This program is designed primarily to train practitioners of clinical and counseling psychology who will practice, at least at the beginning of their careers, under the supervision of a doctoral psychologist. It is also designed to prepare students for doctoral training in clinical or counseling psychology. It is composed of a core of courses and training experiences common to the two concentrations of the program, clinical psychology and counseling psychology, and specialty emphases and elective courses allowing students to gain more specialized training in certain areas of psychological practice.
Some courses are required of all students in the Clinical Psychology program, and some differences in required courses exist based on the student's chosen concentration, clinical or counseling. Course requirements and breakdowns by concentration, follow:
Special Admission Requirements
- General admission to graduate study.
- Completion of at least 18 semester hours in psychology, including a course in experimental psychology and a three-hour course in statistics.
- Undergraduate GPA of 3.5 preferred, minimum of 3.0 required.
- Preferred minimum GRE scores of 151 for verbal reasoning and 148 for quantitative reasoning.
- Adequate interpersonal skills and personal maturity, as measured by a personal interview by the clinical psychology faculty. In cases where an applicant resides noncontiguously to MSU, a telephone interview may be substituted for the personal interview.
- Three excellent letters of recommendation, two of which are to be from faculty in the applicant's major department.
- Submission of an acceptable statement of purpose by the student outlining their reasons for seeking graduate level training in clinical/counseling psychology.
Enrollment in the master's degree program is limited and admission is highly competitive. Applications are accepted until all of the openings have been filled. To ensure full consideration, students are encouraged to apply by March 1. Applicants are expected to start the program in the fall semester, except in exceptional circumstances. Students who lack prerequisite courses may be conditionally admitted to the program. However, credit for course work required in order to gain unconditional admission is not applied toward the M.S. degree requirements. The conditionally admitted student meets with his or her advisor and gives immediate priority to remediating the admissions deficiencies. Students conditionally admitted who do not meet the admissions conditions by the end of their second semester in the program will be dropped from the program. Such individuals may reapply for admission to the graduate program upon remediation of all prior admissions conditions.
Students who do not have satisfactory GPA or GRE scores are rarely admitted and only if there is sufficient evidence of probability of success in the program. This judgment would be based on factors such as previous related work experience, a satisfactory score on the MAT or other indices normally associated with success on the part of students in graduate study in psychology.
Program Requirements
Psychology Core
| PSY 612 | Advanced Experimental Design and Analysis I | 3 |
| PSY 613 | Advanced Experimental Design and Analysis II | 3 |
| PSY 621 | Advanced Physiological Psychology | 3 |
| | | |
| PSY 633 | Personality Theory | 3 |
| | or | |
| PSY 677 | Seminar in Developmental Research | 3 |
| | | |
| PSY 634 | Learning Theory | 3 |
| PSY 654 | Seminar in Social Psychology | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 18 |
Clinical/Counseling Core
| PSY 601 | Legal, Ethical and Multicultural Issues | 3 |
| PSY 661 | Psychopathology | 3 |
| PSY 663 | Marriage and Family Therapy | 3 |
| PSY 665 | Child and Adolescent Psychotherapy | 3 |
| PSY 673 | Psychotherapy I | 3 |
| PSY 674 | Psychotherapy II | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 18 |
Supervised Practical Experience
Clinical Psychology Concentration
| PSY 657 | Intellectual Assessment | 3 |
| PSY 658 | Assessment of Children | 3 |
| PSY 662 | Assessment of Adults | 3 |
| | Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 12 |
Elective: (600-level courses approved by advisor and department chair)
Counseling Psychology Concentration
| EDGC 619 | Career Counseling | 3 |
| PSY 656 | Psychometrics | 3 |
| | Elective | 3 |
| | Elective | 3 |
| Total Credit Hours: | 12 |
Electives: (600-level courses approved by advisor and department chair)
Accreditation
The program is accredited by the Masters in Psychology and Counseling Accreditation Council (MPCAC) and satisfies the curricular requirements of the Board of Examiners of Psychology of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Program Competencies
Students must demonstrate:
- Advanced knowledge in basic foundation areas of psychology including biological bases of behavior, cognitive-affective bases of behavior, social bases of behavior, individual differences, research design and statistics and professional ethics and standards.
