Section 2: Program Curriculum

Research Training

The clinical psychology doctoral program operates on the proposition that research training is an integral part of the education of clinical psychologists. Although the program admits only those who expect to receive a Ph.D., each student who enters at the bachelor’s degree level is expected to complete an empirical master’s thesis while en route to the doctoral dissertation. In addition to the master’s thesis and doctoral dissertation, clinical students are expected to be involved in research activity under the direction of their faculty advisor during each semester in residence. Most of the program faculty have research labs/teams that meet on a weekly or bi- weekly basis. These research teams are usually centered on the interests of the faculty member (or members) and provide students with a wider array of research experience than their own independent projects alone.

Clinical Training

Exposure to professional clinical activities begins in the fall semester of the second year of graduate training and continues through the completion of the clinical internship. To provide broad clinical training for students, the Department of Psychology offers a variety of clinical experiences. The WSU Psychology Clinic in the Department of Psychology is staffed by faculty and clinical graduate students and provides assessment, diagnostic, and psychotherapy services to university faculty, staff, and students as well as referrals from the community.

WSU’s Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) is staffed by clinical psychology graduate students, interns, postdocs, faculty psychologists, and other mental health professionals. CAPS provides ongoing counseling and emergency services to students. At WSU’s Health and Wellness Services (HWS), students can find assistance through the Behavior Health program—including Same Day Mental Health (SDMH)—which is staffed by clinical psychology graduate students, physicians, psychologists, and psychiatrists.

Interest Areas

The clinical psychology doctoral program is committed to providing broad clinical training. Students thus receive training in a wide range of areas during their four to five years on campus prior to the 12-month internship in the fifth or sixth year. The program does, however, have several interest areas in which students can receive in-depth research and clinical training. These interest areas center on the research and clinical interests of the faculty. Not all of the faculty listed below chair dissertations, but they are available to serve on committees, to collaborate on research, or for other training activities. The specific interest areas are noted below. We believe the program’s designated interest areas allow students the opportunity to develop competencies specific to their area of interest before applying to internship, thus maximizing their potential for a suitable internship match.

Adult Psychopathology Interest Area

This interest area provides students with research training in the general area of adult psychopathology. In addition to research opportunities in this area, clinical opportunities exist in the WSU Psychology Clinic and at Counseling and Psychological Services as well as other external training sites.

Pullman clinical faculty associated with this area:

• David Marcus, PhD
  • Interim Chair, Department of Psychology
  • Areas: Psychopathy and related traits, psychotherapy research, taxometrics,
• Walter Scott, PhD
  • Interim Director of Clinical Training and WSU Psychology Clinic Director
  • Areas: Social cognitive approaches to personality/psychopathology, applying personality science to personality assessment, self-regulation and depression.
• Conny Kirchhoff, PhD
  • WSU Psychology Clinic Associate Director
  • Areas: Temperament and personality factors across cultures and lifespan, and how these relate to psychopathology; personality assessment.

Regional campus clinical faculty associated with this area:

(no one at this time)

Clinical Health and Primary Care Psychology Interest Area

This area provides students with training opportunities in clinical health psychology and primary care psychology. Initial clinical training in health psychology occurs at the Behavioral Health service at WSU’s Health and Wellness Services. The Behavioral Health service responds to referrals from university physicians. Typical referrals include headache, gastrointestinal disorders, sleep disorders, and pain syndromes. Students also provide same day consultation/intervention services (Same Day Mental Health; SDMH), in addition to follow-up, for patients with a range of psychological issues who present within a primary care setting vs. a specialty mental health setting. Typical problems include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance-related harm/substance use disorder, and facilitating the adoption of healthy behaviors. Additional opportunities for training include providing psychological services to the inpatient medical and surgical, obstetrics, and cardiopulmonary rehabilitation departments at Pullman Regional Hospital as well as to the Marimn Health Center, a medical clinic located on the Coeur d’Alene tribal reservation. Advanced training in these areas is also available within a local hospital-based clinical health psychology practice and within a large local medical practice (Palouse Medical). In addition to clinical training experiences, students may be involved in research in health psychology with the faculty as well as conducting their master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation research in this area.

