Psychology

Clinical Psychology Program Information

 

Please see our 2012-2013 Applicant Brochure for a detailed description of our program curriculum.

 Description of Program Curriculum


The program curriculum provides academically rigorous preparation for a career in clinical psychology. The Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (the psychology national licensing exam) is considered one of the most objective criteria for evaluating the adequacy of clinical psychology training programs. Graduates of the program at the University of Missouri-St.Louis have consistently scored in the top 15% of all training programs in the United States on this exam.


The graduate curriculum is rooted in a core of required courses in research methods and content areas of psychology. All students are required to take a two semester sequence in quantitative methods in their first year. During the first three years of the program, students take courses in multicultural issues, applied research methods, social psychology, personality, developmental psychology, cognitive/behavioral processes, biological bases of behavior, and psychopathology, as well as elective coursework.

Students participate in practica in our Community Psychological Service and a paid clinical clerkship, which may be in a community or university-based setting. Students participate in at least one year of clerkship and three years of training in the Community Psychological Service. By the time of the internship, students have received a minimum of 1500 hours of supervised clinical experience and are highly competitive for positions in internship programs.

The program is committed to providing diversity training for all students. This training includes specialized diversity coursework (Multicultural Issues in Clinical Psychology), the integration of diversity-relevant material across the curriculum, and clinical training with diverse populations in campus-based and community placements. A number of our faculty members and students have received training in issues specific to sexual orientation, and are members of the campus Safe Zone community.

The program is designed to be completed in five years of full-time study; however, it should be noted that some students have graduated in six or more years after beginning the program. The primary cause of this delay, when it occurs, is that students elect to take advantage of optional research and clinical opportunities prior to the internship. Students have a maximum of seven years to complete all program requirements.

Attrition Rate
The faculty selects for the program only those students who have the potential to complete all aspects of the program successfully. Hence, the termination rate in the program is very low. In addition to a very small number of students terminated from the program, there have been students who have voluntarily left the program for a variety of personal reasons. See the admission criteria section for statistics on program attrition.

Licensure Rate

Reporting of program licensure data is an expectation of the US Secretary of Educations National Advisory Committee on Institutional Quality and Integrity for program accreditors, including the APA Committee on Accreditation. Programs are expected to report the number and percentage of program graduates who have become licensed psychologists within the preceding decade.

Of the 72 students who graduated from our program during the period from 1997-2010, 57 (79%) are licensed psychologists. Of the remaining 11 program alumni, the licensure status is unknown for 5 individuals; 6 alumni have elected to not be licensed because it is not a requirement of their professional responsibilities (e.g., alumni teaching in undergraduate colleges, full time researchers, etc).

Employment Outlook
Graduates of the clinical program have been highly successful in securing positions in the clinical psychology field. Initial employment settings of recent graduates include: post-doctoral fellowships in university affiliated research centers and hospitals, universities, Veteran's Administration Medical Centers, and staff psychologist positions in private and public hospitals. Their job duties include interventions research, program development and evaluation, coordination and supervision of services, and direct assessment and treatment.