Graduate Faculty: Aronson, Baker, Beyerlein, Campbell, Clark, Clarke, Cogan, Critelli, Doster, Guarnaccia, Harrell, Haynes, Hayslip, Jenkins, D. Johnson, R. Johnson, Kelly, Kennelly, Lane, Mahoney, Marshall, Martin, McConnell, Overton, Petrie, Ramos, Rogers, Schneider, Sewell, Terrell, Toledo, Watkins.
The Department of Psychology accentuates the importance of scholarship, research, and quality of training for all students, whether they are preparing for careers in basic research, applied research, teaching, or service delivery. This training takes advantage of numerous resources within the department, including the Psychology Clinic, the Institute of Applied Research, the Brain Mapping Facility, and specific laboratories for Statistics, Psychophysiology, Neuropsychology, and Psychoneuroimmunology. Graduates of the department have gone on to distinguish themselves in research, administrative, teaching, and service careers in a range of settings, including universities, medical schools, hospitals, mental health centers, counseling centers, rehabilitation services, industrial and organizational settings, and private practices in consulting, therapy and assessment.
Research is also being conducted in personality and forensic assessment, issues in personality theory, Adlerian theory, personal construct theory, and antisocial personality.
In addition, there are ongoing research programs in aging, attention deficit disorders, divorce, eating disorders, sexual aggression, adults molested as children, physical and emotional abuse, death and dying, depression, chemical dependency, child psychopathology, academic adjustment, hallucinations in schizophrenia, and post-traumatic stress disorder.
Other areas include health and illness, preventive health, biofeedback, stress and immune functioning, psychoneuroimmunology, international health practices, and athletic injury.
Additional research programs include those in neuropsychology, cognitive neuroscience, physiological measures of cognition, hemispheric specialization, learning and attention, and short-term memory.
There is active involvement in the study of the history of psychology, young adult development, placebo effects, work teams, personnel selection, self-system development, personal relationships, malingering and deception, sport psychology, program evaluation, research methodology, and structural equation modeling.
There are ongoing projects in ethical and professional issues, minority and women's issues, and religious issues in counseling.
Center for the Study of Work Teams. The goal of the Center for the Study of Work Teams is to create learning partnerships with industry for the purposes of generating, archiving, and disseminating information about work teams. The center serves as a research and education entity for organizations using team-based structures and, in conjunction with its industry partners, provides those organizations with the highest quality products and services concerning team issues. The center is committed to harnessing strengths of business and academia in a joint effort to master the challenges of designing and implementing work teams.
Psychology Clinic. As part of the department's Applied Training Unit, the Psychology Clinic is a training site for graduate students. Through the clinic, psychological services are offered to the metroplex community. Services available to the community include psychotherapy, vocational counseling, psychological assessment and biofeedback training.
2. Admission to graduate degree programs in psychology is competitive, as available facilities do not permit admission of all qualified applicants.
Applying is a two-part process. First, prospective applicants for graduate degree programs must obtain and file an application for admission to the UNT graduate school from the graduate dean's office. Second, applicants for graduate psychology degrees also must obtain and file a separate application for admission to psychology programs from the psychology department's graduate office. The application deadline for graduate programs in clinical and counseling psychology is January 1 preceding the fall semester for which the student is applying. The application deadline for industrial/organizational psychology is February 1 preceding the fall semester for which the student is applying. All other programs will commence review of application files on February 1 and continue to admit students through the year according to the university calendar for admission for each semester. (See the Academic Calendar in this catalog for admissions deadlines.) All academic prerequisites must be completed by the end of the spring semester preceding that fall semester.
3. Applicants must submit satisfactory scores on the aptitude (verbal and quantitative) section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE) prior to admission. A minimum cumulative score of 1000 on the GRE (minimum 500 verbal) is required for admission. Undergraduates who plan to apply for graduate training should arrange to take the GRE during their senior year.
4. References and recommendations must be submitted by applicants for admission to the doctoral and master's programs in psychology. Applicants are required to submit three satisfactory recommendations on special forms provided by the department, including one from their last professional employer (if they have had such previous experience) and one from the last academic institution attended.
In all cases, the Department of Psychology maintains the right to make independent inquiry of the applicant's employers and the faculties of institutions previously attended, as well as to deny admission to an applicant who in its judgment, or in the judgment of any of the psychology departments of the federated universities (in the case of doctoral applicants), fails to meet personal or academic admission standards. In all cases, the applicant is assured the right to due process.
The PhD degree in counseling psychology is offered in collaboration with Texas Woman's University, a member of the Federation of North Texas Area Universities.
The master's degree is intended to prepare students for higher degrees and to qualify them for a number of subdoctoral positions.
The doctoral curricula in clinical psychology and counseling psychology are designed to serve a variety of purposes that focus on the development of a well-rounded professional psychologist. These purposes include a thorough grounding in scientific methodology and an orientation to the profession, development of competency in psychological assessment and evaluation, and training in various psychotherapeutic and counseling techniques and skills.