Pullman clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Christine So, PhD
  • Areas: Behavioral sleep medicine, mechanisms underlying trauma-related sleep disturbances, disrupted sleep as risk factors for psychopathology, sleep neurobiology, sleep health disparities

Regional campus clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Jess Fales, PhD (Vancouver Campus)
  • Areas: Research interests include Psychosocial risk and protective factors for youth with chronic pain; individual and family based cognitive-behavioral interventions for pain, and the impact of persistent pain on social development and functioning in adolescence.

Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Interest Area

This area provides students with research and clinical opportunities in the areas of clinical/ developmental, child and adolescent clinical psychology as well as pediatric psychology.

Pullman clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Christopher Barry, PhD
  • Areas: Risk and protective factors related to child conduct problems and adolescent delinquency; self-esteem, narcissism, and psychopathy in children and adolescents.
• Tammy Barry, PhD
  • Areas: Child clinical psychology, child neuropsychology, child externalizing behaviors, aggression, autism, and ADHD.
• G. Leonard Burns, PhD
  • Areas: Cognitive Disengagement Syndrome within and across cultures, psychometrics, and latent variable models of psychopathology.
• Chang Liu, PhD
  • Areas: Maternal-child health inequities, child social-emotional development, developmental psychopathology and childhood obesity, as well as research methods (e.g., Dynamic system and behavioral genetics computational approaches).

Regional campus clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Paul Strand, PhD (Tri-Cities campus)
  • Areas: School readiness and social skills development of children from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds; how shyness, social values, and emotion understanding relate to social skills development and school engagement; verbal processes that emerge in cultural context and guide behavior, such as relational framing skills, social values, and religious practices.

Neuropsychology Interest Area

This area provides students with training opportunities primarily in adult neuropsychology. Students receive course training in the foundations of neuropsychological assessment, neurobehavioral syndromes, neuroanatomy, cognitive psychology, and the neurosciences. Primary clinical training in neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation occurs through the assessment services at the WSU Psychology Clinic and through externship placements at sites such as St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Institute and Spokane VA Medical Center. Through these experiences, students are provided with a breadth of training in diagnostic, assessment, and rehabilitation issues in neuropsychology. These sites also provide students with the opportunity for exposure to neuroimaging, forensic issues, and case conferencing. Referrals range from childhood neurodevelopmental disorders to dementia and involve inpatient and outpatient settings. Additional in-depth knowledge of clinical and research practices are gained through involvement in research projects, including master’s thesis/doctoral dissertation work, in the area of neuropsychology.

Pullman clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe, PhD
  • Areas: Adult neuropsychology; memory and executive abilities; ecological validity and everyday functioning; cognitive rehabilitation and use of smart technologies with aging and cognitively impaired populations (e.g., MCI, dementia, PD, TBI).
• Tammy Barry, PhD
  • (Listed above in child/adolescent area) also conducts research in child neuropsychology.

Regional campus clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Naomi Chaytor, PhD (Spokane campus)
• Areas: Adult neuropsychology; cognition and diabetes; ecological validity; medical self- management; depression in neurological disorders.

Other clinical training faculty (neuropsychologists) associated with this area:

• Chad Sanders, PhD
  • Psychologist, Pullman Behavioral Health
  • Areas: Executive functioning & aging issues, traumatic brain injury, ADHD, neuropsychological evaluations.
• Melissa Swanson, PhD (Spokane VAMC)
  • Areas: Medical neuropsychology, malingering, forensic neuropsychology, traumatic brain injury, dementia, cerebrovascular disorders and psychiatric conditions.
• Alicia Hegie, PhD, St. Luke’s Rehabilitation Medical Center, Spokane  
  • Clinical Neuropsychologist, Board Certified Rehabilitation Psychologist
  • Areas: Rehabilitation neuropsychology.
• Danielle Wald, PsyD Providence Spokane Neuroscience Institute
  • Areas: Movement disorders and seizure disorders

Pullman experimental faculty associated with this area:

• Lisa Fournier, PhD: Attention, perception, and action.
• Paul Whitney, PhD: Cognitive neuroscience and working memory.

