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Academics » Course Descriptions

Course Descriptions

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  • PSY 500 - History and Systems of Psychology (3 credit hours)

    Behaviorism, psychoanalytical theory, and biological based theories (e.g., cognitive neuroscience) have been offered as coherent accounts of the nature of human nature. All derive support from versions of evolutionary theory. On this account, theories of motivation are of the survivalistic variety, conduct is understood as "adaptive," and complex social phenomena are reduced to socio-biological processes. This course assesses these empirical and conceptual orientations.

  • INT 502 - Philosophical & Theological Anthropology (4 credit hours)

    This course will examine subject matter pertaining to the nature and operations of the human person as relevant to psychology drawing from both philosophical and theological sources.  Topics will include: Theories of the person: dualism and the mind-body problem; Philosophy of Body: bodiliness, emotion, interpersonal-relatedness, dependence; Philosophy of Mind: Cognition; Sin: the nature of the problem of human existence; Soteriology: Christian conceptions of how the problem of alienation and ontological disorder is overcome; Grace: its nature & operations; relation between human nature and grace.

  • PSY 503 - Personality Theories (3 credit hours)

    Introduces the major theories of personality used in clinical/counseling psychology, including those schools of thought associated with Freud, Object-Relations theory, Erikson, Jung, Adler, Horney, Rogers, Maslow and Cognitive-Behavioral theory. Emphasis is also put on relevant research findings and critical assessment of the validity and usefulness of the different theories.

  • PSY 504 - Psychological Measurement (3 credit hours)

    This course covers the application of statistical thinking and related graphical and other computational tools to the study and measurement of psychological phenomena. The first part of the course serves as an introduction to a wide range of topics related to basic statistical analysis. Building on this basic knowledge, the second part of the course examines basic concepts and computational methods related to test and survey design.

  • PSY 507 - Psychopathology (3 credit hours)

    This course provides an overview of the major theories, classification systems, and research in the area of psychopathology. It introduces students to diagnostic nomenclature, emphasizing the development of facility with the DSM-IV classification system. It also examines how spiritual and moral pathology affect the quality of life.

  • PSY 512 - Law, Ethics and Psychology (3 credit hours)

    This course examines the ethical codes and guidelines developed within the mental health field. Special emphasis is placed on how these ethical guidelines, along with Christian principles, can be applied to the practice of psychology in a manner which holds the well-being of the client as primary. The course also examines professional issues relevant to the practice of psychology.

  • PSY 516 - Basic Interviewing and Clinical Skills (3 credit hours)

    This course trains students in skills for developing constructive working relationships with clients. It also helps students develop basic clinical skills used in gathering information from and developing an understanding of clients. It covers both structured and unstructured approaches to interviewing. It introduces students to a variety of self-report and screening instruments useful for gathering information from clients and forming an integrated understanding of a client's life.

  • LIB 500 - Library and Information Use & Research (0 credit hours)

    This course is required for all entering students and provides an in depth review of library organization, collections, services, and of all electronic resources; presents the methodologies of information searching, strategy development, and evaluation; reviews the evaluation of information and information sources; and includes practice exercises in each of these areas.

  • PSY 534 - Crisis Intervention and Stress Management from a Christian Perspective (2 credit hours)

    This course focuses on the practical assistance of persons experiencing trauma, extreme stress and sorrow. Resources are drawn from appropriate Christian literature, as well as contemporary literature on crisis management. The course also serves as a model for integrating religious values with counseling and psychotherapy.

  • PSY 535 - Integration of Psychology and Spirituality (3 credit hours)

    This course examines essential issues related to the understanding of how a person develops spiritually and psychologically, and how to utilize this understanding in the practice of counseling and therapy.

  • PSY 605 - Developmental Psychology (3 credit hours)

    This course covers the major theoretical systems that seek to explain the development of the human person, and examines them from a variety of perspectives: physical, intellectual, emotional, spiritual and moral. It also considers central aspects of Christian life such as the development of the conscience, the life of virtue, commitment to human relationships and the discernment of one's vocation.

  • PSY 608 - Cognitive/Behavioral Assessment (3 credit hours)

    Offers an overview of the major theories of intelligence and develops basic skills in the administration of commonly used standardized test instruments for assessing cognitive ability and achievement in children, adolescents, and adults. Also covers the basics of report writing and ethical issues pertaining to psychological assessment. (Prerequisites: PSY 504, PSY 516)

  • PSY 609 - Adult Psychotherapy (3 credit hours)

    This course provides an introduction to the theory and practice of psychotherapy with adults. It introduces students to the various common approaches and systems of psychotherapy, and critiques their usefulness from a Christian view of the person. The course examines the proper role of the therapist with regard to the psychological, moral, and spiritual development of the client. (Prerequisite: PSY 507)

  • PSY 610 - Child Psychotherapy (3 credit hours)

    Develops a framework for understanding family life and the role of parents in raising children. Provides training in basic skills for working with children in therapy including play therapy, behavioral techniques, parenting skills training, and parent counseling. Also provides specialized coverage of intake interviewing, assessment instruments, and diagnostic issues related to working with children.