The experimental psychology curriculum is intended to provide a highly individualized program for the student interested in study and research in one of several specialized areas. The health psychology/behavioral medicine curriculum provides students with a biopsychosocial perspective on the maintenance of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the investigation of etiological and diagnostic processes of illness and behavioral health. The program prepares health psychologists for practitioner and research roles in clinical ecology, pediatrics, neurosciences, cardiovascular behavior medicine and occupational health. All departmental PhD programs require successful completion of a doctoral dissertation.
2. A grade point average of at least 3.0 on all undergraduate psychology courses taken.
3. A GPA of at least 3.0 on the last 60 hours completed for the bachelor's degree, or 2.8 for the entire bachelor's degree.
4. The department strongly encourages master's applicants to include undergraduate course preparation in the following areas of psychology: social, history and systems, tests and measurements, physiological, and learning/cognition.
5. A statement of purpose describing the student's educational and career goals.
6. Applications must include a curriculum vita.
2. Applicants with a bachelor's degree only must have a GPA of at least 3.5 on the last 60 semester hours or 3.0 for the entire bachelor's degree. Majors and minors in psychology must have a GPA of 3.5 on all undergraduate work in psychology including statistics, experimental psychology and either learning/cognition or history and systems of psychology.
3. Applicants holding a master's degree must have an overall GPA of 3.5 on all graduate work, exclusive of practicum and thesis grades.
4. The department strongly encourages PhD applicants to include course preparation in the following areas of psychology: social, tests and measurements, and physiological.
5. For students with a master's degree applying to the clinical or counseling programs, prior credit must include a minimum of 6 hours of supervised practicum experience and a thesis or its equivalent. Lacking either of these prerequisites, the student may be required to remove the deficiencies during the first year in the program.
6. Submit a statement of purpose describing the student's educational and career goals.
7. Applications must include a curriculum vita.
Students interested in becoming licensed and certified as psychologists or psychological associates in the state of Texas are required to have specified supervised experiences that are approved by the Department of Psychology. Departmental program directors should be consulted for details.
All degree programs must be planned in consultation with the student's advisory committee. Students are strongly urged to file a degree plan during their first semester of graduate study.
Required courses: PSYC 5420, 5620, 5630, 5700, 5780, 5820 (6 hours), 5831-5832 and 5950.
Electives: PSYC 5640 or 5720 and one additional course selected from 5010, 5030, 5070, 5640, 5680, 5710 and 5720.
Additional courses: two courses (at least 3 hours each) selected from (a) the remaining 5000-level psychology courses, or (b) one field outside the Department of Psychology, as a minor.
Required courses: PSYC 5050, 5340, 5420, 5470, 5620, 5680, 5690, 5700, 5780, 5820, 5831-5832, 5880 and 5950.
Other courses will be selected in consultation with the student's advisory committee.
Students interested in becoming licensed professional counselors in the state of Texas should notify the director of their program area so their degree plan may be arranged to include appropriate course work.
Will not lead to eligibility to take the psychological associate examination in the state of Texas.
Required courses: PSYC 5640, 5700, 5840 and 5950.
Electives: 6 hours selected from the remaining 5000-level psychology courses, in consultation with the major professor.
Minor: a 6-hour minor from a field outside the Department of Psychology may be selected.
Electives: 12 hours selected from the remaining 5000-level psychology courses, in consultation with the major professor.
Minor: a 6-hour minor from a field outside the Department of Psychology may be selected.
Two tracks are available within the program: one in personnel psychology and the other in employee counseling and consulting psychology. Students in both tracks will take a common core of courses consisting of PSYC 5230, 5240, 5420, 5700, 5740, 5750, 5820, 5831-5832 and 5950.
Additional required courses for students in the personnel psychology track are PSYC 5030 and 5840; CSCI 5010 (computer sciences); and an approved elective. Additional required courses for students in the employee counseling and consulting psychology track are PSYC 5440, 5620, 5680 and 5870.
Required courses: PSYC 5050, 5100, 5420, 5620, 5700, 5730, 5831-5832 and 5950.
Electives: two courses from PSYC 5680, 5720 and 5750; one course from PSYC 5010, 5600 and 5640; and one course from 5000-level courses in psychology.
Minor: EDAD 5710 plus three additional 5000-level courses in education selected in consultation with the program director.
Students interested in certification as a school psychologist in Texas should consult the program director concerning requirements.
A student entering with a master's degree or equivalent may, upon the consent of the advisory committee, transfer a maximum of 12 appropriate semester hours beyond the master's degree, provided the work has been taken in a department offering a doctoral degree in psychology. Thus, a minimum of 48 hours in residence would remain to be completed.
Students should be aware that internship training sites are spread across the country. Responsibility for an internship training site's compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act rests with the internship site. Internships are competitive and the student is responsible for securing an internship that meets with departmental approval.
The composition of the minimum 90 hours required above the bachelor's degree varies by major area. Occasionally changes are made in program requirements. In such cases requirements in the student's program manual supersede the departmental requirements in the university catalog.
The counseling core consists of 42 hours that includes course work in the following areas: developmental issues, assessment, individual and group techniques, legal and ethical issues, psychopathology, vocational psychology, personality, and multiculturalism. Counseling majors are required to take a pre-practicum for which they receive 3 hours credit. A research core composed of 16 hours and practicum training consisting of 12 hours also are required. The elective cluster is composed of 12 hours selected to represent an organized and integrated sequence in the student's area of interest.