Substance Use Interest Area

There is considerable research activity in this area by the program faculty as well as those affiliated with our program. These faculty also provide students with training opportunities, offering workshops and presenting at program meetings.

Affiliated faculty associated with this area:

• Carrie Cuttler, PhD: (Experimental Program), Health and Cognition Lab
• Areas: Research focuses on elucidating the potentially beneficial and detrimental effects of chronic cannabis use and acute cannabis intoxication; links between cannabis use and mental health (E.G, depression, anxiety, OCD) physical health (E.G., pain, sleep), stress and cognition (E.G, memory, decision-making, executive functioning, creativity, attention).

Regional campus clinical faculty associated with this area:

• Benjamin Ladd, PhD: (Vancouver Campus)
  • Areas: Research interests focus on improving prevention and early intervention techniques for promoting and motivating health behavior change, with an emphasis on process research with the goal of better understanding and identifying effective elements of therapeutic interventions, particularly Motivational Interviewing; additional interests related to risks and/or benefits of cannabis use across various populations.
• Susan Collins, PhD: (Affiliated Faculty; Codirector, Harm Reduction Research and Treatment (HaRRT) Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Washington School of Medicine)
  • Areas: The use of harm reduction interventions for people who use substance, conducting community-based participatory research working with multidisciplinary research and clinical teams, community-based agencies, and people who use substances to codevelop, evaluate and implement interventions that aim to reduce substance-related harm and improve quality of life for people who use substances and their communities.

Diversity Interest Area

• Hsin-Ya Liao, PhD
  • Areas: Culture, diversity, and intergroup relations, cross-cultural assessment, stigma and help-seeking across cultures and vocational interests.

A majority of the core clinical and affiliated faculty also have strong diversity interests, in addition to the other areas of research already mentioned. Please see the Diversity and Clinical Psychology link on the Clinical Psychology Program web page for a description of their interests and training opportunities.

Advanced Quantitative Methods in Psychology Interest Area

The curriculum in the Department of Psychology at Washington State University provides students with the opportunity to acquire skills in advanced quantitative methods. In addition to the three courses that all clinical psychology graduate students are required to take (i.e., Analysis of Variance and Experimental Design (PSYCH 511); Correlation, Regression, and Quasi- Experimental Design (PSYCH 512); and Psychometrics (Measurement theory and confirmatory factor analysis, PSYCH 514) clinical psychology graduate students also have the opportunity to take one additional course within psychology. This course is Applied Structural Equation Modeling (path analysis, structural regression analysis; latent growth curve analysis; latent- state trait models, and multilevel analysis; PSCYH 516). Additional advanced quantitate courses are available in the doctoral programs in Educational Psychology and Prevention Science. Students can also earn a Certificate in Applied Measurement and Quantitative Methods (e.g., quantitative minor). Students apply the skills learned in this sequence of courses to their particular research interests. The goal of this training is to prepare students for research careers. Applicants should contact Dr. Burns and/or Dr. French (Professor and Director of Learning and Performance Research Center, Psychometric Laboratory; frenchb@wsu.edu) if they have questions about the courses or the certificate.

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Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program Curriculum Requirements

The courses required for the clinical program are noted below. Elective courses are listed as well. This curriculum was developed to be consistent with our training model to meet APA accreditation requirements under the Standards of Accreditation (SoA). Although it meets the licensure requirements for most state psychology boards, there is no guarantee that it will meet the requirements for all states. Information about specific licensure requirements by state may be found at the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) website.

