The Community Psychology Program prepares students to become excellent researchers, intervention specialists, consultants, and program evaluators who have a firm grounding in the theory, research and practice of Community Psychology.
Our training program has a special focus on working with underserved, minority populations (e.g., low-income urban children, adolescents, families and adults) and community-based organizations. We invite you to explore our website so that you can find out more about our program.
We believe there is a need to equip students with psychological skills that are targeted toward non-individually oriented topics, such as community and organizational change, and evaluators of social policy. Students in the Community Psychology Program will be trained in research methodologies to be applied to social and community interventions. These students will gain an understanding of social-community change from a public health perspective rather than a traditional individual-counseling orientation and will be collaborating with community agencies, not-for-profit groups or grass-roots organizations. Their principle roles are in research, evaluation, program development and other non-clinical activities.
The Community Program utilizes a unique approach toward training graduate students. The program will stress training community professionals who work in the public or private sector with diverse gender, ethnic, racial and sexual orientation populations. This program exemplifies the mission of DePaul University through its strong emphasis on service to others. An objective of training will be to provide graduate students with educational and practical skills for scientific and leadership development as community advocates of social justice and empowerment. The community faculty and supervisors have both an intra- and interdisciplinary orientation, including but not limited to, social, experimental, and feminist psychology, plus sociology and public service.
The Community Program seeks to achieve four inter-related goals in training, specifically:
- Provide students with a breadth of knowledge in the content of community psychology.
- Provide statistical and methodological foundations in general psychology to demonstrate competence in core areas within the discipline.
- Provide the means to contribute to new developments in the field of community psychology and the social basis of behavior.
- Provide for the specific needs of the students and the communities they will serve.
Since the Community Program has an ecological-community orientation that emphasizes a public health model rather than a clinical or medical model, those who have no specific interest in this area would be better served by another program. In particular, those having interests in traditional clinical work would not find the Community Program a good fit. Students accepted in the Community Program are ineligible to transfer into the Clinical Program.
Using a research-in-action training model, our program focuses on providing students with the theory, knowledge, skills and experience to work effectively with underserved communities to promote positive change, to examine the interaction between the individual and the environment, and to understand how contextual issues affect individuals and communities.
Specifically, the Community Program trains students to do the following:
- Develop, implement and evaluate preventive interventions
- Conduct action research that will help us to better understand and address social problems
- Evaluate community-based programs to help them gather information that will lead to better service provision to disadvantaged populations
- Consult with non-profit social service organizations to build organizational capacity
- Teach and conduct community research in college and university settings
| Program Requirements | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|
| MA Degree Requirements | 48 |
| Total hours required | 48 |
| Program Requirements | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|
| PhD Requirements | 28 |
| Total hours required | 28 |
MA Learning Outcomes
- Identify major theoretical concepts in psychology, trace their historical development, and integrate theory, research, and domain-specific knowledge to explain and interpret how Community Psychology currently advances knowledge.
- Critique and synthesize theoretical and empirical articles from peer-reviewed scholarly Community Psychology journals in terms of theory, methods, data analyses, and conclusions.
- Develop testable research questions, identify strengths and limitations of research designs and data analysis techniques, conduct appropriate research and analytic strategies, and interpret the findings to situate them within the extant research literature in Community Psychology.
PhD Learning Outcomes
- Identify major theoretical concepts in psychology, trace their historical development, and integrate theory, research, and domain-specific knowledge to explain and interpret how Community Psychology currently advances knowledge.
- Critique and synthesize theoretical and empirical articles from peer-reviewed scholarly Community Psychology journals in terms of theory, methods, data analyses, and conclusions in order to compose novel perspectives and ideas.
- Independently develop testable research questions, identify strengths and limitations of research designs and data analysis techniques, conduct appropriate research and analytic strategies, and interpret the findings to situate them within the extant research literature in Community Psychology.
- Independently describe and discuss the ethical issues associated with human subjects/participant protection and the sequence of procedures needed for IRB approval of research projects, and apply these ethical practices in research.
- Exhibit effective communication skills for presenting at professional conferences and publishing in professional journals in Community Psychology.
- Demonstrate competence in Community Psychology applications.
MA Course Requirements
The MA portion of the combined degree program requires a minimum of 48 quarter hours beyond the completion of a bachelor’s degree, including four quarter hours of thesis research.
Core Courses
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 492 | PRINCIPLES OF CONSULTATION | 4 |
| PSY 493 | ADVANCED COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY | 4 |
| PSY 520 | PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DIVERSITY | 4 |
| PSY 568 | SEMINAR IN PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION | 4 |
| or PSY 495 | GRANT WRITING IN PSYCHOLOGY | |
| PSY 569 | SEMINAR IN PROGRAM EVALUATION | 4 |
| PSY 590 | THESIS RESEARCH SEMINAR (3 quarters) | 0 |
Statistics and Methodology Courses
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 410 | ADVANCED STATISTICS I | 4 |
| PSY 411 | ADVANCED STATISTICS II | 4 |
| PSY 420 | QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN | 4 |
| Select one of the following: | 4 | |
| METHODS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH | ||
| MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS | ||
| FACTOR ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING | ||
| PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT | ||
| SEMINAR IN ADVANCED STATISTICS | ||
| GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | ||
Elective Courses
Two elective courses are required. Electives can be any graduate-level psychology course, or any graduate-level non-psychology course, with permission from the faculty advisor or program director.
Research Course
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 597 | MASTER'S THESIS RESEARCH | 4 |
Master’s Thesis Research
Complete a thesis on a topic approved by the department.
