MA in General Psychology
This degree provides the student with a basic education in psychology and is a prerequisite for more specialized work leading to the PhD degree. Students must take courses covering a wide range of areas, including three courses in general psychology; three in personality, social, developmental, and abnormal psychology; and a research methods course. Students who intend to apply to the PhD program must also demonstrate knowledge of elementary statistics either by passing an exemption examination or passing the basic statistics course. Students must take the Proseminar course as soon as possible after admission to the program. MA students must satisfactorily complete thirty credits for graduation and obtain an average of at least 3.0. In addition, the first eighteen credits must be introductory courses; no advanced or seminar courses may be taken until eighteen credits have been completed.
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Research MA Program
This program is designed to give a small, select group of students an intensive research experience, working in apprenticeship to a member of the faculty. Students must have at least a 3.7 average in the first eighteen credits of course work at The New School for Social Research to be admitted to the program and must maintain this average. Application to the program occurs after finishing eighteen credits of coursework, and no later than completion of twenty-four credits. Students must work closely with a faculty member, write an empirical MA thesis, and defend the thesis in an oral examination. They are exempt from the research methods requirements for the MA and PhD. They are also exempt from part I of the PhD qualifying examination. A maximum of one and one-half years is allowed for the completion of the MA thesis.
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MA Concentration in Mental Health and Substance Abuse Counseling
In addition to providing a firm grounding in general psychology, this concentration provides students with the opportunity to acquire some early exposure to clinical material and to fulfill the academic eligibility requirements for the New York State Alcohol and Substance Abuse Counseling Certificate (CASAC) exam. The CMHSAC has been designed to utilize the existing strengths of the psychology program and to meet current and anticipated professional needs within the field of substance abuse, particularly in the areas of dual diagnosis, assessment, and program evaluation.

Students in the CMHSAC are required to take the following courses: Psychopathology I; Psychopathology II; Physiological Psychology; two courses in general psychology; and two courses in the areas of personality, social, and developmental psychology. Students are also required to take the three core substance abuse-related courses consisting of Psychopathology III, Introduction to Substance Abuse Counseling, and Advanced Issues in Substance Abuse Counseling.

The New York State Office of Substance Abuse Services (OASAS) has created a new certification category, CASAC trainee. The CASAC trainee certification is designed to serve as an intermediate level of certification for those individuals who have completed a specific portion of the overall CASAC requirements and intend to continue on to full certification. The certificate remains effective for a period of five years from the date that it is issued. During that time, CASAC trainees are expected to accumulate the paid work hours needed to become fully eligible for the CASAC exam. All trainees, however, are considered quality health professionals (QHPs) with respect to the mandated staffing mix of OASAS-licensed substance dependence programs and are thus immediately employable. One of the ways of becoming eligible for this designation is to complete the required and optional CASAC-relevant courses offered through the CMHSAC.

As in the case of the MA in general psychology, students in this MA program are required to satisfactorily complete thirty graduate credits for graduation and obtain a 3.0 average or higher. Students who wish to apply to the doctoral program must: (a) take a research methods course, (b) demonstrate an adequate knowledge of elementary statistics by either passing the exemption exam or passing the basic statistics course, and (c) complete a one-semester, no-credit proseminar.

Supervised clinical placements at the New School-Beth Israel Center for Clinical Training and Research are available to eligible students in the program. Although participation in such a placement is not required, hands-on clinical exposure, either at the New School-Beth Israel Center or at a comparable setting, is preferred and strongly encouraged.

Students are advised to consult with the student advisors and to review the CMHSAC student handbook before registering for any of the CMHSAC-related courses.
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PhD in Psychology
The Department of Psychology offers the PhD in psychology with specializations in either Clinical or Cognitive, Social & Developmental Psychology. The program requires sixty credits (including thirty MA credits), except in Clinical Psychology where the requirement is ninety credits (eighty credits if students are accepted into the Research MA track). Specific requirements for the PhD in clinical psychology are listed below.

