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2025-2026 GRADUATE CATALOG
Psychology - Clinical Psychology, (PhD)
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Some students enter the Clinical Program without having previously completed a masters degree. These students must satisfactorily fulfill all requirements for the MS, including a thesis, before they are formally advanced to doctoral study. These requirements are usually completed in the first couple of years after admission. As part of this process, students complete and successfully defend a thesis that is empirical and psychological in nature.
Other students are admitted to the Clinical Program after they have completed a masters degree elsewhere. If their thesis is empirical and psychological in nature, these students may petition to have it accepted by the Clinical Program. In this case, the student forms a thesis committee and formally defends their completed thesis before this committee. If the committee determines that the thesis is comparable to those approved in our program, they approve the thesis. The student will then formally advance to doctoral study.
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Admission Standards and Procedures
Applications for admission to the Clinical Psychology Program are reviewed once each year for admission in the following Fall semester. Applications for Spring admission are not considered. All application information must have been received by December 1 for an applicant to be considered for admission. The following items are required for admission: - A completed application form accessed at https://apply.memphis.edu/portal/graduate_application. As part of the application, list psychology-related courses taken with grades, academic honors and awards, psychology-related publications and presentations, and psychology-related research and work experiences.
- An official transcript of all undergraduate and graduate coursework must be sent. An undergraduate grade point average of at least 3.0/4.0 is required for admission without special permission.
- A minimum of 18 semester hours in undergraduate psychology courses, including courses in Psychological Statistics and Research Methods. Students lacking some or all of these prerequisite courses, but presenting an exceptional undergraduate record, may nevertheless be admitted. However, students may be asked to remove such deficiencies before or during their first academic year.
- Letters of recommendation from at least three persons familiar with the applicant’s academic background and aptitude for graduate work in psychology, specifying in detail the applicant’s capabilities for graduate study and for future performance as a psychologist.
- A personal statement of approximately 1500 words that addresses the following: A) Your experiences and interests in clinical work and research, including working with a multicultural and diverse public, and B) Your potential match, in terms of your interests and career/professional goals, with specific faculty and with our program’s training model (i.e., the scientist-practitioner model and member of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science).
- A willingness to be interviewed in person or by teleconferencing by members of the department faculty, should that be requested.
Credit Hours
A minimum of 33 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the bachelor’s degree is required for the MS degree in Psychology, and a minimum of 80 semester hours of graduate credit beyond the bachelor’s degree is required for the PhD degree in Psychology. All work for graduate credit must be approved by the graduate director, and must be completed at a level of performance satisfactory to the graduate faculty of the department. Students also may take coursework for degree credit outside the department with written program approval.
Transfer Credit
Students with graduate credits earned at another institution, upon matriculation at The University of Memphis, may petition to have these credits applied toward the total number of hours required to earn their degree at The University of Memphis and to use transfer credits as substitutes for specific courses required for the degree. However, course credits earned in graduate programs that are not APA-accredited cannot be substituted for coursework in the Clinical Psychology Program. Decisions about course substitutions are made by the psychology department Graduate Coordinator and the Director of Clinical Training.