Curriculum

Skills Courses

• PSYCH 517: Clinical Skills (1-hour course; 2 semesters) – Required
• PSYCH 505: Teaching Introductory Psychology – Required before teaching
• PSYCH 510: Introduction to Online Instruction – Required before teaching Global Campus courses

History and Systems of Psychology

• PSYCH 504: History of Psychology: Theoretical and Scientific Foundations – Required (but may possibly be met if previously taken at the undergraduate level)

Research Methodology and Techniques of Data Analysis

• PSYCH 511: Analysis of Variance and Experimental Design – Required
• PSYCH 512: Correlation, Regression, and Quasi-Experimental Design – Required
• PSYCH 516:  Applied Structural Equation Modeling with Current Software – Elective

Social Aspects of Behavior

• PSYCH 550:  Social Psychology – Required

Biological Aspects of Behavior

• PSYCH 575: Foundations of Neuropsychology – Required (this course also meets the Advanced Integrative Knowledge of Basic Discipline-Specific Content requirement)
• PSYCH 574: Clinical and Experimental Biopsychology – Elective
• Note: Students with interests in clinical neuropsychology should take PSYCH 574 and PSYCH 575.

Cognitive and Affective Aspects of Behavior

• PSYCH 592: Cognition and Affective Basis of Behavior – Required
  • Students have to earn a B- or better on the cognitive and the affective components of the course (graded separately) respectively

Developmental Aspects of Behavior

• PSYCH 518: Lifespan Developmental Psychology – Required

Professional Standards and Ethics

• PSYCH 530: Professional, Ethical, and Legal Issues – Required

Individual Differences in Behavior

• PSYCH 533: Adult Psychopathology – Required

Measurement Theory and Individual Assessment

• PSYCH 535: Personality Assessment and Diagnosis – Required
• PSYCH 539: Cognitive and Neuropsychological Assessment – Required
• PSYCH 514:  Psychometrics – Required

Diversity Issues in Psychology

• PSYCH 552: Diversity Issues in Psychology – Required

Individual and Group Intervention

• PSYCH 520: Adult Psychotherapy – Required
• PSYCH 543: Developmental Psychopathology and Evidence-Based Assessment for Children – Required
• PSYCH 542: Evidence-Based Therapy for Children and Adolescents – Elective (expected for students interested in clinical child and adolescent psychology)
• PSYCH 544: Clinical Health and Primary Care Psychology – Elective

Clinical Practica (18 credits minimum required)

• PSYCH 546: Counseling and Psychological Services Practicum (6 credits)
• PSYCH 537: Psychology Clinic Assessment Practicum (6 credits)
• PSYCH 545: Psychology Clinic Assessment and Psychotherapy Practicum (6 credits)

Clinical Externship

• PSYCH 548: Clinical Externship

Note: If students are involved in clinical work at a practicum other than the WSU Psychology Clinic or WSU Counseling and Psychological Services, then students need to register for PSYCH 548. The DCT will advise on practicum/externship registration. Most students complete two practica placements each semester, as well as practicum during the summer months (course enrollment not required during summer), to obtain the necessary hours for their internship applications. Students must be involved in a minimum of one practicum placement each semester in the program at the start of the second year.

Independent Study

• PSYCH 600: Independent Study

Note: You may sign up for 600 credits when you are working on research projects with a faculty member.

Thesis

• PSYCH 700: Master’s Research, Thesis, and/or Examination

Note: You need a minimum of 4 credits of PSYCH 700. You must sign up for a minimum of 1 credit each semester until the master’s thesis is completed and 2 credits in the semester you have the final defense of the master’s thesis. Also, please note that the number of credits that you list on your program of study will be the number the Graduate School will require you to take; thus, the department recommends listing only 4 credits on your Program of Study to avoid complications. Students who enter the program with a master’s degree but who did not have an approved empirical master’s thesis must register for PSYCH 700 and complete a master’s thesis at WSU (and will obtain a second master’s degree en route to the Ph.D.). Because PSYCH 700 course requirements involve activities in the Major Professor’s lab beyond the individual student’s Master’s project, a related contract outlining these additional responsibilities is developed by the Major Professor and reviewed with the student every semester (See Appendix B for an example contract).

