Learn More and ApplyResearch Psychology (MS)

Menu

CSH 2024 Psychology
 

This program offers a terminal Master of Science degree which serves as a foundation for students interested in pursuing doctoral training. It also provides students with the basic knowledge and skills appropriate for a range of occupations in business, government, and human services (excluding the provision of clinical services).The master's program has two goals. The first is to provide the student with sufficient breadth in the methodology and content of psychology to demonstrate competence in two major areas:(1) Core areas of the discipline of psychology; and (2) Methods of the discipline of psychology. A second goal of the program is to provide the student with sufficient information and skills to apply the knowledge of the discipline competently in their daily lives and careers. This includes course work in the theory and techniques of the application of psychological principles, and also includes a thorough grounding in ethical and professional standards of psychologists. Although the program builds upon a core of basic courses, it provides some flexibility for students (with the approval of their advisors) to shape their course of study to fit special interests and needs.

Program Requirements Quarter Hours
Core Requirements 36
Elective Requirements 12
Total hours required 48
 
 

Learning Outcomes

​Students will be able to:

  • Identify major theoretical concepts in psychology, trace their historical development, and integrate theory, research, and domain-specific knowledge to explain and interpret how the field of psychology currently advances knowledge.
  • Critique and synthesize theoretical and empirical articles from peer-reviewed scholarly journals in terms of theory, methods, data analyses, and conclusions in order to compose novel perspectives and ideas.
  • Develop testable research questions, identify the 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 psychology.
  • 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.

MS Degree Requirements

Course Requirements

​Students must complete at least 48 quarter hours and maintain a cumulative GPA of at least 3.00.

Core Courses

Course Title Quarter Hours
PSY 406PHYSIOLOGICAL PROCESSES4
PSY 410ADVANCED STATISTICS I4
PSY 411ADVANCED STATISTICS II4
PSY 420QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH DESIGN4
Select one of the following:4
COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Select one of the following:4
PERCEPTION AND COGNITION
LANGUAGE AND COGNITION
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUDGMENT AND DECISION-MAKING
Select one of the following:4
SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF THE SELF
SPECIAL SEMINAR IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
PREJUDICE AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS
SOCIAL COGNITION

Diversity Core Courses

Course Title Quarter Hours
Select one of the following:4
PRINCIPLES OF HUMAN DIVERSITY
PSYCHOLOGY OF THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN CHILD
ADVANCED PSYCHOLOGY OF WOMEN AND GENDER
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
PREJUDICE AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS

Graduate Capstone

Course Title Quarter Hours
Select one of the following:4
MASTER'S THESIS RESEARCH (empirical only)
DIRECTED RESEARCH (empirical only)

Sample Psychology Elective Courses 

Course Title Quarter Hours
Select three of the following:12
METHODS IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
MULTIVARIATE STATISTICAL ANALYSIS
FACTOR ANALYSIS AND STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODELING
COMPUTING FOR THE BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST
SPECIAL SEMINAR IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
PSYCHOLOGY OF WORK AND MOTIVATION
PSYCHOLOGY OF LEADERSHIP
PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY
PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL AND PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONS
CONCEPTS, METHODS, AND ETHICS FOR INDUSTRIAL-ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
ETHICS & HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY SEMINAR
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF JUDGMENT AND DECISION-MAKING
ADVANCED PSYCHOPATHOLOGY
PSYCHOPATHOLOGY OF THE CHILD
TREATMENT METHODS WITH CHILDREN
PRINCIPLES OF CONSULTATION
ADVANCED COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY
HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY
EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT
SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
PREJUDICE AND INTERGROUP RELATIONS
SEMINAR IN ADVANCED STATISTICS
SEMINAR IN INDUSTRIAL-ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
SOCIAL COGNITION
INDUSTRIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY

With the permission of the Program Director, students may be able to substitute other psychology or non-psychology courses for the diversity and elective requirements detailed above.

Additional Requirements

In addition, program requirements include two options for demonstrating successful completion of the program: 1) a traditional master's thesis involving an empirical study; or 2) a research study or program evaluation “Capstone” project based on the student's internship or employment experience. Upon completion of coursework, students are required to maintain active student registration status until graduation. 

​​Time Limitation

All degree requirements must be successfully completed within a maximum period of five years.

Program Graduate Academic Student Handbook

The content on this page is shared from another website. If you are seeing this message, the referring website is not available or is experiencing technical difficulties.

Minimum Grades

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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 3.00. 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 it up to the minimum.

Academic Dismissal

If the student does not raise their cumulative GPA to at least a 3.00 after one quarter of coursework while on academic probation, the student will be academically dismissed from the program. If the student’s cumulative GPA falls below the minimum a second time, they will be academically dismissed from the program without a second academic probationary period.​

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, lack of progress towards degree completion, and/or unsatisfactory evaluation could result in dismissal. See individual program policies for more details. ​

Graduation with Distinction for MS​

The criteria for graduating "with distinction" are a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.75 and the recommendation of "with distinction" by the thesis committee.

Time Limitation

Students must complete their degree requirements within a five-year period from the first registration date for a course in the program.​​​​​​​​