About the Counseling Psychology Doctoral Program
This Ph.D. program typically requires five to six years of full-time study, including an approved one-year internship at an appropriate training agency (e.g., approved university counseling center, community mental health center, hospital, outpatient clinic, correctional facility, healthcare system, psychological-services consortium). Extensive details regarding a typical curriculum are available in the program handbook, which is online at www.psychology.ttu.edu. Students may elect to earn an optional master’s degree during their pursuit of the doctoral degree.
The American Psychological Association accredits the counseling psychology doctoral program. The accrediting association can be contacted at: American Psychological Association, Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation, 750 First Street N. E., Washington, DC 20002-4242, 202-336-5979, 202-336-6123 (TDD/TYY) 202.336.5978 (fax).
The program in counseling psychology only admit students for the doctoral degree. During their pursuit of the doctoral degree, however, students may elect to earn an optional master’s degree. There is no terminal master’s degree admission for counseling psychology. A non-thesis master’s degree in psychology typically requires successful completion of at least 36 credit hours of required coursework at Texas Tech, plus successful completion of other program requirements like the second-year research project and certain statistics courses. A doctoral degree in psychology has some variance in the required total hours because of such factors as the differences between doctoral psychology programs, diversity of student interests, range of academic backgrounds, and other practical issues. Doctoral students in psychology at Texas Tech typically earn approximately 90-120 credit hours of required coursework in their graduate program before successfully completing their doctoral degree. In addition, other doctoral program requirements must be completed successfully before the doctoral degree is awarded.
All the doctoral programs in psychology require courses specific to their own specialty, along with more general psychology courses that are department-wide requirements for graduate students, such as research methods, statistics, and some of the psychological bases of behavior (e.g., biological, cognitive, developmental, social, and historical bases of behavior). Courses in ethical and professional issues, multicultural issues and underserved populations, and supervision and consulting for the provision of psychological services are also required in counseling psychology.
All doctoral students are required to complete a second-year research project or its equivalent (e.g., an empirical master’s thesis), doctoral qualifying exams specific to each doctoral program in the department, and a dissertation. Students in the counseling psychology also complete numerous practicum courses and an approved internship. Interdisciplinary study with other relevant and cooperating departments/colleges on campus is also available. For example, some psychology doctoral students take elective human sciences courses such as child and adolescent development.
Application instructions and forms for psychology are available at www.psychology.ttu.edu. Deadlines for receipt of the complete application for the counseling psychology program is December 1.
Many graduate courses in psychology—and all graduate courses in psychology with a practicum component—are limited to full-time graduate students who are officially admitted and enrolled in one of the psychology degree graduate programs. Full-time graduate students from other degree programs must get written permission from the instructor before enrolling in a psychology graduate course.
