Health Psychology & Behavioral

Doctoral Degree Program

OPPORTUNITIES FOR GRADUATE STUDIES

The health psychology and behavioral medicine program at the University of North Texas prepares you to work as clinical researchers and practitioners in health care settings. The program provides broad and general training in the foundations of psychology as a scientist-practitioner program. Students are exposed to professional roles that represent the activities of clinical psychologists who study the psychology of health and provide behavioral medicine services.

There is strong emphasis on mind/body interaction as you focus on knowledge of the physiological and psychological antecedents of illness and health. The emphasis on clinical health psychology and behavioral medicine is to integrate biological and behavioral science approaches to the promotion of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of illness and health. Our program emphasizes an interdisciplinary understanding of biopsychosocial factors relevant to health and illness and the applications of this knowledge to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

The doctoral program in health psychology and behavioral medicine is accredited by the American Psychological Association, (750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4242, 800-374-2721) in clinical psychology. It is a joint program between UNT's Department of Psychology and the Department of Psychiatry at the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth. You will spend a full year of your training at the medical school engaged in clinical services, course work and professional development.

A mentorship climate promotes close faculty student collaboration and effective modeling of the scientist practitioner paradigm. Throughout the program, you will be mentored by faculty researchers. Also, students at differing levels of training work side-by-side on a practicum supervision team. Thus, you have many opportunities to observe, gain experience and participate within group mentoring environments.

The overall model is geared toward training and preparing clinical psychologists for diverse professional roles. Via this integrated scientist practitioner model, you can obtain the training and background to pursue a professional career in academic or applied settings.

Admission requirements

You must meet the admission requirements for the Toulouse School of Graduate Studies in addition to program requirements. The minimum criteria include 24 semester hours of psychology (12 advanced courses) plus one of the following:

• 3.0 GPA overall on the Bachelor of Arts degree
• 3.5 GPA on the last 60 hours of the B.A. degree
• 3.5 GPA in undergraduate psychology course work
• 3.5 GPA on a completed master's degree (exclusive of practicum and thesis)
• Completed doctoral degree in another field
• First or second author on an article in a peer-reviewed scientific or professional journal

Applicants must submit their GRE verbal and quantitative scores. To see additional admission criteria, visit www.psyc.unt.edu.

Admission to the health psychology and behavioral medicine psychology program is not determined by one criterion or quantitative measure of achievement. Motivation, aptitude and self-awareness are highly valued, as are skills in communication, research methods and scientific writing. Life experiences relevant to research, mental health and the ability to work with people from different backgrounds in culturally diverse contexts should be described in a background and goals statement

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The psychology faculty reviews completed applications during February, and invitations for interviews are made in March. The interview process consists of meeting with one or more clinical psychology faculty members and students. Telephone interviews are possible but less informative for you and the UNT faculty.

Admission decisions are made by early April, and you should be contacted by phone as well as in writing. Your decision to accept an offer to join the program needs to be finalized by April 15 unless the offer of admission is specifically delayed.

Degree requirements

The Ph.D. degrees in psychology require a minimum of 113 semester hours beyond the bachelor's degree, plus a one-year supervised internship for the health psychology/behavioral medicine program. The qualified and accepted student may enter a degree program holding either a bachelor's or master's degree. No more than 30 hours from a master's degree can be applied toward deficiencies for the doctoral degree.

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.

Core studies and examination

Professional study requires a minimum of 113 semester hours, including 20 semester hours of general psychology (social psychology, research design and statistics, learning and cognition, history and systems, and physiological psychology) and 42 semester hours of clinical core courses (psychological assessment, psychopathology, medical and behavioral disorders, professional ethics, cultural aspects of health, psychotherapy methods, behavior analysis, developmental health psychology, applied psychophysiological procedures, and psychoneuroimmunology).

The objective of the health psychology and behavioral medicine core exam is to provide you with the following:

• the opportunity to demonstrate competence in research and scholarship
• the ability to perform independently
• the ability to integrate theoretical, practical and empirical material
• knowledge of relevant contemporary and historical literature
• the ability to present written material in a cogent, integrated fashion

This examination should be completed after the master's thesis and is typically taken during your third academic year (or equivalent) in the doctoral program.

Clinical internship

You will be continually involved in clinical and research experiences before culminating professional preparation with a one-year, full-time clinical internship in an APA-accredited facility or its equivalent. This experience provides depth, range and focus for a complete set of professional skills. Faculty members help you choose an internship that enhances and complements your work at UNT and advances you toward your professional goals.

Foreign language or research tool

You must present evidence of a reading knowledge of one foreign language or have demonstrated competency in a research tool subject that has been approved by the Department of Psychology and the graduate council. If the tool substitution involves taking additional courses, you must make a minimum grade of B in each course. Credits earned are in addition to the hours required for the degree.

Dissertation examinations

You must complete two dissertation-related examinations: the proposal and the final comprehensive examination. You first defend your dissertation proposal, which can be done only after successfully completing the language requirement, master's thesis or its equivalent, and the qualifying Ph.D. examination. Upon completion of the dissertation research, you may schedule the final comprehensive exam for the dissertation.

Facilities

The psychology department houses neuropsychology, psychophysiology and computer-based behavior laboratories. You may participate in investigation from the beginning of your training in UNT's laboratories and interdisciplinary research centers.

The UNT Psychology Clinic provides professional services and referrals to clients and provides professional and competent training to graduate students. The clinic includes psychotherapy rooms, rooms for research, and rooms with one-way mirrors for live observation of individual and group sessions. Extensive videotaping capabilities are available for use in supervision and training.

The Center for Psychosocial Health Research performs basic research on wellness within a chronic illness context to provide a foundation for the future development of psychosocial and behavioral interventions that encourage health-related behavioral change.

The Center for Sport Psychology provides sport psychology services and consultants to six UNT sport teams and more than 125 individual athletes, as well as coaches and sports medicine staff.

Financial assistance

Financial aid is available to incoming students. You may apply for departmentally funded teaching assistantships, research assistantships, fellowships and part-time clinical externships during your doctoral studies. The clinical health psychology program seeks to provide at least partial support for most doctoral students for at least four years. Competitive scholarships are available from the graduate school and other sources.