CHAPTER    2

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Program Requirements

 

In order to receive the Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology a student must complete six requirements:  (1) course requirements; (2) ethical and professional training; (3) two preliminary projects; (4) practical competence in clinical skills; (5) an approved clinical internship; and (6) a doctoral dissertation and defense of the dissertation. Each of these is described in greater detail below. 

Course Requirements

 

___  Psy 605, Clinical Research: Designs, methods and ethics

___  Psy 607, Advanced Statistical Methods I

___  Psy 608 or 861/4, Advanced Statistical Methods II

___  Psy 609, Multivariate Statistics

___  Psy 624, Clinical I: Psychopathology

___  Psy 654, Clinical II: Psychological Assessment

___  Psy 751, Clinical III: Clinical Treatments: Adult

___  Psy 778, Clinical IV: Clinical Treatments: Child & family

___  Psy 611, History & Systems

___  Clinical Elective I

___  Clinical Elective II

___  Distribution (biological bases of behavior)

___  Distribution (cognitive-affective bases of behavior)

___  Distribution (social bases of behavior)

___  Practicum I (Intervention I & Intervention II)

___  Practicum II (Intervention III & Intervention IV)

 

NOTE:  The university has a 72-credit rule that states that tuition will not be waived for more than 72 credits of graduate study.    


SEQUENCE OF COURSES

Below is a typical course sequence.

 

Fall

Spring

Year I

Research

Research

 

Statistics I (607)

Statistics II (608 or 681)

 

Clinical I: Psychopathology (624)

Clinical II: Psychological Assessment (654)

 

Distribution or Clinical Elective

Clinical Research (605)

 

Brown Bag

Brown Bag

 

 

 

Year II

Research

Research

 

Clinical III: Treatments: Adult (751)

Clinical IV: Treatments: Child/family (778)

 

Statistics III (609)

Distribution or Clinical Elective

 

Practicum (Intervention I)

Practicum (Intervention II)

 

Brown Bag

Brown Bag

 

 

 

Year III

Research

Research

 

History & Systems

Distribution or Clinical Elective

 

Practicum (Intervention III)

Practicum (Intervention IV)

 

Distribution or Clinical Elective

Distribution or Clinical Elective

 

Brown Bag (Second Year Project Presentation)

Brown Bag

 

 

 

Year IV

Research

Research

 

Placementa

Placementa

 

Brown Bag

Brown Bag
  1. A community placement is optional. If chosen students must submit a petition to their academic advisor describing the nature of the experience, how it will be supervised, how the placement will enrich the student's training and be consistent with timely progress through the program. The Clinical Area will not approve placements that have inadequate supervision or that are not consistent with the student's development and timely progress through the program. Choosing such a placement does not relieve students of the responsibility of carrying clients in the PSC.

Ethical and Professional Development

Students are expected to develop an understanding of the issues underlying professional and scientific responsibility and integrity.  We have elected to integrate this training into the program rather than rely on a stand-alone course.  Listed below are some of the ways in which ethical concepts are presented in the training program.

   1.    Each student is expected to read and become thoroughly familiar with the APA Code of Professional Ethics.

   2.    Issues involving ethical and professional responsibility are included specifically, and with assigned readings, in several of the area courses: 

               a)    The APA Ethical Standards is assigned reading in Psychology 654, Clinical Assessment, the course in assessment taken by all area students.

               b)    Ethical Standards are also discussed in Psychology 751, Clinical Interventions, another required course for all area students.  The course includes a specific presentation and focus on ethical guidelines.

 

Preliminary Requirement

The preliminary requirement consists of three components, a Second Year project, a Third Year project, and a Clinical Competency requirement. For each of these components it is the responsibility of the student to inform the area in writing of its completion using the appropriate form shown in the appendix of this manual.  In addition, for Second and Third Year Projects a final copy of the approved paper must be filed in the clinical area office.  For the Clinical Competency Requirement the prospectus compiled by the student (see description of the requirement) must be filed in the clinical area office. A permanent file of prelim papers is kept in the clinical psychology area office and is available for the use of both students and faculty.

