program development and evaluation, or a novel treatment approach.
The Clinical Research Project can serve as a launching point for students and alumni to pursue further scholarship such as publications and presentations, often in collaboration with program faculty. Recent examples of such collaboration include:
- Ketisch, T., Jones, R. A., Mirsalimi, H., Casey, R., & Milton, T. (2014, in press). Boundary disturbances and eating disorder symptoms. American Journal of Family Therapy.
- Hollander, D., Shillingsburg, M.A., & Muskat, L.R. (2014, May). Effectiveness of stimulus-stimulus pairing: A review of the literature. In M.A. Shillingsburg (Chair), Outcomes of applied behavior analytic interventions for children with ASD. Symposium conducted at the meeting of Association for Behavioral Analysis International (ABAI), Chicago, IL.
- Townsend, N., DeFilippis, N., & Hill, F. (2014, August). Variables impacting life satisfaction in former Soviet Union countries. Poster session presented at the 2014 annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
- Webb, D., Collins, M., DeFilippis, N. & Hill, F. (2013). Reliability of the Clinical Dementia Rating with a traumatic brain injury population: A preliminary study. Applied Neuropsychology, 2, 145-151.
- Balkema, N. & Muskat, L.R. (2012, February). The efficacy of DBT with children in an in-patient setting. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.
- Milton, T., Jones, R., Mirsalimi, H., & Casey, R. (2012, February). Childhood sexual abuse and disordered eating: Caucasian and African-American women. Poster session presented at the 58th annual convention of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.
- Shariati, R., Yosick, R. A., Belden, A., Truskowski, J., Muskat, L.R. & Zaorski, D. M. (2012, February). Perceptions of the discipline of psychology in the United States from 1948–2010. Poster session presented at the meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, New Orleans, LA.
- Lewis, K. & Muskat, L.R. (2011, April). Strengthening her inner voice: Empowerment-oriented approaches and the psychological wellness of African American women. 3-hour continuing education workshop presented at the meeting of the Georgia Psychological Association, Atlanta, GA.
- Luton, L.M., Burns,T., & DeFilippis, N.A. (2010). Frontal lobe epilepsy in children and adolescents: A preliminary neuropsychological assessment of executive function. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 25 (4), 762-770.