Master’s Thesis Examination
The examination may be, but is not necessarily limited to, an oral defense of the student’s thesis.
PhD Course Requirements
Core Courses
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 568 | SEMINAR IN PREVENTION AND INTERVENTION | 4 |
| or PSY 495 | GRANT WRITING IN PSYCHOLOGY | |
| PSY 567 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY | 4 |
| PSY 585 | FIELDWORK IN COMMUNITY SETTINGS (6 quarters) | 0 |
Statistics and Methodology
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| Select one of the following courses, which must be different from the Stats and Methodology course completed for the MA requirements: | 4 | |
| METHODS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH | ||
| MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS | ||
| FACTOR ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING | ||
| PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT | ||
| SEMINAR IN ADVANCED STATISTICS | ||
| GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION SYSTEMS (GIS) FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT | ||
Elective Courses
Three elective courses required to complete the minimum number of credit hours. One elective must be any graduate-level psychology course. The remaining two electives can be any graduate-level psychology course or any graduate-level non-psychology course, with permission from the faculty advisor or program director.
Additional Courses
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 565 | PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT SEMINAR (9 quarters) | 0 |
| PSY 550 | SEMINAR IN TEACHING PSYCHOLOGY (3 quarters) | 0 |
Research Course
| Course | Title | Quarter Hours |
|---|---|---|
| PSY 599 | DOCTORAL DISSERTATION RESEARCH | 4 |
Field Work and Practicum
All students develop two applied community-based fieldwork projects. They develop relationships with community organizations, design a project based on mutual interests, and receive individual and group supervision to implement the project they design. Metropolitan Chicago has a large population of community sites to draw upon as resources for assisting in placing students in practica and job-related sites.
Dissertation
The student should form a dissertation committee and begin work on the dissertation proposal. The dissertation includes the acceptance of the proposal and acceptance of the final dissertation.
Oral Examination
Student is to defend their dissertation and to show competence in the general field of psychology and in the area of specialization.
Program Graduate Academic Student Handbook
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Minimum Grades
- The minimum grade considered acceptable for a graduate course is a B-. This applies to courses taken both within and outside of the department for psychology graduate students. Grades below that (i.e., C+ and below) indicate that the student has not mastered the relevant content of the course.
- If a graduate student earns a grade lower than B- in a particular course, the student, instructor, and advisor will discuss the situation and circumstances and a remediation plan will be required. The student, his or her advisor, and the instructor, will work together to create a plan through which the student can (a) gain competence in the course material, and (b) demonstrate that competence. The remediation plan might include, for example, requiring the student to complete additional assignments, retaking the class, taking a substitute class, completing an independent study, or pursuing other options. The remediation plan must be approved by the instructor, advisor and the program director.
- A second occurrence of a grade lower than a B- (for the same or different course) will put the student on academic probation. Once placed on academic probation, the student’s record and any mitigating circumstances will be evaluated by a Psychology Department review board comprising the student’s advisor, the program director, and the department associate chair (the department chair might be included in special circumstances). Additional remediation and intervention might be suggested by the review board.
- If there is a third occurrence of a grade below B- (for the same or different course), the student will be dismissed from the program. The student may choose to appeal this decision, in which case the Chair of the Psychology Department will appoint a committee of three tenured Psychology Department faculty outside the student's program to hear the appeal. Depending on the student’s academic record and any mitigating circumstances, he/she may be allowed to complete his/her Master’s degree but will not be permitted to continue onto the PhD (not applicable to terminal Department of Psychology MS degrees) without a successful appeal.
Academic Probation
Students are expected to maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average (GPA) of 3.20. If a student’s cumulative GPA falls below this minimum, the student will be put on academic probation and will have one quarter of coursework to raise their cumulative GPA to at least a 3.20 or face academic dismissal from the program. If the student raises his/her cumulative GPA to at least a 3.20, but it falls below the minimum a second time, he or she will be dismissed from the program before the next term begins.
Academic Dismissal
In addition to violations of satisfactory progress, including but not limited to, earning minimum grades, failing the comprehensive exam (including any possible retakes) or project, or maintaining a minimum cumulative GPA, students may be dismissed for breaches of academic honesty, or breaches of the code of student responsibility articulated in the DePaul University Student Handbook.
Time Limitations
Students must complete their MA degree requirements prior to completing their requirements for admission to doctoral candidacy. Further, no more than four years may pass between admission to the doctoral program (i.e., successful completion of the doctoral candidacy examination/project), and no less than eight months and no more than five years may pass between admission to candidacy and the final examination (i.e., the oral dissertation defense).
Students are required to meet the timelines specified by the program even if the timeline is more stringent than the College timeline. Failure to do so could result in dismissal.
Extensions on these timelines must be requested in writing to both the department (Program Director) and the college (to the Dean) and must be approved at both levels. Students must complete all requirements for the degree (which may include additional coursework, examinations, or other conditions) by the deadline outlined in the extension. Failure to meet specified time limitations or deadlines can result in dismissal from the program.
Graduation Requirements
Students need a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.20 in courses required by the program. In addition to meeting the minimum cumulative GPA requirement, failing the doctoral candidacy exam (or one retake) or project, lack of progress towards degree completion, and/or unsatisfactory evaluation could result in academic dismissal. See individual program policies for more details.
Graduation with Distinction for MA
The criteria for graduating "with distinction" are a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.75 and the recommendation of "with distinction" by the thesis committee.
For topics not listed above, please consult the Graduate Student Handbook of the Department of Psychology, your program manual or the Psychology Graduate Program Assistant.