Clinical Program
Program Director: Scott M. Monroe
Overview
The APA accredited Clinical Psychology Ph.D. program at Notre Dame provides excellent research and clinical training designed to prepare students for research and academic careers. In addition to specialty training in Clinical Psychology, students acquire expertise in statistics, research design and methodology, and they gain a broad and general knowledge of the field of Psychology. The program trains academically oriented psychologists who appreciate how science and practice mutually inform one another to advance the discipline and to enhance human functioning.
Faculty research interests are very broad, including cognitive vulnerability to depression, eating pathology, neurodevelopmental disorders and autism, adaptive and nonadaptive personality traits and the diagnosis of personality disorder, sleep and stress effects on memory and psychological function, the perception and impact of social stigma and discrimination, child psychopathology, structure and assessment of personality, emotion, motivation and neuroendocrine systems, cultural influences on emotion regulation, psychotherapy process and outcome, secrecy and self-disclosure, stress and depression, coping with chronic illness, cross cultural and multicultural clinical competencies, marital discord and depression, and clinical research methodology.
Research training begins in the first year when students prepare first-year projects to present to the program and to the department. Students continue to develop their programs of research throughout their graduate careers.
Following the first-year project, students conduct master's degree research, undertake doctoral qualifying examination projects, and continue to expand and deepen their research credentials -- often through collaborative efforts with scholars in different research laboratories.
Research training culminates in the production of a comprehensive doctoral dissertation project, the purpose of which is to demonstrate students' ability to function as independent scientists.
Clinical training begins with basic skills courses in the first year and then proceeds to an initial practicum at the University Counseling Center during the third year, followed by an advanced practicum at one of a variety of community agencies in the fourth and fifth years. Students also undertake a one-year full-time clinical internship before graduating. Clinical training emphasizes accurate diagnosis, reliable and valid assessment, and empirically-supported treatments.
All students in good standing are completely funded for at least five years, including tuition and stipends.
The Clinical Psychology Program at Notre Dame is accredited by the American Psychological Association. Questions related to the program's accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 1st Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002
Phone: (202) 336-5979/E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org
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