Master of Arts in Psychology
The study of psychology at the master's level can either provide the basis for further doctoral-level work or prepare students for immediate employment in a wide range of careers. Many students pursuing the Master of Arts degree in Psychology at American University go on to doctoral study in clinical and experimental psychology. Other graduates of the Department of Psychology are pursuing careers in related areas, including clinical-medical research, teaching, counseling and policy formulation, law enforcement, and government work. The low student-faculty ratio, small class size, and close supervision of student progress by individual faculty advisors provide students with a strong foundation for study in the field of psychology.
Internships and Cooperative Education
In the Master of Arts program, students can earn degree credit while obtaining practical experience by working with autistic children, teaching self-management skills, or working at one of the mental health facilities in the metropolitan area. Students can also gain experience in the pharmacological, cognitive, physiological, operant, social, personality, and clinical research areas of psychology. Depending on the student's area of specialization, specific on-site training is available in counseling and patient care, psychological testing, and research methodology.
Field work and short-term internships that provide training in applied areas of psychology are available in city, county, and private organizations, such as the Alexandria, Va., Community Mental Health Center programs; the Montgomery County, Md., Department of Addiction, Victim, and Mental Health Services; the District of Columbia Rape Crisis Center; Big Brothers; and patient care and rehabilitation programs of area hospitals.
The Psychology Department has a close working relationship with basic and applied research programs at the National Institutes of Health , where students can participate in programs on pain management, neuropsychological assessment, and brain mechanisms in learning and memory. Research opportunities are also available at the Georgetown University Hospital and School of Medicine , The Walter Reed Army Institutes of Research , and other area institutions.
Research Facilities
Psychology students have access to modern, computer-equipped laboratories to study animal learning, physiological psychology, behavioral pharmacology, human memory, and cognition, and to three additional laboratories devoted to research in personality, social, applied, and clinical psychology. Special research internships are often available at the National Institutes of Health, Children's Hospital, the National Zoo, St. Elizabeths Hospital, the Kennedy Institute, Johns Hopkins University and other area institutions.
The university's Bender Library and Learning Resources Center contains more than 600,000 volumes, 767,500 microforms, and 3,000 periodical titles. Students have unlimited book check-out privileges and access to on-line bibliographic search services. Since American University is a member of the Washington Research Library Consortium, enrollment in a degree program provides students with borrowing privileges and on-site use at six other college and university libraries in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. The university provides 12 computer laboratories and other local area networks to meet the computing needs of students and faculty.
The university provides all registered students with computing accounts and privileges at no additional charge. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides some computing services 24 hours per day, seven days per week, except for weekly scheduled maintenance every Monday during early morning hours. The computing center operates five laboratories that are open to the university community; another ten computing labs are located in the schools, colleges, and academic departments and are available to students registered in those academic units or programs. Both IBM and Macintosh computers are supported, and some Unix accounts are available through the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) provides campus-wide network services through EagleNet and operates an IBM 3090S mainframe computer running MVS and VM operating systems. Dial-in access to campus computing resources is also provided to members of the university community. Nearly two hundred software applications are available through EagleNet, the campus-wide network, including WordPerfect, Quattro Pro, Presentations, Paradox, SAS, SPSS, Photoshop, Netscape, and electronic mail. In addition, many Internet applications and services are available, such as Usenet newsgroups, electronic discussion lists (Listserv), file transfer (FTP), and the ALADIN online catalog of the Washington Research Library Consortium, of which American University is a member. EagleInfo is the university's campus-wide information system, where the university's World Wide Web home page can be found ( http://www.american.edu ), along with the home pages of many university offices and departments. Extensive training, documentation, and hotline services are available to orient computer users and provide technical support. For more information about the computing resources specific to your individual interests or program of study, please call the University Computing Center at (202) 885-2270.
Admission
Applicants to the M.A. program in Psychology must·
- have a bachelor's degree from a college or university;·
- submit two letters of recommendation with a completed application to the Office of Graduate Affairs and Admissions;·
- submit test scores on the general section of the Graduate Record Examination (GRE). (The subject GRE exam in psychology is not required for admission to MA programs in Psychology).
- We prefer that applicants have at least a 3.00 cumulative GPA (on a 4.00 scale) in the last 60 hours of undergraduate study and have some undergraduate training in psychology and an undergraduate course in statistics;
- Up to two graduate psychology courses may be transferred from other institutions; please consult the MA Program Director for details.
Psychology Department Course Offerings
The Psychology Department provides instruction in both the Social Science and Natural Science areas of Psychology, covering both substantive areas and research techniques. This allows a grouping of our courses that facilitates understanding the degree requirement. Here are the grouped lists of departmental courses.
Degree Requirements
Students in all tracks of the M.A. program must complete 33 semester hours of coursework. These must include a graduate-level statistics course (offered in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics) and PSYC-550 (listed in Group R above). In addition, students in all tracks must perform satisfactorily on the department's General Comprehensive Examination.
Requirements specific to particular tracks are listed below:
General Psychology
Students must complete at least 6 semester hours from courses in Group SS and at least 6 semester hours from Group NS. Students choosing to do an M.A. thesis project must complete 6 hours of PSYC-796 and PSYC-797 (in Group R). Students choosing not to do an M.A. thesis project must take 3 hours of PSYC-698 from Group R; these students will not receive credit for PSYC-796 or PSYC-797 from Group R.
Personality/Social Psychology
Students must complete at least 12 semester hours from courses in Group SS and 6 semester hours from courses in Group NS. In addition, students must complete an M.A. thesis project and 6 hours of PSYC-796 and PSYC-797 (in group R).
Experimental/Biological Psychology
Students must complete at least 12 semester hours from courses in Group NS and 6 semester hours from courses in group SS. In addition, students must complete an M.A. thesis project and 6 hours of PSYC-796 and PSYC-797 (in group R).
Students in all tracks join in the institutional life of the Psychology Department. There are student members on the many committees engaged in the department's self-governance. There are colloquium presentations by speakers from within and outside the department and informal gatherings of faculty and students on topics of psychological interest.
For more information:
Mailing Addresses & Telephone Numbers
321
Asbury Building (South Wing)
