Department of Psychology

Graduate Program

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 60 semester hours of graduate studies. The experimental psychology program requires a minimum of 36 semester hours of graduate studies.

Degrees Offered

• Master of Arts in Psychology
  • Counseling Track
  • Experimental Track

Counseling Program

The mission of the 60-semester hour Counseling Track is threefold:

1. To produce highly skilled, license eligible graduates in counseling and the community human service/mental health movement.
2. To increase the awareness, knowledge, and skills of students, and professionals in the area of multicultural counseling. 
3. To provide practica experiences that reflect the present and projected community counseling, health, and service needs of an increasingly pluralistic society.

The program provides curricular experiences and eight core areas including, Professional Identity, Social and Cultural Diversity, Human Growth and Development, Career Development, Helping Relationships, Group Work, Assessment, and Research and Program Evaluation. Practica permit the integration of theory, research, and application. Placements have included, but are not limited to: counseling agencies, mental health clinics, correctional facilities, and college-level student services departments. Finally, we encourage the maintenance and development of individual counseling styles and are committed to excellence in counseling through participation in individual and group counseling experiences.

Experimental Psychology Program

The 36-semester hour Experimental Psychology Track provides the student with a solid foundation in psychological research. The program includes course work in experimental design, research methodology, and statistics.

The student will also develop an area of concentration that will serve as a basis for elective course work and the Master's thesis. These areas of concentration include animal behavior, biopsychology, cognition, developmental psychology, learning, sensation and perception, and social psychology.

Our primary goal is to prepare a substantial number of our graduates to go on to pursue a Doctorate in Psychology. Those who choose this latter option usually do so with a plan of eventually teaching at the college or university level. The program is also relevant to non-traditional students who do not plan to pursue a doctoral degree but wish to become more knowledgeable about psychology and its applications to their particular interests. Those graduates seeking a terminal Masters degree could seek employment in either pure or applied research fields or teach at a community/junior college.