Admission to the PhD Program
A student who enters the Department of Psychology is not automatically accepted for study toward the PhD degree. Separate admission into the PhD program must be obtained. All students new to The Department of Psychology begin their study with an application to the General Psychology MA program.

Students matriculated in the master's program at The New School for Social Research must formally request permission to continue study toward the PhD. They may apply for admission either to the General PhD program, the Clinical PhD program, or both. To be eligible to apply, students must complete the distribution requirements for the MA degree with an overall grade point average of at least 3.5 at the time of application, and they must have completed the one-semester, no-credit proseminar offered in the fall semester. In addition to filling out an application form that includes a personal statement and selecting a thesis advisor, students must apply to take the PhD qualifying examination, or have demonstrated sufficient progress on a research master's thesis.

Students with MA degrees in psychology from other universities may be eligible for “Advanced Standing” status in the New School MA program. Advanced Standing status is not automatically granted.  It is awarded at the discretion of the admission committee and reserved for students who have performed extremely well in their previous studies. Accepted students are informed of whether or not they will be admitted with Advanced Standing status prior to beginning the MA program. Once accepted, eligible students (see Psychology Department Handbook for specific eligibility requirements), may apply to enter the Clinical PhD or the Cognitive, Social & Developmental Psychology PhD programs after at least one semester of study here at the MA level, depending on how many of their credits transfer and assuming they have successfully completed requisite courses to meet eligibility for doctoral application. Students in this situation should consult the section “Advanced Standing” in this catalog for additional information.

Application to the PhD programs should be made when students are completing their first thirty credits (students must be scheduled to complete the MA program in the spring semester prior to beginning the PhD program). In order to advance to doctoral student status at the New School, students will have to pass a comprehensive examination (i.e., the first half of the PhD qualifying examination). Students who wish to pursue a PhD in clinical psychology must also pass a screening interview by the Clinical Psychology faculty, and complete all application requirements. Students who wish to pursue the PhD in both clinical and cognitive, social & developmental psychology must submit a statement of research plans. Requirements for admission to Clinical and General PhD status are detailed in the Psychology department Handbook. Students will be informed of the preliminary status of their applications before the PhD qualifying examination is administered: that is, whether they will be admitted provided they pass part I of the examination; admitted if space permits; or not admitted.

PhD Qualifying Examination I
The PhD Qualifying Examination I, which is given each year during the summer session, is a comprehensive essay examination. This examination includes history and systems and two minor areas, one of which must be experimental psychology. The other minor includes sections on social, personality, and developmental psychology.

Students are urged to take the Ph.D. Qualifying Examination I as soon as possible after having received permission to sit for the examination. In any case, they must sit for this examination no later than one year following this date. No more than forty credits may be taken before sitting for the PhD Qualifying Examination I. All students must pass the Ph.D Qualifying Examination I before proceeding to fulfill the other dissertation requirements described below.

The new Ph.D. Dissertation Requirements are applicable to all students who enter the Ph.D. program in or after September 2007. They replace the Ph.D. dissertation format and Major Ph.D. Qualifying Exam ( “Comps II”), required of Ph.D. students in both General and Clinical Psychology, prior to the 07/08 academic year.

All students who entered the Ph.D. program prior to September, 2007 have the option of either adopting the Dissertation Requirements described below or adopting the former requirements that involved completing the Major Ph.D. Qualifying Exam II ( “Comps II”) and the Ph.D. dissertation.

New Ph.D. Dissertation Requirements

Preliminary Dissertation Proposal and Defense

This replaces the Major Ph.D. Qualifying Exam or “Comps II”, which was required prior to the 07/08 academic year.

Students will write a short preliminary proposal for their doctoral dissertation research. This proposal should be no longer than 4-5 double spaced pages in length, and should not include a comprehensive literature review or extensive references – though it is assumed that these will have been consulted. It should, however, include a very brief literature review as well as basic overview of the study rationale, methodology, hypotheses, and planned analyses. This Preliminary Dissertation Proposal must be submitted be to the student’s dissertation chair and one other committee member in time for a Preliminary Proposal Defense (PPD).

