The program offers opportunities for students to apply their classroom knowledge to a variety of real-world situations. Hands-on laboratory experiences give students a chance to design and conduct their own experiments. In the psychology major and its associated service offerings, the program strives for currency in the presentation of theoretical approaches, scientific research, and scholarship. Through emphasis on critical thinking and research methods, the Psychology Department seeks to foster a capacity for lifelong learning. By increasing the student's awareness of the human component in various social, industrial, and professional areas, the program serves to instill a responsible orientation to the application of psychological knowledge toward the betterment of the human condition.??

The master's program in clinical and counseling psychology prepares students for the professional practice of counseling, assessment, and/or mental health research. The curriculum provides a solid grounding in both theories and interventions that can be applied to a wide variety of mental health, academic, and research settings. We emphasize professional competency, ethical responsibility, cultural competency, self-awareness, and current body of knowledge in the scientific, methodological and theoretical foundations of practice. Our program expects students to become compassionate and caring scientist-practitioners with motivation to continue learning and furthering their development throughout their professional careers. The program requires the student to submit either a comprehensive master's project (in which he or she presents a clinical project in writing and integrates relevant empirical, theoretical, social, ethical, cultural, diagnostic, and therapeutic issues in the discussion) or a research project that makes an original contribution to the literature.