Dissertation

• PSYCH 800: Doctoral Research, Dissertation, and/or Examination

Note: You need a minimum of 20 credits of PSYCH 800 and should begin accumulating these credits after completing your master’s thesis. You do not need to complete your preliminary examination before registering for PSYCH 800 credits. After completing your master’s thesis, you must sign up for a minimum of 1 credit of PSYCH 800 each semester until the dissertation is completed. Because PSYCH 800 course requirements involve activities in the Major Professor’s lab beyond the individual student’s Master’s project, a related contract outlining these additional responsibilities is developed by the Major Professor and reviewed with the student every semester (See Appendix B for an example contract).

Clinical Internship

• PSYCH 595: Clinical Internship in Psychology

Note: You will enroll in two credits of PSYCH 595 during the spring semester prior to the start of the internship year. To reduce the number of credits required and for which you must pay over the internship year, a grade of X will be assigned for the course until you complete the internship. You should file the internship leave approval form the semester before leaving for internship (search the Graduate School Forms website). Enrolling in the spring and completing the leave form will allow you to waive student service fees during the year you are on internship. Once internship is successfully completed, a change of grade form will be submitted to change the PSYCH 595 grade from X to S (satisfactory, or pass).

Clinical Program Meeting Requirement

Clinical psychology doctoral program students are required to attend a clinical program meeting held on Wednesdays 5:00-6:00 p.m. on most weeks during the academic year. These meetings will cover program business involving all students, internship application preparation, didactic presentations from program faculty and outside guest speakers, and other relevant topics. Each year, two of these didactic presentations will involve a supervision topic and one will involve a consultation topic. Thus, students will participate in a total of 15 didactics on supervision (10 topics) and consultation (5 topics) during their time in the program (5 years). A quiz to assess knowledge will be administered following the supervision and consultation didactics and will supplement the supervision and consultation experiences obtained through other coursework and practicum experiences. Finally, clinical case conference presentations will be presented by advanced students during the clinical program meeting time

In recent years these meetings have been held over zoom.  Students are expected to be fully attentive during these meetings and not to multitask (e.g., you should not be driving during the meeting). If at all possible, you should have your camera on throughout the meeting as a courtesy to the presenters, including your classmates.

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Course Scheduling

Please remember that not all graduate courses are offered every semester. Furthermore, personnel changes and other scheduling considerations sometimes require modifications to the timetable of classes. It is important that you consult with your faculty advisor (major professor) to plan a schedule that will satisfy your program of study. Your major professor and you should consult with the DCT regarding questions/decisions about your course sequencing.

Please respond promptly to feedback from your major professor and the DCT about your course schedule. Please ensure that you register for classes promptly and as advised. Failure to do so could cause problems with your tuition waiver, financial aid, or graduate student status at the Graduate School.

Please note that the minimum number of hours for full-time graduate students on an assistantship for fall and spring semesters is 10 credit hours per semester, whereas the maximum number of hours for full-time graduate study is 18 credit hours. Thus, you should be registered for 10 to 18 hours in each fall and spring semester that you are on a paid assistantship, which is mandatory for tuition waivers to be applied. As long as you are registered for a minimum of 10 graduate hours, you may have additional undergraduate hours (up to 18 total hours for graduate plus undergraduate), which would be covered by the tuition waiver. Due to tuition waiver limitations, students do not typically register for courses in the summer.

Students can refer to the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program General Five-Year Course Plan (Appendix C) for general information about course sequencing and a sample plan to complete of the program in five to six years (five in residence plus internship is typical).