The PPD will be attended by the student’s dissertation chair and by the second committee member. (The other committee members do not need to read the Preliminary Dissertation Proposal or be present at the PPD). The purpose of the PPD meeting is to provide students with feedback that will help them to refine their proposals for their Dissertation. Once a satisfactory outcome of this PPD has been achieved, the student is given permission to work toward preparing the full Dissertation Proposal.

Doctoral Dissertation Proposal and Defense

The student will work to expand and refine their Preliminary Dissertation Proposal into the Doctoral Dissertation Proposal.  The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal should include a literature review that provides a compelling rationale for the research, a methods section that includes a detailed description as well as justification for the procedures to be utilized, as well as a list of references.  The suggested length for the literature review is 6 to 10 pages.  No page length is suggested for the methods section but it should be as long as necessary to provide an adequate rationale for as well as detailed description of the methodology.  Any questionnaires or standardized scales to be utilized should appear as an Appendix to the Proposal.

The Doctoral Dissertation Proposal Defense will be scheduled with the requisite number of 3 departmental committee members and 1 Dean’s Rep.

Ph.D. Dissertation

The Ph.D. dissertation will consist of two separate, but related portions:

        Literature Review.  The first portion will consist of a stand alone literature review article that is submitted in a form that is potentially acceptable to a peer review journal. This article should be approximately 10,000 words or 25-30 (double-spaced) pages in length (including references), and will review theoretical and empirical research relevant to the topic on which the dissertation research focuses. The article should be written in APA format, and should be similar in nature and structure to a Psychological Bulletin article. It should be critical and synthetic in nature and written at a level of sophistication needed for submission to a good, peer review journal. This review article will be based, in part, on the student’s literature review for the dissertation proposal, but will be revised in light of his or her evolving thinking (as well as relevant new literature emerging), while the dissertation data are being collected.

        Empirical Article.  The second portion will consist of a stand alone empirical article that is written in a form that will be potentially acceptable to a peer review journal. This article should be approximately 10,000 words or 25-30 pages (double spaced) in length (including references), and should conform to APA format. Students should familiarize themselves with the types of articles that appear in quality journals relevant to their area of research, and use these as models when writing their dissertations.

Assistantships
A limited number of research and teaching assistantships are available in the department. Teaching assistantships are usually restricted to doctoral candidates.
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PhD Program in Clinical Psychology
Get more details on the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology.

Information for Transfer Students
A maximum of three graduate credits in psychology earned elsewhere are transferable toward the MA degree. Additional credits may be transferable upon completion of the master's degree at The New School for Social Research; and acceptance into a PhD program. A maximum of thirty graduate credits earned elsewhere, including any transferred to satisfy MA requirements at The New School for Social Research, may be transferred toward the PhD degree. The number of credits that will be accepted as transfer credits cannot be decided until the student petitions for advanced standing.

Students entering with a completed master's degree in psychology from another institution who are admitted to advanced MA standing (PhD-S status) may also apply for up to thirty transfer credits after acceptance into either PhD program.

In general students can expect to receive credit for courses comparable to those taught here. Those with graduate work in general psychology can expect a substantial amount of transfer credit. However, for those students with a master's degree in a related field, but not general psychology, a substantial transfer of credit is unlikely. Transfer credit will not be given for courses which the student has also taken here. Courses taken more than ten years ago, whether here or elsewhere, will not be accepted for transfer credit. The Psychology representative on the Committee on Admissions and Requirements or the Psychology department chair can make an estimate of how many credits may transfer, but this estimate is not binding on the department's final decision. Internship experience gained elsewhere is not transferable, nor are certain clinical training courses, e.g., Diagnostic Testing. The Clinical coordinator can provide more specific information about these courses.

All transfer students admitted under advanced MA status may be admitted to the General and Clinical PhD programs after completion of twelve credits at The New School for Social Research and after completing the PhD admissions process. The application requirements and deadlines are the same as for MA students: a 3.5 GPA in coursework at The New School for Social Research, an application with a personal statement, and passing part I of the PhD qualifying examination. Applicants to the PhD program in Clinical Psychology must also pass the Clinical screening interviews for admission into that program.
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