  • PSY 611 - Marital Psychotherapy (3 credit hours)

    Develops a Christian framework for understanding the nature of marriage. Trains students in basic skills used in the assessment and treatment of marital distress. Also introduces students to related areas in support of marriage such as pre-marital assessment and counseling, and marriage enrichment.

  • PSY 613 - Personality Assessment (3 credit hours)

    Develops basic skills in the administration of commonly used personality tests, including both psychometric and projective approaches to personality assessment. Develops further report writing skills by examining the ways in which the results of cognitive/behavioral assessment and a variety of personality assessment instruments can be integrated. (Prerequisites: PSY 507, PSY 608)

  • PHT 614 - Practical Reasoning and Moral Character (3 credit hours)

    This course will introduce students to theories of fundamental moral reasoning with emphasis on the nature of and relationship between moral norms and first practical principles, with a view to understanding the concept of human flourishing.  The genesis of moral character, virtue and vice will be examined, particularly in relation to the dynamic self-reflexive quality of moral choosing.

  • PHT 633 - Major World Philosophies and Religions (3 credit hours)

    This course introduces students to the dominant philosophical and religious worldviews of men and women in the 21st century.  It does not presume such worldviews are in all cases explicitly espoused, though they often are.  It does presume that the cognitions and behaviors of clients are shaped by conceptions of reality: about the nature of what is real, about the self and the human person, about human values, about life, death and afterlife.  The course will consider in the case of each worldview its cosmology and metaphysics (e.g., whether the material universe in created, eternal, illusory); its anthropology, particularly its articulation and assessment of the program of evil (i.e., of human limitation, disorder, suffering and death); its ethic (specifically its answer to (solution to) the problem of evil);; its epistemology (e.g., whether it is realist, idealist, esotericist, its theory of knowing); and its eschatology (i.e., its view on the "four last things" - death, judgment, heaven and hell).  Other diversity considerations will include gender diversity, sexual diversity, and racial diversity.

  • PHT 635 - Marriage, Family and Sexual Ethics (3 credit hours)

    This course will examine the nature of marriage, its human and divine origins and its defining goods and purposes.  The first part will consider marriage as a Christian sacrament, ideas on the roles of husband and wife, fatherhood and motherhood, sex, procreation and education of children.  The second part will consider concrete issues relating to marriage, family and sexuality, including divorce, remarriage and annulment, contraception, homosexuality, abortion, and certain forms of reproductive technology.  The theological vantage point will be the Catholic moral tradition from which readings will include primary and secondary sources.

  • PSY 690 Thesis Research - Thesis Research (up to 6 credit hours)

    Prerequisite: Departmental approval. Registration for thesis research is required for all M.S. General Psychology students after all coursework has been completed.  The thesis proposal is developed, submitted for approval, research conducted, and the written thesis submitted for approval by the thesis committee.

  • PSY 696 - Independent Study (Master's Program) (1-3 credit hours)

    Individualized plan of study designed through agreement between the instructor and student, and approved by the Department Chairman. Such plans may include designated readings, viewing of videotaped learning resources, individual meetings for discussion with the instructor, research, and writing, as well as other types of assignments.  The instructor determines in advance the requirements and criteria by which a grade is assigned and the number of credit hours to be awarded.  (Students are limited to a maximum of combination of two Independent Study and Psychology Seminary courses per degree program.)  (Prerequisite:  Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 697 -  Psychology Seminar (Master's Program) (1-3 credit hours)

    Individualized plan of study designed through agreement between the instructor and student, and approved by the Department Chairman. Such plans may include designated readings, viewing of videotaped learning resources, individual meetings for discussion with the instructor, research, and writing, as well as other types of assignments.  The instructor determines in advance the requirements and criteria by which a grade is assigned and the number of credit hours to be awarded.  (Students are limited to a maximum of combination of two Independent Study and Psychology Seminary courses per degree program.)  (Prerequisite:  Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 701 - Foundational Clinical Practicum/Externship I (2 credit hours)

    Clinical experience at the practicum/externship site.  Students also have to attend and present at regularly scheduled case consultation groups which would be faculty led and focus on skill development in the areas of diagnosis, treatment planning, clinical skills, and providing services from an integrated perspective. (First semester)