Course Grade Expectations and Consequences

Only grades of B- or higher are considered acceptable for graduate courses in the clinical psychology doctoral program at WSU. A grade of C+ or lower is considered failing and will result in a formal warning letter from the DCT. The CTC will develop a remediation plan to facilitate future success, and the student will be required to retake the course and earn at least a B-.

Students must also maintain a GPA of 3.0 or better to remain in good standing with the Graduate School (see Graduate School policies and procedures). A graduate student who has completed their first semester of graduate study and earns a GPA between 2.75 and 2.99 is eligible for one additional semester of continued enrollment on a probationary status. Upon completion of the probationary semester, and thereafter until graduation, a minimum of a 3.0 cumulative GPA is required to continue in Graduate School. Thereafter, any cumulative GPA below 3.0 after the first semester will result in the student’s dismissal from the Graduate School and thus the program. Practicum courses are graded S (satisfactory) or F (fail). A failure in practicum is considered extraordinarily problematic and will likely result in the termination of clinical training.

Academic Advising

Although the DCT provides guidance on course enrollment, your major professor is your formal academic advisor and mentor as well as your thesis and/or dissertation chair. In those rare cases in which a student wishes to identify a new major professor, the student should first discuss this change with both the current and prospective mentor (See Major Professor section for additional information). The student must next notify the DCT in writing. The DCT will contact the current and proposed major professor to confirm the proposed change in mentors and will then notify the CTC of this change.

In rare cases, non-clinical faculty members have directed clinical psychology students’ theses and dissertations. If you select a non-clinical faculty member as your thesis or dissertation director, the DCT will appoint a clinical faculty member, typically one who is a member of your thesis or dissertation committee, to serve in the capacity as your clinical psychology program advisor or the DCT will serve in this capacity.

Important: As stated before and reiterated here due to the importance of this policy, students should obtain approval from their major professor before volunteering for additional work in another professor’s lab to ensure that they do not become too overloaded and are staying on track for their independent research projects.

Transfer of Graduate Courses from Other Institutions

Students who enter the program with a master’s degree should consult with the DCT regarding which of their previous non-clinical courses (e.g., statistics, social, developmental, history, physiological) may transfer into their Program of Study. To be evaluated as equivalent, a syllabus is required for each non-clinical course that you may transfer and you must have received at least a B- in the course. Clinical students are required to retake the clinical psychology courses. The Graduate School will not accept coursework dated beyond 10 years of receipt of the degree. Therefore, only courses that would still be within 10 years of the student’s anticipated graduation date would be considered.

Master’s Degree En Route to the Doctorate

A master’s degree is required en route toward the doctorate. If you enter the clinical psychology program with only a baccalaureate degree, you must complete a master’s degree, with thesis, at WSU. If you enter with a research-oriented master’s degree, with thesis, from another department of psychology, you are expected to provide a copy of the thesis to the DCT early during the Fall semester of the first year. The DCT will appoint two readers for your thesis (typically one of the readers is your major professor). The two readers will advise the CTC after reviewing your thesis. If the CTC determines that your master’s thesis meets the research criteria normally expected of master’s theses conducted by clinical psychology students at WSU, you will not be required to earn a master’s degree at WSU. To be judged acceptable, theses from other institutions must:

• Address a topic that fits within the realm of psychology, broadly defined,
• Report the findings from an empirical study (e.g., theoretical papers and literature reviews are not acceptable, although meta-analyses may be acceptable), and
• Be judged to be of equivalent quality as the theses conducted by students in the WSU Clinical Program. If the CTC determines that your master’s thesis does not meet the standard for thesis projects in the clinical psychology training program, you will be required to complete a thesis for the program, and you would earn a subsequent M.S. degree from WSU.

Graduate Minor

No minor field is required in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at WSU. You must have prior approval from the CTC to take graduate courses in another department at WSU or to have it apply toward your degree.