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Department of Psychological Sciences
210 McAlester Hall
Columbia, MO 65211-2500
phone: 573-882-6860
fax: 573-882-7710
email: SkylesB@missouri.edu
Graduate Program: 573-882-0838 or gradpsych@missouri.edu		 MU Department of Psychological Sciences

Program of Study

Overview
The Department of Psychological Sciences offers a PhD in Psychology with an emphasis in Clinical Psychology, Cognition and Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Quantitative Psychology and Social/Personality Psychology, as well as a dual program in Child Clinical and Developmental Psychology. The Master's degree is awarded enroute to the awarding of the PhD degree.

To those applicants with graduate study elsewhere: Credit toward the PhD degree for graduate work, as well as for an MA degree (based upon an experimental research thesis) completed elsewhere, is arranged by the student's advisory committee and the Council of Directors after the student has begun study here.

The Master of Arts Curriculum
While a stand-alone master's degree is not offered, the MA is a prerequisite for acceptance to PhD candidacy. A maximum of six hours of graduate coursework taken elsewhere can count toward the MA. Transfer of credit must be recommended by the student's adviser and approved by the Graduate Dean. The requirements are:

  • 30 credit hours, including research credit and distribution courses
  • a thesis
  • a final oral examination on the thesis research
Students with a non-thesis master's degree may be given the option to conduct an empirical research project and obtain approval of the resulting thesis from a three-member committee.

The Doctoral Curriculum
The PhD requires 83 total hours of coursework:

  • Ethics and Professional Issues (1 hour)
  • Distribution courses from four different content area, including abnormal psychology, biological foundations, cognition and learning, developmental psychology, motivation and personality, and social psychology (12 hours)
  • Statistics (9 hrs.)
  • Emphasis area concentration (24 hr.)
  • Research (as needed to complete minimum of 83 total hours)
The program requires a comprehensive examination before admission to candidacy. Compltion of the program requires a satisfactory defense of a research-based dissertation. The Clinical Psychology emphasis area requires completion of a one-year internship.

Program Detail
For further detail on the program and policies, refer to the Graduate Student Handbook.

Course Work
To see the catalog of courses, please review the Graduate School's Psychological Sciences course listings.

Teaching of Psychology Practicum (TOPP)
The MU Department of Psychological Sciences offers an integrated teaching program, the Teaching of Psychology Practicum, or TOPP. Graduate students in the third and fourth years are eligible to teach an undergraduate course. They do so in a supervised manner, meeting with a teaching mentor and other graduate student teachers to discuss teaching issues. This unique supervised teaching experience prepares students to excel in teaching.

 Graduate Program