Graduate Program

Degree Offered

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (Ph.D.)
Concentrations: Clinical Psychology; Cognition, Brain and Behavior; Developmental Psychology; Evolutionary Psychology; Health Psychology; Quantitative/Methodology.

Interdisciplinary Program

Computational Science and Engineering: The Computational Science and Engineering interdisciplinary graduate certificate program prepares students to effectively use high-performance computing within their disciplines and is open to graduate students in this department. See the School of Engineering section of this Catalog.

Master of Science in Psychology en route to Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

Although the Department awards the Master of Science (M.S.) in Psychology under Plan I (thesis) according to the regulations set forth in the Graduate Program section of this Catalog, all screening of new applicants is done in terms of entry for the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Psychology program. The department requires students to pursue the M.S. in Psychology unless an approved thesis is transferred from another institution.

Admission Requirements

The department admits new students to the graduate program only for the Fall semester of each year; exceptions to this procedure are rare. Since competition for the few available openings each year is strong, only applicants with excellent academic records as well as first-rate letters of recommendation are likely to succeed in gaining admission. Interested applicants are advised to have at least 15 credit hours in psychology, including one course in psychological statistics and either a laboratory course or independent research in psychology. Graduate Record Examination (GRE) General Test scores are required for the application. The GRE Psychology Subject test, although strongly recommended, is not required.

Deadlines

Fall semester: December 1 for full consideration. After that date, comparison of candidates and extension of offers of admission and of financial aid begins, and continues until May 1 or until all positions have been filled.
Spring semester: None accepted.
Summer session: None accepted.

Only those applications received and completed by December 1 are guaranteed to receive consideration. Early applications are strongly encouraged.

Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology

General requirements for the Ph.D. are set forth in the Graduate Program section of this Catalog. Regulations include a minimum of 48 credit hours of graduate credit (precise requirements depends upon area) with a grade point average of 3.0 ("B") or better, exclusive of thesis and dissertation credit hours; satisfactory performance on the doctoral comprehensive examination; and a dissertation accepted by the final oral examining committee.

The Breadth Requirement

To ensure a breadth of training, all students are required to complete a 12 credit hour (generally four graduate courses) breadth requirement. These courses can be taken inside or outside the Department, but they must be outside the concentration, and they must be scholarly in nature. Clinical Psychology concentration students satisfy the breadth requirement through the training requirements of the American Psychological Association (APA).

The Collateral Requirement

To satisfy the departmental requirement of a foreign language or comparable alternative requirement, students use the computer labs (PSYC 503L and 504L) associated with the statistics (PSYC 501) and experimental design (PSYC 502) courses, respectively.

Required Core Courses

Students are required to select a concentration. The emphases are options for students in any concentration except for those of the same name. The following core courses are required in addition to any courses required in the student’s concentration:

		Credit Hours
	First Year: Fall Semester
PSYC 501	Advanced Statistics	3
PSYC 503L	Advanced Statistics Lab	1
PSYC 505	Research Seminar	2
PSYC 551	Graduate Problems	1-3
	First Year: Spring Semester
PSYC 502	Design and Analysis of Experiments	3
PSYC 504L	Design and Analysis of Experiments Lab	1
PSYC 551	Graduate Problems	1-3
	Second Year: Spring Semester
PSYC 507	Teaching Seminar Note: This course *must* be taken prior to a teaching a course within the department.	2

Concentrations

Clinical Psychology: Clinical students begin their core sequence in clinical psychology during their first year. The clinical core sequence is presented in the department’s Guidelines for Graduate Students. Beyond the departmental core courses, clinical students are required to complete the following courses:

