Department of Psychology

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The Department of Psychology offers a graduate program leading to the degree of Master of Arts in two tracks: counseling and experimental psychology. The counseling program requires a minimum of 48 semester hours of graduate studies. The experimental psychology program requires a minimum of 36 semester hours of graduate studies.

Learning Outcomes

Counseling Track

1. Human Growth and Development: Illustrate the major theories of individual and family development across the life span.
2. Social and Cultural Foundations: Develop deeper awareness of self as a cultural being and how one’s worldview impacts interaction with clients in counseling work.
3. Helping Relationships: Describe the client characteristics of individuals served by institutions and agencies offering clinical mental health counseling services.
4. Group Work: Explain the theories and interventions specific to the group counseling modality.
5. Career and Lifestyle Development: Be able to explain career development theories and their application in career counseling.
6. Appraisal: Develop skills for utilization and implementation of standardized and unstandardized assessment techniques in the identification of psychological outcomes to inform treatment.
7. Research and Program Evaluation: Be able to formulate appropriate research questions and determine appropriate statistical analyses to answer particular said questions to understand psychological outcomes and evaluate treatment effectiveness.
8. Professional Orientation and Ethics: Explain the roles, functions, and professional identity of clinical mental health counselors.

Experimental Track

1. Critical Thinking Skills Students will be able to critically review and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of psychological research articles in the conceptualization of the research problem(s); the formulation of hypotheses; the formulation and execution of the research strategies; the analyses of data, and interpretation of the results of research studies.
2. Inquiry and Ethical Skills Students will be able to identify and formulate specific research question(s) and hypothes(is)(es); identify and retrieve the appropriate literature and data; evaluate the importance of information related to the research question(s); design and propose a strategy for addressing the question(s); propose the analyses to be conducted on data collected, and discuss the anticipated data as they relate to the research question(s); they will demonstrate competency in the identification of ethical problems in their investigation of research questions.
3. Quantitative Reasoning Skills Students will be able to demonstrate competency in the use of appropriate statistical analyses and procedures that fit specific research designs; accurately use statistical software to analyze data; demonstrate competency in the interpretation of results, and evaluate research findings.
4. Communications Skills Students will demonstrate the ability to comprehend, and analyze spoken and written communication related to content, terminology, empirical findings, and effectively write, cite resources, and use appropriate grammar and style that conform to the APA style; they will be able to design a lesson plan and present information to students to demonstrate their teaching skills.
5. Global Literacy Students will show understanding and appreciation of the global diversity of cultures, values, and belief systems, and the common principles that guide all humanity and are expressed in biological, social, and cognitive aspects of behavior.

Programs

• Psychology, Counseling Track, M.A.
• Psychology, Experimental Track, M.A.

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