Objectives and Requirements

Goals and Objectives | Typical Plan of Study

Goals and Objectives

Psychology is, first and foremost, a scientific discipline. Thus, the ultimate value of a practitioner's professional services depends upon adherence to an empirical orientation. Students are trained to appreciate empirically derived knowledge and to practice from that base of knowledge. They are taught to think of themselves as committed to using data-based approaches in the delivery of professional services. At the same time, it is recognized that issues emerge from professional practice drive research. Thus, the faculty educate practitioners who use scientific knowledge, as well as scientists who are aware of the problems which emerge in professional practice and who develop research studies from that knowledge.

The objectives of the faculty are to train psychologists who have multiple competencies.

• Objective 1. Students will possess a broad foundation of knowledge pertinent to the organismic, developmental, social and situational factors that are relevant to the initiation and maintenance of human behavior.
  Competency 1a: Students will demonstrate through papers, reports, examinations, theses and other written means, systematic knowledge in the following foundational areas: History of Psychology, Biological Bases of Behavior, the Development of Human Behavior, the Social, Cognitive and Affective Bases of Behavior, and the Manifestations and Development of Psychopathology.
  Competency 1b:  Students will demonstrate knowledge of the rules that govern professional standards and the APA ethical standards by applying the rules of ethical behavior in research and clinical practice.
  
  
• Objective 2. Students will be cognizant of individual and cultural diversity; they will appreciate its value; and they will possess the skills necessary to utilize their sensitivities within their professional lives.
  Competency 2a: Students will be able to identify when issues of diversity are present and implement effective strategies to deal with these issues during work with patients.
  
  
• Objective 3. Students will understand the necessity of lifelong learning by participating in activities which promote professional training and continued education after graduation.
  Competency 3a: Graduates will attend and participate in professional meetings, workshops, etc.
  Competency 3b: Graduates will continue with professional research and scholarship as evidenced by professional presentations and publications.

• Objective 1. Students will be able to assess the psychological functioning of individuals and to communicate their assessments to others.
  Competency 1a: Students will assess cognitive skills in the domains of intelligence, memory, academic ability, and perceptual-motor proficiency, and they will assess personality functioning, through both self-report and other-report inventories and through appropriate use of psychological assessment instruments and interviews.
  Competency 1b: Students will observe and evaluate behavior, and identify antecedents and consequences in behavior chains.
  Competency 1c: Students will be able to construct individual case formulations, diagnose clients, and recommend appropriate interventions.  They will also be competent in consulting with other professionals, communicating their professional judgments, queries and concerns, and justifying their conclusions.
  
  
• Objective 2. Students will understand and be able to apply the techniques of cognitive-behaviorally-oriented psychotherapy in a variety of settings.
  Competency 2a: Students will interpret and explain the principles and techniques of applied behavior analysis and cognitive-behavioral therapy, in both oral and written form.
  Competency 2b: Students will demonstrate competence in the use of interventions based on applied behavior analysis and cognitive behavior therapy.

• Objective 1. Students will understand research methods, design and conduct research studies, analyze data and competently evaluate research findings.
  Competency 1a:Students will develop hypotheses and design studies that appropriately and directly address a research question.  
  Competency 1b: Students will explain, analyze, and draw reasonable conclusions from data based upon the essential principles of descriptive, inferential statistics, univariate, and multivariate statistics. They will be able to communicate their analyses and conclusions to others in both oral and written form.
  Competency 1c: Students will interpret scientific literature, evaluate its significance and understand its contribution to existing knowledge.
  Competency 1d: Students will appreciate the value of disseminating knowledge to the scientific community and the general public.  

Skills are also developed in a graded manner in courses, on practica, and at internships. They are assessed in the classroom, through feedback from field supervisors, and on follow-up surveys sent to program graduates.

The majority of courses in the 105 credit Hofstra Ph.D. program are required, and are organized into three areas: a) basic content in psychology, b) data analysis and research design, c) professional practice: assessment and intervention. Twelve credits of electives allow for a degree of specialization, depending upon career aspirations. However, practical experience and research have shown a large overlap in the skills needed for success as a practicing professional psychologist and for work in university-based careers. For this reason we teach research, assessment, and intervention skills generically. We expect these skills will be modified and refined as students move on to postdoctoral training and/or to on-the-job experiences.

The Research Sequence

The research sequence begins during the first year when students take two semesters of statistics (Psychology 201 and 204) and continues during the fall of the second year when students take Research Design (Psychology 222). In Psychology 223, students working alone or in a small group initiate a research project and work with a faculty member who supervises it during the spring and summer of the second year. The materials in the statistics and research courses complement each other.

In addition to this formal sequence, students are encouraged to join faculty research programs during the first four semesters of the program. Some students may have been awarded research assistantships to work for various faculty.

Research studies are also reviewed in most of the other courses in the program. This gives the student an appreciation, not only of outcomes and current knowledge in the content of psychology, but also of the methodologies used in various content areas. Thus, students are well prepared for the Dissertation Sequence which begins in the spring semester of their third year.