		Credit Hours
PSYC 531	Pre-Clinical Practicum	1
PSYC 532	Seminar in Psychopathology	3
PSYC 533	Psychological Evaluation: Cognitive and Neuropsychology Functions	3
PSYC 535	Psychological Evaluation: Personality Functions	3
PSYC 538	Introduction to Clinical Science	3
PSYC 610	Case Conference Practicum	1
PSYC 631	Psychotherapy Practicum	1-3
PSYC 634	Ethics and Professional Issues in Clinical Psychology	3
PSYC 636	Diversity Multicultural Perspectives in Clinical Psychology	3
PSYC 637	Empirically Supported Treatments	3
	Four approved Clinical Electives	9

Additional courses are required to satisfy the American Psychological Association (APA) foundation requirements. Current APA foundation requirements, along with courses that may be used to satisfy them, are presented in the department’s Guidelines for Graduate Students.

Cognition, Brain and Behavior: The Cognition, Brain and Behavior concentration reflects a unique opportunity for training in experimental psychology. Immediate hands-on experience conducting and disseminating research, coupled with comprehensive coursework, builds competent, confident students capable of developing competitive research profiles. Students enter under a faculty mentor and begin active research in the first year. Beyond the departmental core requirements, Cognition, Brain and Behavior concentration students are required to complete the following:

PSYC 540	Biological Bases of Behavior
PSYC 541	Introduction to Functional Neuroimaging
PSYC 561	Cognitive Processes I
	Students in the second and all subsequent years must participate in a literature discussion section once per year:
PSYC 641	Sem: Cognition, Brain and Behavior

Students in this concentration are required to select additional elective courses from the concentration area to satisfy a total requirement (including core courses) of 15 credit hours. The choice of electives and substitution of any alternative elective courses must be approved by the concentration faculty.

Developmental Psychology: Beyond the departmental core requirements, all Developmental Psychology concentration students are required to complete three courses from the following:

PSYC 523 Social Development
PSYC 528 Seminar in Cognitive Development
PSYC 539 Child Psychopathology
PSYC 629 Culture and Human Development
PSYC 650 ST: Special Topics (in Developmental Psychology—multiple offerings)

Evolutionary Psychology: Beyond the departmental core requirements, all Evolutionary Psychology students are required to complete five courses. These courses should include:

PSYC 650 ST: Evolutionary Psychology
Four other courses on evolutionary analysis of behavior.

At least one course must be offered in the Department of Psychology. Appropriate courses include PSYC 650 ST: Behavior Genetics, PSYC 650 ST: Evolution and Cognition, and PSYC 650 ST: Evolutionary Social Psychology.

At least two of these courses should be taken in the Department of Biology or the Department of Anthropology. Appropriate courses include:

ANTH 560 Advanced Topics in Evolutionary Anthropology
ANTH 562 Human Life History
BIOL 502 T: Evolutionary Biology

Any other courses must be approved by the Committee of Studies.

Health Psychology: Beyond the departmental core requirements, Health Psychology concentration students are required to complete PSYC 510, two courses from Category A, two courses from Category B, and one advanced statistics/quantitative course from Psychology or Education (e.g., EDPY 593 T: Multilevel Modeling or EDPY 607 Structural Equation Modeling). A substitute advanced statistics/quantitative course must be approved by the Health Psychology Committee.

PSYC 510	Advanced Health Psychology
	Category A
PSYC 515	Social Psychology of Health Promotion
PSYC 650	ST: Health Disparities
PSYC 650	ST: Pediatric Psychology
	Category B
PSYC 540	Biological Bases of Behavior
PSYC 547	Drugs and Behavior
PH 501	Principles of Public Health
PH 507	Health Care Systems

Substitute coursework for Categories A and B must be approved by the Health Psychology Committee.