Enrollment
Enrollment for at least 6 credits in both Fall and Spring semesters is required for full-time graduate students that are not late-stage. Clinical Psychology students typically enroll in 9 credits in the Fall and Spring semesters. Comprehensive Course Requirements
Research and Statistics Requirements
Clinical Psychology students are required to complete PSYC 7301/PSYC 8301 and either PSYC 7302/PSYC 8302 or PSYC 7303/PSYC 8303 during their first two years in the program. Clinical Psychology students are also required to complete PSYC 7304/PSYC 8304. Research and Statistics Requirements (continued)
In addition, Clinical Psychology students must complete one additional statistics/quantitative/methodology course from the following list (or a substituted course with written approval from the student’s major professor and the Director of Clinical Training). Clinical Psychology Courses
Students in the Clinical Psychology program must also complete the following courses Major Area of Study (MAS)
The American Psychological Association (APA) has established a taxonomy for defining training requirements for specialization in psychology. Completing a MAS is optional and is NOT required. Clinical Health Psychology
The MAS in Clinical Health Psychology provides training for students who plan to assess and treat the cognitive and emotional complications of severe injury or disease. To complete the requirements for this specialization, Clinical Psychology students complete the following two courses: PSYC 7440/PSYC 8440 and PSYC 7441/PSYC 8441. In addition, students must complete at least 2 practicum experiences, each an academic year in length, in which the student works at least 8 hours a week providing services to meet the health-related needs of patients, family members, or interprofessional care teams. Students completing the MAS in Clinical Health must also complete a dissertation or other research project on a topic related to Clinical Health Psychology. Child and Family Studies
Clinical Psychology students in the Child and Family Studies MAS must complete PSYC 7416/PSYC 8416; a section of PSYC 7434/PSYC 8434 focused on children, adolescents, or families; and one other course focused on children or families (e.g., PSYC 7207/PSYC 8207, PSYC 7219/PSYC 8219, PSYC 7701/PSYC 8701, PSYC 7705/PSYC 8705, PSYC 7808/PSYC 8808. They must also attend the Child and Family Colloquium. A major portion of practicum work must involve children, and the master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation must pertain to children or families. Psychotherapy Research
The Clinical Psychology program also offers students the option to complete focused training in psychotherapy research. Students with this MAS must complete PSYC 7516/PSYC 8516 as well as a third section of PSYC 7434/PSYC 8434. In addition, the student’s specialty exam and dissertation must relate to psychotherapy. Research
All Clinical Psychology students are expected to be actively engaged in research with members of the department faculty throughout their time in the doctoral program. Master’s Thesis and Comprehensive Examination
Each Clinical Psychology student is expected to complete an independent research project, culminating in a master’s thesis. The thesis is a demonstration of the student’s ability to plan, organize, conduct, and report a research/scholarly project. Students should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before beginning to write. Only 3 hours of thesis credit (PSYC 7996) can count toward the degree. Once students enroll in thesis credit, they must continue to register for at least one hour of thesis credit each semester until they have successfully defended the project. Upon completion of the thesis, the student takes an oral examination that assesses not only mastery of the thesis topic but also broader awareness of the theoretical and empirical issues in contemporary psychology. This oral examination serves as the MS comprehensive examination. Second Milestone Project
After completing the master’s thesis, Clinical Psychology students complete a second milestone, usually in the third year of graduate work. Students in the Clinical Psychology program can satisfy this requirement through one of the following options: (1) writing a scholarly literature review, (2) conducting an empirical study, (3) submitting a grant proposal with the student as Principal Investigator, (4) conducting an applied clinical research project (e.g., a case study), or (5) completing a program evaluation of services provided in a community agency. All of these alternatives require the student to form a committee, conduct a proposal defense, and formally defend their final written product. Dissertation and Final Examination
The dissertation is viewed as the capstone of the student’s academic training, reflecting the student’s capacity for independent research. Dissertation credit hours (PSYC 9000) must be taken for a minimum of 6 hours and can be taken for a maximum of 9 credit hours. Students should familiarize themselves with the Thesis/Dissertation Preparation Guide before beginning to write. Upon completion of an independent written dissertation research project acceptable to the faculty, each student will take a final oral examination oriented toward, but not exclusively on, the student’s dissertation research and major area of specialization. Clinical Internship
A full-time one-year internship in clinical psychology in an agency approved by the Director of Clinical Training is required. Permission from the clinical faculty must be secured before making application for internship. To be approved, the clinical faculty must judge the student to be academically and clinically ready for the internship. In addition, the student must have successfully defended the second milestone requirement by May 31 and the dissertation proposal by September 15 of the year in which they are applying for internship.
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