Each of these preliminary requirements produces direct benefits for the student.  The professionally relevant educational benefits include, but are not limited to, the following:

   1.    Close individual contact with committee members, enabling the student to better understand and utilize the committee member's intellectual viewpoints, knowledge, and experience and enabling the faculty member to make sound evaluative judgments of the student.

   2.    Increase in experience, confidence, and professional identification as a consequence of completing work of considerable scope that faculty accept as meeting standards of performance applicable to the doctoral program.

   3.    Furtherance of progress in the doctoral program through the use of knowledge and skills in designing or completing additional requirements such as the proposal for the doctoral dissertation, or the dissertation itself.

   4.    Furtherance of professional career through publication of the work or through presenting it in professional contexts such as professional meetings, colloquia, seminars, or lectures.

   5.    Use of the work in other work contexts, such as job interview, program planning and implementation, or research grant applications.

Research Mentorship

The first step in the completion of the second and third year preliminary requirements is to develop the skills necessary to accomplish these tasks.  Each student should at all times during their graduate career work with a faculty member who has an active research program.    Each semester students are evaluated in regard to their research activities with their mentor.

 

Second Year Preliminary Requirement (Second Year Project)

Each student is required to complete an empirical research project under the guidance of a chair and at least one additional clinical area committee member.  Although known as the “Second Year Project,” work on this requirement should begin during the first year of graduate school.  The project must be completed by the end of the fourth semester of graduate school. 

The following steps are involved in completing this requirement: 

   1.    A formal written proposal for the research project should be prepared by the student under the direction of the chair and submitted to the remaining committee member(s) for review.  The committee may meet with the student to discuss the details of the proposal and approve the final design.  Once approved, the student should file a copy of the approved proposal signed by committee members with the secretary of the clinical area group within ten days of its approval.  This procedure is essentially equivalent to the procedure used for the dissertation.  The proposal should normally be completed in the first year or, at the very latest, the beginning of the second year of graduate study.

   2.    At the completion of the study the student submits a written paper based on the study. This paper should follow APA style and take the form of a manuscript that could potentially be submitted for publication. The committee will read and evaluate the paper. At the discretion of the committee the paper may need to be revised and resubmitted before it is approved.  Once approved, the paper should be filed with the clinical area secretary, together with the approval form signed by the committee (see appendix).

 

Students are expected to present their Second Year Projects at the Clinical Area Brown Bag in the fifth semester of graduate school. This presentation does not, however, constitute part of the evaluation of the project.

 

Third Year Preliminary Requirement (Third Year Project)

 

Each student is also required to complete a written Third Year project under the guidance of a chair and at least one additional clinical area committee member. The specific nature of the project will be tailored to the needs of the student and hence various types of papers can satisfy the Third Year preliminary requirement. These include, but are not limited to, a critical review paper, a paper reporting a meta-analysis, a theoretical paper, or a paper reporting empirical research. Whatever option is chosen, the paper should be no longer than 50 double-spaced typed pages (using Times New Roman 12 point font), including the reference section, tables, figures etc. The paper must follow APA publication style.

 

The following steps are involved in completing this requirement:

 

1.      The student chooses a topic and prepares a statement of goals (maximum of two pages) which can be presented to prospective committee members.  After some discussion with faculty, the student forms a committee.

 

2.      A paper is prepared in consultation with the committee.

 

3.  The committee evaluates and, if appropriate, approves the paper. Once approved, the paper should be filed with the clinical area secretary, together with the approval form signed by the committee (see Appendix).

Given the critical importance of the Second and Third Year Preliminary Requirements in the training of the Ph.D. candidate, a waiver of these requirements based on previous work will generally not be granted. 

