Ph. D. School Psychology Program: Program of Study
The program of study includes the following areas:
1. Content Knowledge
- a. Overview of school psychology
- b. Developmental psychology; child psychology
- c. Learning, cognition, motivation, and behavior analysis
- d. Personality models; healthy and unhealthy personality (abnormal psychology)
- e. Social psychology; community mental health
- f. Physiological and neuropsychological bases of behavior
- g. Educational administration and school law
- h. Special education overview; psychological aspects of learning disabilities; the reading process
- i. Individual and group differences as reflected in cultural, ethnic and gender differences
- Legal and ethical issues
2. Clinical Skills
a. Assessment procedures: intellectual assessment; personality assessment; early childhood assessment; behavioral assessment; the assessment of individual, group, and family interaction patterns; evaluation of the school and community systems
b. Intervention: individual and group psychotherapy; marital and family counseling; behavior modification; play and child therapy; systems intervention; crisis intervention
- Consultation: mental health and behavioral consultation; teaching techniques (in-service training), and systems evaluation
3. Practica
- a. Observation of the classroom and of the educational administrative process
- b. Supervised practice in assessment procedures
- c. Supervised practice in individual counseling; play therapy
- d. Supervised practice in behavioral intervention and consultation
- e. Systems consultation experience
- f. Observation and supervised provision of special services in the schools and other child-related facilities
- Research experience
- Supervised practica in evidence-based interventions
4. Research
Required of all students:
- a. Descriptive statistics applied to assessment and research
- b. Inferential statistics
- c. Advanced statistical analysis
- d. Qualitative research methods
- Research design
- Computer literacy
- g. Evaluation models
- h. Research apprenticeships (see below)
- Dissertation
Research Apprenticeship/Experience:
During the completion of research design and applied statistics courses, each student is required to work with a program faculty member on a research or program evaluation project for a total of 2 credit hours. Students are also encouraged to become involved in faculty research beyond the apprenticeship course.
5. Internship
Minimum 1500 hours supervised internship for Ph.D. students. (See Chapter 3 for more information).
(It should be noted that these areas are integrated throughout the program and are presented in this form as a means of simplification.