UNO Psychology Graduate Program Overview

Like the university itself, the Department of Psychology is over 40 years old. It is part of the College of Sciences and typically has between 15 and 18 faculty members, over 600 undergraduate majors, and between 30 and 40 graduate students. Faculty members are committed to teaching on both the undergraduate and graduate level. In addition, they are all active scholars contributing in various ways to the profession of psychology, such as publishing original research in peer reviewed journals, serving on editorial boards for scientific journals, serving on grant review panels for various public and private funding agencies, and playing leadership roles in various national and regional psychological societies. The quality of the program was recognized in 1994 by an accreditation review by the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology (AAPP), the applied arm of the American Psychological Society (APS), which established an accreditation process for programs in applied psychology. In 1995, the National Research Council (NRC) identified UNO as the only Department of Psychology in America to earn its maximum rating increase for quality. Further support for the quality of the department comes from its history of attracting external funding for faculty research. Over the 2002-2003 academic year, the department had $10.2 million in grants and contracts in force and another $7.3 million in funding proposals submitted. In addition to their many scholarly activities within the Department, many faculty members have adjunct appointments in various institutions around the New Orleans area, such as at the New Orleans Veteran’s Administration Hospital and at LSU and Tulane Medical Centers.

The overall training goal of the department’s doctoral program is to produce well-trained applied scientists who, depending on their career goals, are capable of teaching, conducting research, and providing professional service delivery. The department offers two specializations for their doctoral program: Applied Developmental Psychology and Applied Biopsychology. Students have substantial contact with faculty in both programs through classes, graduate committees, and other formal and informal departmental activities. Students in both programs take many classes together and often work on joint research projects.

The department houses a number of laboratories focusing on specific areas of applied psychology research. These include laboratories equipped to study computational neuroscience, cognitive physiology, childhood psychopathology, human electrophysiology, behavioral neuroscience, memory and cognition, parenting, parent-child interactions, and image processing. The department also houses and operates the Psychology Clinic. This clinic is organized to provide students in either of the doctoral specializations with supervised experience in providing many types of psychological services in which departmental faculty have a particular expertise. In addition to these in-house facilities, the department maintains strong alliances with many mental health agencies throughout the New Orleans metropolitan area to enhance the training of graduate students by serving as applied practicum placements, by providing access to applied research projects, and by allowing students to develop collaborative relationships that enhance the student’s professional identity.

Graduate Program Links

• Application Information for the Applied Psychology Program
• Specific information about the Applied Biopsychology Program
• Specific information about the Applied Developmental Psychology Program
• Graduate Coordinator contact information

February 1 Deadline Each Year

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last modified 07/11/08