 

Deadlines for Completion of Projects

The usual expectation is that the Second Year and Third Year Projects will be completed by the end of the fourth and sixth semesters, respectively. It is important for you to have a realistic sense of the time pressures imposed by this system of deadlines.  Most students should use their first year to explore possible topics for their preliminary requirements, and to approach faculty members about being on the committee.  If you cannot complete a project by the deadline, you may petition the clinical faculty of the area for an extension.  This petition must be submitted no later than the date of the original deadline. 

NOTE WELL:  The chances of getting an extension for a Third Year Project are close to zero.  The faculty has been traditionally resistant to such extensions, and grants them only in extraordinary circumstances, usually involving personal health crises or similar cataclysmic events.  If an extension is required for completion of the Second Year Project, you must demonstrate that the project was begun early, pursued in earnest, and designed intelligently, and that unpredictable circumstances have impeded the proper collection of data or the proper analysis of data.  Again, extensions are not routinely granted.  The high expectation for quality in these projects will mean that most papers will go through several drafts.  You should anticipate that it will require at least four months to bring a project from a complete initial draft to a fully approved project. 

Faculty are expected to read and promptly return drafts of these major projects.  The operational definition of “promptly” is within three weeks.  We feel students should not be penalized for delays caused by faculty.  Therefore, anytime a faculty member holds a paper longer than three weeks, the time in excess of three weeks becomes an automatic grace period.  If there are delays on successive drafts, these grace periods are summed.  The three-week rule does not apply to the summer months when faculty typically are not paid and not required to read papers.  It is your responsibility to document delays in faculty reviews. 

In a similar vein, students also have an obligation to submit work in a timely manner. Specifically, materials to be evaluated must be submitted at least three weeks prior to the scheduled examination date. When work is not submitted in a timely manner the examination date will be rescheduled to a time that is at least three weeks later than the date the work was submitted. For students applying to internship, the dissertation proposal must be successfully defended no later than two weeks before the deadline for the first internship application.

 

Clinical Competency Requirement

All students must be certified by the faculty of the Clinical Psychology Area as clinically competent before they can pursue the completion of a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. 

 

Pre-Internship Evaluation.

 

Minimal Didactic and Practicum Experience.  The student must complete at least two year long practica (four courses) beyond the Clinical Interventions courses.  There should be non-overlapping supervision among the courses so that each student will have been supervised by at least two different clinical faculty supervisors before presenting credentials for pre-internship clinical competence.

 

Clinical Competency Preliminary Requirement

The specific procedures by which a student becomes certified as clinically competent at the pre-internship level are as follows:

 

1.      The student should select a committee consisting of a minimum of two faculty in the clinical area who will conduct a clinical competency evaluation.  The committee members should be familiar with the student's clinical work and development.  The chair of this committee must be a regular member of the Clinical Area faculty.  The student submits to the committee a clinical training prospectus, or self study which summarizes previous clinical training and experience and describes planned clinical training.  The prospectus should include a list of all courses and practica completed and brief descriptions of clients seen (including the number of sessions, supervisors, and treatment plans for each client).  The prospectus should also outline a plan for continued professional development (1) before starting the internship, (2) while on the internship, and (3) after the internship.  In other words, the prospectus should be a concise (maximum of 3 pages) review of clinical training and training goals.  This prospectus should be on file in the area office.

 

2.      The student must prepare a written report for the committee describing an intervention which she or he has delivered (e.g., to an individual, couple, family, a group, a community).  This report should aim to demonstrate that the student has a conceptual understanding of important aspects of clinical intervention and should demonstrate that the formulation of the intervention strategies was based on a set of principles that can be understood and discussed.  Furthermore, the report should discuss the nature and extent of outcome evaluation and should reveal the student's level of clinical, as well as conceptual, skill in delivering the intervention.  Ideally, this report should possess value as a teaching instrument for neophyte students. The student should also demonstrate that she or he can conceptualize and meaningfully discuss the problem addressed from a perspective other than the intervention that was chosen.

 

3. The committee will evaluate the report, review the student's clinical training and evaluative reports submitted by the student's supervisors, and conduct an oral examination. If the committee judges that the student has met the minimum standards for clinical competence in the Area, the student should file the prospectus referred to in section 1 with the clinical area secretary, together with the approval form signed by the committee.

More detailed guidelines for the clinical competency preliminary requirement follow.

 

 

 

Guidelines for Clinical Competency Preliminary Requirement

 

Goal:

 

To assess students’ clinical skills, including skills in conceptualization, assessment, intervention, clinical decision making, and the application of research findings to clinical activities. Students are expected to demonstrate breadth as well as depth in their thinking about clinical activities.

 

Oral Exam:

 

The oral exam will focus on the students’ ability to discuss the following aspects of an intervention of their choosing:

 

Conceptualization – identify the client (individual, couple, family, organization, community etc) and describe the formulation used to understand the client and to design the intervention.

 

Research that informs the conceptualization - describe research findings that bear upon or support the formulation.

 

Assessment processes - describe how the initial assessment was conducted and how ongoing assessment over time was designed and conducted.

 

Process and outcome of intervention - describe the course, progress, and outcome of  the intervention and discuss factors relevant to this course (e.g., specific gains made and what led to them, ruptures in the working relationship with the client and how they were handled, non-compliance and how that was handled, etc.)

 

Research that informs the intervention - discuss the relevant intervention process and outcome research.

 

Ethical and socio-cultural/socio-political issues – identify ethical issues if relevant; discuss larger social, environmental, or contextual factors that bear upon working with this client (related, for example, to ethnicity, sexual orientation, disabilities, gender issues, stigma, religion, managed care, etc.).

 

Alternative conceptualization – identify an alternative way of conceptualizing the case and describe its implications for intervention. If you believe there is no plausible, alternative way to conceptualize the case provide a clear and compelling justification for this position. The goal here is to demonstrate your capacity to think broadly about clinical assessment and intervention.

 

Students should come to the orals prepared to discuss and respond to questions regarding each area listed above.

 

 

 

Approved Clinical Internship

In addition to the preliminary certification of clinical competence, the student must complete an approved internship.  The student may, upon completing ALL preliminary requirements, and receiving committee approval of a doctoral dissertation proposal, apply to internship programs. The area office maintains a file on APA approved settings.  The student can assume that any APA-approved internship that is primarily Clinical Psychology in nature will be approved by the Area. 

Post-Internship Certification of Clinical Competence

In addition to the pre-internship clinical competence certification, it is expected that a student will complete an approved internship satisfactorily.   An evaluation of performance will be obtained from the internship agency.  The internship must be completed to the satisfaction of the internship agency for the student to qualify for the Ph.D. degree.

Doctoral Dissertation

Character of the Dissertation

The Ph.D. Dissertation must be a major piece of research that is grounded in clear and meaningful psychological theory and is a thoughtful, integrated, original research effort.  The dissertation should address a substantive research problem in psychology.   The dissertation research will be guided and evaluated by a Faculty committee selected by the student, with consultation with the major professor.

Dissertation Committee

The student shall select a major professor who will bear most of the responsibility for guidance.  In addition, three other faculty members will serve on the Dissertation Committee.  As described in the Psychology Department Graduate Student Manual, two of the four committee members must be from one of the areas within the Department.  One faculty member must be from a different area within the department.  The fourth committee member can be from any department at the University.  In addition, the University requires that a fifth committee member, selected from outside the Psychology Department, serve as an outside reader.  More details concerning procedures for submitting the dissertation are contained in the Psychology Department's Graduate Student Manual.  In addition, students should consult the Office of the Graduate School for the most current administrative details concerning the deadlines for submission of programs, etc.

Time to Completion of the Degree

The graduate school requires that work toward a Ph.D. degree must be completed within 7 years (official leaves of absence excluded) from first registration date.  The student may petition for an extension of this deadline, but the area is reluctant to recommend approval of such extensions.