Graduate Program

Goals and Objectives

The goal of the graduate program in clinical psychology is the education of clinical psychologists with a firm grounding in research, theory, and practice. We are a clinical science program, which means that we encourage students to make substantive contributions to the understanding of the assessment, etiology, diagnosis, and treatment of psychopathology. We also encourage them to become competent clinicians who know how to make use of the available evidence and to contribute to the training of future psychologists. A clinical scientist is defined not by where s/he works (e.g., in a university vs. in private practice) but in how s/he thinks.

The primary emphasis of our clinical curriculum is to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to function as productive clinical researchers in psychology. This requires a basic understanding of the determinants of human behavior, including biological, psychological, and social factors, and a strong background in research design and quantitative methods. Also central to our curriculum is training in clinical practice through coursework in assessment and treatment, and through supervised clinical practica. Finally, our curriculum provides supervised teaching experiences for all students. The goal and philosophy of the clinical program are consistent with the goals of the Psychology Department and the mission of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

We expect that students who complete our program will be able to apply the perspective and skills of a clinical scientist to research, teaching, and/or clinical work in various professional environments including academic departments, research institutes, medical schools, community mental health facilities, or other practice settings. Our clinical program is both accredited by the American Psychological Association and a member in good standing of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, and our faculty and curriculum embody many of the values embraced by both organizations.

Accreditation

Our program is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association. Inquiries may be directed to the Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, American Psychological Association, 750 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC, 20002-4242, Phone: (202) 336-5979.

Directors

Director of Clinical Psychology and Director of Clinical Training: Dr. Linda Craighead, lcraigh@emory.edu.

A Note on Interviews, Visits, and Contacting Faculty: Because of the volume of applications each year, we cannot arrange visits or interviews with prospective applicants until January, at which point we invite about 25 applicants to Emory to interview. If you are interested in the program and have questions, you should contact faculty whose work looks like the best match for you and who are taking students for the current year, or contact Paula Mitchell, our administrative coordinator, at paula.mitchell@emory.edu.

Application for admission should be made as early as possible. Although the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences lists their deadline as Jan. 4, 2010, the deadline for applications for Clinical Psychology is December 1, 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: The new online application system will not be available until early October 2009. We strongly encourage you to use the online application. This allows the Psychology program to have immediate access to your application, and it will allow you to track which credentials we have received.

The following faculty will be interviewing applicants for Fall 2010 admission; the number of applicants we will be able to accept will be determined by the amount of funding available at the time offers are made:

Edward Craighead, Patricia Brennan, Eugene Emory, Sherryl Goodman, Scott Lilienfeld, Jack McDowell, Irwin Waldman, Elaine Walker. Applications will be reviewed in early January and about 20 to 25 applicants will be invited for the initial interview date which is tenatively scheduled for Feb 5th. Due to the number of applications received, we are not able to interview all applicants or to schedule interviews before that time. Applicants who are no longer being considered will be notified as soon as possible, however we maintain a secondary/wait list of another 20 to 25 applicants who remain under consideration in case we determine that additional applicants should be interviewed. These applicants will be notified once our final acceptances have been received and they are no longer in consideration.