Clinical Psychology
The Duquesne University Psychology Department is internationally renowned for its scholarship in human science psychology. The Department educates students to be sensitive to the assumptions that underlie any effort to understand human beings, and the historical, cultural, relational, and embodied character of all human thought and activity. Accordingly, faculty and graduate students attend to the multiple meanings of existence, working towards the liberation and well-being of persons individually as well as in community, and do so with a deep and abiding consideration of ethics.
As you work toward your Ph.D. in clinical psychology, you are immersed in an advanced course of study specializing in human science approaches to clinical psychology, integrating theory, research and clinical practice.
The Program involves four years of full-time coursework in residence at Duquesne University. During these four years of full-time study, students must successfully complete 73 credits of coursework, six semesters of clinical practica at our in house training Clinic, two semesters of field practica, and the comprehensive exams. A dissertation and a one-year pre-doctoral internship are also required. All degree requirements must be completed within 6.5 years; our 10-year average time to degree is 6.35.
Accreditation
The program has been accredited by the American Psychological Association since November 2001 and is listed in the Doctoral Psychology Programs Meeting Designated
Criteria developed and published by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology
Boards and National Register.
*Questions related to the program's accredited status should be directed to the Commission
on Accreditation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979 / E-mail
APA Accreditation
Student Admissions, Outcomes and Other Data
Careers
With a Ph.D. from Duquesne, you will be positioned to establish careers in independent practice, community clinics, medical and managed care facilities, and in academic and research settings.
Application Deadline
Students should submit their application no later than December 2.
The applicants will be notified about interviews after January 31. All interviews
will be held via Zoom on February 14, 21 or 28.
Program Information
At Duquesne, you will gain broad exposure to both human and natural science psychology; our focus is firmly rooted in traditions that honor what is unique to human experience. Our coursework and applied training foster critical thinking, self-reflection, ethical practice and creative attention to the nature of psychological life.
Degree
Doctorate
Academic Department
Psychology
Required Credit Hours
73
Program Requirements
Our scholar-practitioner model aims to educate psychologists whose clinical practice follows from, and is integrated with, a solid foundation of scholarship. This scholarship includes a) understanding the historical context of psychology, b) recognizing the philosophical assumptions that underlie research and clinical practices of psychologists, c) understanding the diversity of methods employed in research and clinical practice, d) critical reflexivity regarding one’s own assumptions and activities as a psychologist, and e) sensitivity to individual and cultural diversity and their implications for the practice of psychology.
From this model of training follows a core set of goals and learning objectives with respect to Profession-wide and program specific competencies. The Program’s goals are:
- To educate students to conduct themselves with a professionalism appropriate to the complex nature of clinical psychology, and that is founded on reflexivity, interpersonal competence, ethical principles, and a deep respect for cultural diversity.
- To prepare scholar-practitioners who are well grounded in the discipline of psychology conceived broadly as a human science.
- To educate and train students to competently conduct psychological assessments.
- To educate and train students to be competent psychotherapists.
- To educate and train students to be competent teachers and supervisors in psychology.
A minimum of 73 credits (excluding six credits for the dissertation) is required. There
is a residence requirement, which is fulfilled while completing the coursework.
513 Intro. To Qualitative and Interpretive Research
526 Phenomenology of Human Development
537 Psychology as a Human Science: History and Systems
543 Approaches to Psychopathology
545 Intro. To Psychotherapy
551 Social Psychology
560 Physiological Psychology
571 Intro. To Assessment
612 Advanced Qualitative Research
617 Research Practica--take 3 at 1 credit each
620 Philosophical Psychology:
623 Ethics & Standards (2 credits)
624 Experimental Research Methods
640 Clinical Formulation
665 Seminar in Consultation and Supervision
671 Advanced Assessment
674 Psychology & Cultural Diversity
Also required:
- 1 credit Clinical Practicum (650) – for each semester that student is seeing clients at the Clinic for a total of 6 credits
- 0 credit Psychology Colloquium (652) – attendance is required for 1st and 2nd year students,
- 1 credit of Supervised Teaching of Psychology I (510)
- 1 credit of Supervised Teaching of Psychology II (610)
- 0 credit “Distinguished Speakers Workshop,” (weekend mini course held once a year)—attendance at two is required.
- In addition to the above required courses, five 3 credit elective courses are taken, one of which must be a clinical elective. The clinical elective needs to be taken in either the third or fourth year.
With the exception of “Distinguished Speakers Workshop” all “0” credit requirements are recorded on the academic transcript and must be met in order to graduate.
Application Requirements
Submit the university application through the graduate application portal including a resume or curriculum vitae.
All applicants to the Ph.D. program must have earned a Bachelor's degree at an accredited institution, and by the time of application completed a minimum of 12 credits of coursework in Psychology. We require that 6 of the 12 credits be from an Introduction to Psychology course and a Psychological Disorders course. In addition, and whereas it is not a requirement, we strongly recommend a course in the Psychology of Personality as well. The Bachelors degree does not have to be in Psychology.
If you are in the process of completing a degree, you may submit an up-to-date unofficial transcript with your application, followed by a final, official transcript upon enrollment as a Duquesne University graduate student. All other transcripts should be either emailed or mailed from the institution. If mailing, use the following address:
Duquesne University
McAnulty Graduate School of Liberal Arts
600 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15282
If your undergrad and/or graduate degrees are from an institution located outside of the United States, you must use a transcript credential evaluation service to obtain a course-by-course report. The official reports must be sent directly to Duquesne University from the organization you order through and will qualify as official transcripts.
In addition to the transcripts, the Psychology Department requires that simple list of psychology courses already completed be uploaded to the application site as well.
Trace the development of your thinking with respect to psychology as a human science. Emphasize the authors and theories that have had the most impact on your conception of psychology. Discuss how you see the relationship between psychology and cultural diversity.
Unsure of whether Duquesne's Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology is for you? We promise that
our program is everything you've dreamed and more than what you've imagined. See below
for some frequently asked questions, but we encourage you to reach out to the department
to request more information. Duquesne University's model for student mentorship is a little different from that
of many other psychology Ph.D. programs. Students aren't accepted to work with a single
professor; instead, students are accepted based on consensus of the entire admissions
committee. During their first few years, Ph.D. students decide who on the faculty
they'd like to ask to chair their dissertation. Students tend to work fairly independently
to design and implement their projects, though of course faculty are available to
give guidance and consultation. So as you decide whether to apply to Duquesne, you
should be thinking about how Duquesne's overall human science orientation fits with
your own plans and projects. We understand that funding a doctoral degree can be an obstacle in your educational
journey and wish to help our students as much as possible. Below are a few options
available to our 5th year students, but our list of funding options is always growing. The Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowships are designed to encourage original and significant study of ethical or religious values
in all fields of the humanities and social sciences, and particularly to help Ph.D.
candidates in these fields complete their dissertation work in a timely manner. The Peace Scholar Fellowship Program, which awards scholarships to doctoral candidates at U.S. universities researching
and writing dissertations with clear relevance for policy and practice in the field
of international peacebuilding and conflict management. Through its Fellowship Programs, the Ford Foundation Fellowship program seeks to increase the diversity of the nation's college and university faculties by
increasing their ethnic and racial diversity, to maximize the educational benefits
of diversity, and to increase the number of professors who can and will use diversity
as a resource for enriching the education of all students. Additional funding options are available, please contact the Department of Psychology
for more information.FAQs
Funding for 5th-year Students
The NIH Guide for Grants and Contracts is the official publication for NIH medical and behavioral research grant policies,
guidelines and funding opportunities.
Dissertations in Progress