General Clinical Emphasis

The General Clinical emphasis provides research, didactic, and clinical training that prepares students for diverse careers in clinical psychology. Regarding research training, faculty mentoring students in the General Clinical emphasis have active programs of research related to the assessment, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology and physical health comorbidities in individuals across the lifespan. Students opting for the General Clinical emphasis will select electives from a rich set of courses that align with their interests and career goals and receive clinical training in practicum sites focused on refining their general clinical skills as well as skills tailored to work with specific populations or presentations. Students will complete the program with the preparation they need to pursue postdoctoral training relevant to their clinical psychology research and interests.

Faculty

Our faculty are nationally and internationally known researchers in a broad range of domains. Students in the General Clinical emphasis receive close mentoring and supervision from faculty in all aspects related to their academic and clinical training.

Please visit our Meet the Faculty page for more information on specific faculty members, including who is open to accepting students for the upcoming academic year.

Research

Students in the General Clinical emphasis conducted thesis and dissertation research related to the assessment, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology and physical health comorbidities in individuals across the lifespan. Below is just a sampling of the many topics examined in our recent students’ research:

Predictors of health behaviors (including cancer screening, sleep, and physical activity)

Predictors of surgical outcomes (including bariatric and spine surgery)

Risk and protective factors related to posttraumatic stress and posttraumatic growth among a variety of populations (including first responders, health care providers, and cancer patients)

Brief psychosocial intervention effectiveness for a wide range of populations (including parents of young children, patients undergoing cancer treatment, people with spinal cord injury)

Correlates of quality of life among people living with chronic illness

Clinician adherence to evidence-based practice

Moderators of postpartum depression among urban and rural mothers

Factors that affect weekly weight variation in eating disorder treatment

Personality variables impacting couples’ levels of closeness

Clinical Training

During the third year and beyond, students are placed at external practicum sites where they have access to a variety of training experiences, including assessment and treatment work with clients across the lifespan, in a variety of contexts (e.g., inpatient, outpatient). Please see Clinical Training for more information on practicum sites.

Coursework

Students in the General Clinical emphasis will have a total of 12 elective hours (i.e., four elective courses) to allow them to customize their didactic training to align with their interests and career goals. Some elective courses include: Neuropsychopharmacology, Advanced Child Assessment, Human Neuropsychology, Latent Variable Modeling, and Group Therapy.