Quantitative/Methodology: Beyond the departmental core requirements, all Quantitative/Methodology concentration students are required to complete PSYC 601 and four other courses. At least two of these four courses must be selected from the following list of quantitative courses offered in the department:

PSYC 601	Multivariate Statistics
	Choose from:
PSYC 506	Seminar in Mathematical Psychology
PSYC 604	Latent Variable Modeling
PSYC 605	Advanced Latent Variable Modeling
PSYC 650	ST: Analysis of Data
PSYC 650	ST: Meta-Analysis
PSYC 650	ST: Quasi-Experimental Design

At least one, but not more than two, of these courses must be selected from courses in quantitative methods offered by other UNM departments. The Quantitative Methodology Committee maintains a list of extra-departmental courses that may be used to satisfy this requirement. Any other course a student wishes to count toward the extra-departmental requirement must be approved by the Quantitative Methodology Committee.

Emphases

Diversity/Multicultural Psychology: Students must complete a total of 9 credit hours of graduate coursework. In addition to PSYC 508, students must choose one course from Category A. Students must then choose a third course from either Category A or Category B.

Students in this emphasis will have one of their research projects (either thesis or dissertation) feature at least one of the a priori aims or hypotheses incorporate an aspect of furthering understanding of diversity/multicultural issues in psychology.

PSYC 508	Psychological Research with Diverse Populations
	Category A
PSYC 516	Health Disparities
PSYC 629	Culture and Human Development
PSYC 636	Diversity Multicultural Perspectives in Clinical Psychology *
	Other Psychology courses approved by the Diversity/Multicultural Psychology Faculty such as Special Topics courses focused on subjects in diversity or with working with specific populations.
	Category B
	Courses related to Diversity and Multiculturalism that are offered by other UNM departments and programs, such as the College of Population Health, the Institute for the Study of Race and Social Justice or the Department of Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies. Courses in fulfillment of Category B must be approved by the Diversity/Multicultural Psychology Faculty to count towards the emphasis. Course syllabi will be reviewed as part of this process.

* Note: Clinical Psychology concentration students may not use PSYC 636 to fulfill the Diversity/Multicultural Psychology emphasis. Clinical Psychology concentration students will be required to demonstrate diversity/multicultural competence by providing clinical services to diverse clientele, obtaining clinical hours in a practicum with a focus on diverse clientele, and receiving supervision through the UNM Cultural Counseling Center (e.g., Diversity Specialty Clinic).

Health Psychology: The purpose of the Health Psychology emphasis is to provide specialized training in the application of psychology to physical health and medical problems. Beyond the courses required for the concentration, students must complete at least two courses from category A and at least one course from category B.

	Category A
PSYC 510	Advanced Health Psychology
PSYC 515	Social Psychology of Health Promotion
PSYC 650	ST: Health Disparities
PSYC 650	ST: Pediatric Psychology
	Category B
PSYC 540	Biological Bases of Behavior *
PSYC 547	Drugs and Behavior
PH 501	Principles of Public Health
PH 507	Health Care Systems

* Note: Clinical Psychology concentration students may not use PSYC 540 to fulfill the Health Psychology emphasis.

Substitute coursework for Categories A and B must be approved by the Health Psychology Committee. This emphasis is not available to Health Psychology concentration students.

Quantitative Methodology: Students choosing an emphasis in Quantitative Methodology must complete 9 credit hours of graduate coursework in the Quantitative/Methodology area. Any of the following courses may be used to satisfy the requirements for this emphasis.

PSYC 601	Multivariate Statistics
PSYC 604	Latent Variable Modeling
PSYC 605	Advanced Latent Variable Modeling
PSYC 650	ST: Analysis of Data
PSYC 650	ST: Programming in Psychology
ECE 595	ST: Analysis Methods in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
EDPY 606	Applied Multivariate Statistics
EDPY 607	Structural Equation Modeling
PH 502	Epidemiologic Methods I
STAT 574	Biostatistical Methods: Survival Analysis and Logistic Regression
STAT 576	Multivariate Analysis
STAT 577	Introduction to Bayseian Modeling
STAT 581	Introduction to Time Series Analysis

Requests to use other courses are reviewed by the Quantitative Methodology Committee on a case-by-case basis. This emphasis is not available to Quantitative/Methodology concentration students.

Keys and Symbols Reference