Research Training
In the Clinical Psychology Program at AU, research training is based on a mentorship model. Students are admitted to a specific core faculty member's lab, and that faculty member then serves as the student's advisor for the duration of his or her graduate training. Students often develop working relationships with the other student members of their lab; collaborating on projects, receiving advice from older students, and sharing experience and advice with younger students. Format of research supervision varies from advisor to advisor, but all mentors meet regularly with their students.
Per program requirements, all clinical students must complete coursework in psychological research and statistics as well as a master's thesis project and a doctoral dissertation, which must be defended orally to the projects' committees. Students present their master's thesis proposals to core faculty and the other clinical students at a "celebration of research" event at the end of their first year.
Many students exceed program research requirements by becoming active in professional organizations (such as the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, the American Evaluation Association, the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, etc.). They routinely attend and present their research findings at conferences, write book chapters, and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals. Below is a list of some selected recent first-author student publications, with all student authors in bold and core faculty members in italics:
Etu, S.F. & Gray, J. (2010). A preliminary investigation of the effect of induced rumination on state body image dissatisfaction and anxiety. Body Image, 7, 82-85.
Forand, N.R., Gunthert, K.C., German, R.E. & Wenze, S.J. (2010). Appearance investment and everyday interpersonal functioning: An experience sampling study. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34(3), 380-393.
Greenfield, M.F., Gunthert, K.C., & Haaga, D.A.F. (2011). Sudden gains versus gradual gains in a psychotherapy training clinic. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 67(1), 17-30.
Hood, S.K., & Carter, M.M. (2008). A preliminary examination of trauma history, locus of control, and PTSD symptom severity in African American women. The Journal of Black Psychology, 34(2), 179-191.
Huntley, E.D., & Juliano, L. M. (2011, December 12). Caffeine expectancy questionnaire (CaffEQ): Construction, psychometric properties, and associations with caffeine use, caffeine dependence, and other related variables. Psychological Assessment. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0026417.
Leddy, M.A., Haaga, D.A.F., Gray, J.J., & Schulkin J. (2011). Postpartum mental health screening and diagnosis by obstetrician-gynecologists. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics and Gynecology, 32(1), 27-34.
Luff, G.M., & Gray, J.J. (2009). Complex messages regarding a thin ideal appearing in teenage girls' magazines from 1956 to 2005. Body Image, 6(2), 133-136.
McDonald, D., O'Brien, J., Farr, E., & Haaga, D.A.F. (2010). Pilot study of inducing smoking cessation attempts by activating a sense of looming vulnerability. Addictive Behaviors, 35(6), 599-606.
Tanner, M., Travis, F., Gaylord-King, C., Haaga, D., Grosswald, S., & Schneider, R. (2009). The effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on mindfulness. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 65(6), 574-589.
Wenze, S.J., Gunthert, K.C., Forand, N.R., & Laurenceau, J.P. (2009). The influence of dysphoria on reactivity to naturalistic fluctuations in anger. Journal of Personality, 77, 795-824.