Psychology, M.A.

Program Description

The Master of Arts degree in Psychology offered by the Psychology Department and is accredited by the Council for Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychologies.  It is a unique psychology program in that it has a broadly humanistic orientation, with roots in phenomenological and existential thought, but is closely related to transpersonal approaches.  This leads to a holistic view on human beingness, which acknowledges particularly subjective and spiritual experiences.  Our students will develop self-awareness, critical and creative thinking, and sensitivities to cultural, interpersonal, and dialogical processes as well as social injustices.  Graduates have found these capacities valuable in a variety of contexts, including further graduate study, teaching, social service, public and private sector organizations, and community intervention.  We value self-inquiry and academic rigor, thus we urge self-reflection and radical personal exploration as well as sustained research and scholarship.

Admission

Applicants for graduate study in psychology are required to have an interview as part of the admission process. Considering the humanistic orientation of this program, the potential for self-awareness, exploratory research, and some knowledge of the humanistic tradition in psychology is given considerable weight in selection of applicants and program planning.

Also, to be admitted as a student to the MA program in psychology, we require a minimum GPA of 2.5 and GRE Quantitative score of 140 and a Verbal score of 146.

Program Requirements

There are two options to complete requirements toward graduation:

Under Option I, students must complete a minimum of 33 hours of course work plus an acceptable original thesis. Thesis will result in a minimum of 3 additional hours for a total of at least 36 credit hours. Up to 9 hours of course work can be taken in graduate courses in departments other than psychology without special permission.

Under Option II, students must complete a total of 45 hours of course work. Up to 12 hours can be taken in graduate courses in departments other than psychology without special permission.

Under both options, students must pass an oral comprehensive exam based on course work and individual research or projects developed over the student’s course of study.  This requirement is fulfilled under Option I through the student’s oral defense of their thesis.  Under Option II, a student must submit a written document as directed by their committee.

 

Thesis Proposal

The nature of the dissertation proposal will reflect the type of thesis undertaken by the student as approved by the thesis Chair.

Thesis Defense

Following approval of the masters thesis by the thesis committee, the student will give an oral presentation followed by a question-and-answer period led by the student’s advisor. The thesis defense is open to the public.

 

There are two required courses: PSYC 6000 - Foundations of Humanistic Psychology , and PSYC 6010 - Human Growth and Potential . All other courses are elective, giving student s the freedom and responsibility to develop their own plans of study.  Ideally, a student’s individualized plan is developed in collaboration with a faculty mentor.  We do not assign students to mentors but encourage students to invite faculty members to serve in that capacity.

Within the broad generalist frame, some students may choose an informal area of emphasis, concentration, or focus.  We offer the following as examples of areas of interest pursued by students in our program. Descriptions are available on our program website. Note that many of these areas of focus are overlapping and are NOT intended to suggest exclusivity of emphasis:

Applied Humanistic Psychology (Humanism and Praxis)

Critical Psychology

Consciousness Studies

Dialogical Psychology

Feminist Psychology

Historical and Theoretical Foundations of Psychology

Parapsychology

Psychology of Mind and Body

Community Psychology, Social, and Cultural Approaches to Social Justice

Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology