Program Aims

The overarching aims of our program are as follows:

Aim 1: To provide students with a sequential, cumulative, and broad and general foundation in the science and professional practice of Clinical Psychology.

Objectives for Aim #1 (a): Students will acquire the current scientific foundations of knowledge in psychological science and in clinical psychology as an area of professional specialization.
Objectives for Aim #1 (b): Students will acquire foundational knowledge of the health care system that supplements the knowledge base in scientific and professional psychology, specifically with knowledge pertaining to health and behavior of communities and populations.

Aim 2: To produce practitioner-scholars capable of being informed and active professional consumers of, and contributors to, the scientific body of knowledge in the field of clinical psychology, with an emphasis on the numerous issues of psychological aspects of health care and the health care system, who also appreciate the intrinsic connection between scholarly activity and evidence-informed practice.

Objectives for Aim #2 (a): To develop research aptitudes through a graded sequence of mentored research activities that lead to independent research skills (the doctoral dissertation).
Objectives for Aim #2 (b): To develop the ability to recognize and apply relevant published research findings in guiding clinical psychological practice.
Objectives for Aim #2 (c): To contribute to the current body of psychological/clinical psychological knowledge by presenting or publishing research findings.

Aim 3: To provide cumulative and sequential education and training of increasing complexity in evidence-based psychological assessment, intervention, and consultation services applied to both traditional mental health services and the greater health care system.

Objectives for Aim #3 (a): To develop a broad base of clinical competencies appropriate for the pre-internship phase of professional training.
Objectives for Aim #3 (b): To successfully place students in APPIC-approved or APA- accredited internships.
Objectives for Aim #3 (c): To provide background knowledge and entry-level professional skills leading to successful attainment of NYS licensure.
Objectives for Aim #3 (d): to provide the knowledge, skills, and attitudes, necessary to function as a clinical psychologist in an integrative health care environment.

Aim 4: To prepare students to be cognizant and self-reflective of major sources of individual and group variation, to understand how such diversity and one’s personal privilege and biases affect psychological processes, clinical presentation, and responsiveness to intervention, and to apply such knowledge, with cultural humility, in addressing diversity-related issues across the broad health care system.

Objectives for Aim #4 (a): Provide students with diverse assessment and intervention experiences across the life span that reflect a range of human diversity, such as individual, gender, sexual, cultural, ethnic and racial diversity.
Objectives for Aim #4 (b): Provide didactic and practical experiences that ensure that students, as a result of their training, are sufficiently knowledgeable and motivated to infuse a consideration of health disparities, and individual and cultural diversity into their clinical and professional activities.