- Advanced knowledge in core aspects of psychological practice including psycho diagnostics, psychometrics and psychological testing, and psychological intervention.
- Advanced knowledge in a concentration in clinical or counseling psychology.
- Highly competent skills in the practice of clinical or counseling psychology.
- Highly developed sensitivity to ethics in psychological practice and ability to conduct the practice of clinical or counseling psychology in an ethical manner.
- The requisite personal maturity and interpersonal skills to be able to practice clinical or counseling psychology in a highly competent fashion.
Assessment
The student evaluation program consists of components to assess the student's academic acquisition of core psychological and clinical psychological knowledge, the student's ability to apply core knowledge in supervised practice of clinical/counseling psychology, the ethicality of the student's behavior while in the program, and the student's personal maturity and interpersonal skills. It also seeks to identify deficiencies in any of the above areas very soon in the student's time in the program so that deficiencies may be addressed and resolved.
The specific components of the program are as follows:
- Students are expected to maintain an overall GPA within the program of 3.0. If, at the end of a semester, the student's overall GPA falls below 3.0, the student will be placed on program probation for one semester and will be expected during that semester to raise his/her GPA to at least 3.0. If, following this semester, the student has obtained an overall GPA of 3.0 or better, probation will be terminated. If, following the first semester of probation the student's semester and overall GPA remains below 3.0, the student will be dismissed from the program for unsatisfactory academic performance.
If, following this second semester, the semester GPA is 3.0 or better but the overall GPA remains below 3.0, the student will be placed on probation for one more semester. Following that semester, if the semester and overall GPA are 3.0 or better, probation will be terminated. If her/his semester or overall GPA remains below 3.0, the student will be dismissed from the program for unsatisfactory academic performance. If a student is dismissed, every effort will be made to counsel the student regarding other career alternatives.
Additionally, any student who, during the entire course of his or her program, earns a sum total of three grades less than "B," will be dismissed from the program for unsatisfactory academic performance. Once again, if and when this occurs, every effort will be made to counsel the student regarding other career alternatives.
- At the end of the first year of clinical course work, each student shall take and pass an examination concerning general knowledge in psychopathology and psycho diagnosis, ethical and legal issues, psychometrics and psychotherapy. Additionally, the examination taken by students in the clinical psychology track will include coverage of basic core knowledge of the assessment of intelligence and the assessment of personality and psychopathology.
Should a student not pass this examination, he or she would then retake the examination at the beginning of the fall semester of what would be the student's second year in the program. If the student does not pass this reexamination, he or she will be dismissed from the program. Once again, if and when this occurs, every effort will be made to counsel with the student regarding other career alternatives.
- Prior to starting the internship experience, each student shall have taken and passed all of the core clinical courses and at least nine credit hours of course work of the specialty emphasis requirements. Exceptions to this criterion can be made with the approval of the student's advisor, the clinical faculty and the department chair. In addition, each student shall take a multiple-choice examination modeled on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology, the examination used by Kentucky and other states to license and certify psychologists. This examination consists of eight content domains covering the major topic areas covered in the program curriculum. The student will receive feedback on their overall performance and on their performance on each of the content domains. He or she will be informed that, in his or her oral comprehensive examination, special emphasis will be given to the areas of weakness noted in the eight content domains.
- Finally, at the end of his or her internship experience, each student must take and pass a comprehensive oral examination administered by a committee of three faculty. The committee must include two clinical psychology faculty members and one experimental/academic psychology faculty member, chosen by the student. The examination will revolve around a presentation of a case from the student's internship, recognizing that there will be modifications in the outline due to weaknesses noted from the EPPP-modeled examination.