Academics
General Information on the IPS Graduate Programs
IPS Dean Gladys Sweeney has said that, “Being a psychologist is a vocation, a calling, to heal and significantly impact the well-being of individuals, marriages and families.”
Are you interested in pursuing your vocation to heal?
IPS is uniquely situated to help you follow this call, offering a thorough education and training in the science and methods of psychology as well as a coherent reflection of how a Catholic understanding of the person, marriage, and family life can be integrated with psychological studies.
Read more about our curriculum below, or click to go directly to program information:
The IPS Curriculum
At IPS, students are provided graduate education in the basic science of psychology through courses on the history and various systems of psychological thought, personality and psychotherapy theories, statistics, and psychopathology (in the M.S. degree programs), and research design, human development, learning, cognition, social, and biological aspects of psychological functioning (in the Psy.D. Program).
Clinical psychology students also receive graduate-level education and training in the specifically clinical aspects of psychology through courses on the assessment and treatment of psychological problems. The assessment course sequence includes courses on interviewing, administration of standardized tests, and interpretation of test results (in the M.S. in Clinical Psychology degree program), then advanced training with additional assessment procedures (in the Psy.D. degree program). The treatment course sequence includes training in adult therapy, child therapy, marital therapy, and group therapy, as well as substance abuse counseling and vocational counseling (in the M.S. in Clinical Psychology degree program). Doctoral students take advanced courses in these areas, as well as family therapy, and are educated regarding other occupational roles such as teacher, consultant, and supervisor. All IPS clinical degree programs provide externship opportunities (and internship in the doctoral program).
Finally, students in all degree programs are provided graduate level education in the theological and philosophical underpinnings of psychology from the perspective of a Catholic anthropology. This is accomplished in two ways. First, each of the psychology content courses includes commentary and/or critiques regarding how the area is best understood from a Catholic view of the human person. Second, the curriculum includes an Integrative Studies component which focuses more heavily on a theological and philosophical understanding, while still being directed towards the application of this knowledge by psychological professionals. The Integrative Studies sequence includes courses covering metaphysics, interpretation of texts, theological anthropology, comparative religion, and moral theology (in both the M.S. in Clinical Psychology and the M.S. in General Psychology degree programs), which is synthesized at the doctoral level through a seminar that integrates theory and research, and a course that integrates the clinical aspects of psychological, ethical and spiritual development.