The Dissertation Sequence consists of Psychology 601, 602, and 604. In Psychology 601 (Dissertation Seminar) students develop an idea and, following a discussion in class, present it to a faculty member for review. Once a faculty member has agreed to sponsor the project, students enroll in Psychology 602 (Dissertation Proposal Initiation). When the committee has signed the formal proposal, the student enrolls in Psychology 604 (Dissertation Completion), which culminates in the final oral examination.

Scientific and Professional Ethics and Standards

There is a required Ethics and a Professional Practices course which brings together all the recent material in the field for review. However, scientific and professional ethics and standards are discussed in almost every course, and particularly in the professional courses in relation to the activities in which the students are engaged. All students are expected to purchase and read relevant APA publications such as:

• Standards of Psychologists for Providers of Psychological Services
• Standards for Educational and Psychological Tests
• Principles in the Conduct of Research with Human Participants

The Professional Training Sequence

The professional training sequence consists of (a) assessment and diagnostic techniques and (b) psychotherapy and educational intervention techniques based upon cognitive-behavior therapy principles.

a) The Psychodiagnostic Sequence begins in the first year when students learn how to administer the Wechsler Scales of Intelligence, the Stanford-Binet, the Bender Gestalt Test and other tests of achievement and learning abilities. This course (Psychology 241) requires administration of tests, scoring of materials and writing of psychological reports. Students also learn how to administer Personality and Behavior measures such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 in Psychology 240, a course which also requires evaluation of protocols and test reports.

In addition to course experiences, all students do psychodiagnostic testing in Hofstra's PERCC Clinic with community clients, and are given individual supervision on these cases.

b) Learning how to do Cognitive-Behavioral Psychotherapy is a complex task. The skills are systematically introduced throughout the five years so that upon graduation, students are competent cognitive-behavior therapists.

During the first year, students take a course in Classical Concepts of Psychology (Psychology 209) which is intended to provide a philosophical and theoretical basis through a historical analysis of the foundations of modern Clinical & School Psychology. In Interviewing and Counseling (Psychology 227), students role-play various clinical problems and develop beginning listening and interviewing skills in behavioral and cognitive therapy. In the Human Development course (Psychology 212) and Childhood Psychopathology (Psychology 254) students learn about and work with children to develop skills.

During the second year, students take courses in Behavior Analysis in Professional Psychology (Psychology 261) and Individual Behavior Therapy,(Psychology 229). This year long sequence teaches students a wide range of behavioral and cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy techniques. Simultaneous with the previous sequence, students take Psychology 228, Psychopathology I: Clinical Psychopathology, where they learn about the etiology and classification of mental disorders.

The externship sequence, PSY 371-374, is numbered to represent a time frame which all doctoral students must follow. Typically this sequence will begin in the summer/fall of a student s 3rd year and end in the spring/summer of the 4th year. In order to qualify for national internships, applicants are expected to have amassed a minimum of 1800 hours of practicum experience. Most applicants have been averaging closer to 2000 hours or the equivalent of 1 full year of experience according to the Association for Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers.

Extern training is practicum geared toward reinforcing clinician skills learned in the classroom and on-campus clinic settings. Settings require the extern to perform tasks such as intakes, assessments, diagnosis, report writing, recommendations, as well as individual, couples, family and group psychotherapy. Placements settings may include mental health clinics, hospitals, university counseling centers, institutes, behavioral medicine and rehabilitation facilities, schools, and other related facilities. Independent behavior and cognitive-behavior therapy sessions with child and adult clients are encouraged.

An important additional aspect of externship training is that it allows the student therapist the opportunity to begin to develop specializations in their practice of clinical psychology. Some therapists prefer to work with specific developmental age ranges of patients (e.g- children or geriatrics) while others seek out settings geared to particular ethnic or economic strata. Some seek settings based upon a particular therapeutic modality such as rational-emotive behavior therapy or exposure therapy. Others focus upon specific diagnostic categories of disorder to work with. All of these factors come into play when externships are sought and chosen.

To fulfill requirements, externs are expected to work weekly from 16 to 24 hours. Exposure to various kinds of psychological problems and a variety of cultural and socioeconomic groups is sought. It is expected that the externs participate in a number of cases involving individual psychotherapy, supervised by doctoral level psychologists. Group and family therapy experience may supplement the extern s involvement in conducting individual psychotherapy.

The internship sequence, PSY 500 - PSY 501, will begin in the summer/fall of a student’s 5th, 6th or 7th year. As an intern the student is to serve in the role of a fully integrated staff member at an appropriate agency. The Psychology internship is an organized training program which is designed to provide the intern with a planned, programmed sequence of training experiences to assure breadth and quality of training specifically in a range of psychological assessment and intervention activities conducted directly with recipients of psychological services. Typical clinical psychology internship settings consist of community mental health centers, hospitals, registered training institutes, medical school consortiums, university based counseling centers, etc. The internship experience (minimum 1800 hours) must be completed in no less than 10 months and no more than 24 months though typically it will occur during a single calendar year.

Basic Content Areas

An appreciation of the breadth of scientific psychology emerges from the basic content area courses. The following courses help students appreciate the history of the field and the basic areas under psychological investigation. Although there may be practica associated with a particular course, there is a clear expectation that students will master a basic body of knowledge.