  • PSY 702 - Foundational Clinical Practicum/Externship II (2 credit hours)

    Clinical experience at the practicum/externship site.  Students also have to attend and present at regularly scheduled case consultation groups which would be faculty led and focus on skill development in the areas of diagnosis, treatment planning, clinical skills, and providing services from an integrated perspective. (Second semester) (Prerequisite:  PSY 702 and Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 703 - Foundational Clinical Practicum/Externship III (2 credit hours)

    Clinical experience at the practicum/externship site.  Students also have to attend and present at regularly scheduled case consultation groups which would be faculty led and focus on skill development in the areas of diagnosis, treatment planning, clinical skills, and providing services from an integrated perspective. (Third semester)  (Prerequisite:  PSY 703 and Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 715 - Family Psychotherapy (4 credit hours)

    Develops a conceptual framework for understanding how parents can be actively involved in the treatment of children. Covers a variety of therapeutic interventions including family therapy, parent skill training, and parent counseling. (Prerequisite: PSY 610)

  • PSY 717 - Advanced Psychotherapy III: Adolescents (4 credit hours)

    Develops a conceptual framework for understanding the nature of parent-adolescent relationships. Covers a variety of therapeutic interventions for working with parents and adolescents together. Also examines the integration of individual-level and family-level interventions with adolescents. (Prerequisite: PSY 609)

  • PSY 718 - Research Design for the Psychological Sciences (3 credit hours)

    This course spans a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques in the design, computation, and interpretation of complex experiments in the psychological sciences. There is also an in-depth treatment of typical sampling designs that arise in the psychological sciences. In all of these observational, quasi-experimental, and fully experimental settings, emphasis is placed on how to analyze the resulting complex data structures in the presence of measurement error and missing data. Sample reuse techniques, like the bootstrap and jackknife, are also covered, along with related software. (Prerequisite: PSY 504).

  • PSY 721 - Learning and Cognition (3 credit hours)

    This course covers a variety of models of learning and cognition. The course covers basic concepts from learning theory, such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, shaping, modeling, and social reinforcement, and examines how these basic principles are utilized in therapeutic interventions. The course also covers modern theories of cognition and examines how these principles have been applied in cognitive approaches to psychotherapy.

  • PSY 723 - Advanced Psychotherapy I: Children (4 credit hours)

    Promotes further knowledge and skill development in the assessment and treatment of children. Builds on basic skills acquired in the introductory course on child psychotherapy by providing advanced skill training and supervision in treatment methodologies previously covered, as well as by introducing additional treatment interventions. (Prerequisite: PSY 610)

  • PSY 724 - Advanced Psychotherapy II: Adults (4 credit hours)

    Promotes further knowledge and skill development in the assessment and treatment of adults. Builds on basic skills acquired in the introductory course in adult psychotherapy by providing advanced skill training and supervision in treatment methodologies previously covered, and also introduces additional treatment interventions. (Prerequisite: PSY 609)

  • PSY 726 - Advanced Marital Psychotherapy (4 credit hours)

    Promotes further knowledge and skill development in the assessment and treatment of distress in marriages with a view to attaining the ideal of Christian marriage and family life. Builds on skills acquired in the introductory course in marital therapy by providing advanced skill training and supervision in treatment methodologies previously covered, and also introduces additional treatment interventions. (Prerequisite: PSY 611)

  • PSY 729 - Advanced Statistical Methods (3 credit hours)

    This course integrates multivariate analysis methods with the complex data settings covered in PSY 718. Topics include conventional applied tools like factor analysis and cluster analysis, plus general linear and log linear modeling. Advanced computationally intensive graphical techniques are featured. Applications are made through case studies to meta-analysis, outcome research and program evaluation. Sample reuse ideas from PSY 718 are reintroduced and their applications expanded. Some tailoring may be done to fit dissertation research needs. (Prerequisites: PSY 504, PSY 718)

  • PSY 760 - Professional Roles and Issues Seminar (2 credit hours)

    Seminar which cover areas such as academic careers, clinical practice in a variety of settings, business aspects of psychology practice, professional publishing and presentations, and involvement in professional organizations.

  • PSY 801 - Advanced Clinical Practicum/Externship I (3 credit hours)

    Advanced clinical experience at the practicum/externship site available to students in their fourth year of the Psy.D. program.  (Prerequisite:  PSY 703)

  • PSY 802 - Advanced Clinical Practicum/Externship II (3 credit hours)

    Second of two required semesters of advanced clinical experience at the practicum/externship site available to students in their fourth year of the Psy.D. program.  (Prerequisite:  PSY 802)

  • PSY 803 - Additional Clinical Practicum/Externship III (1-3 credit hours)

    Elective advanced clinical experience at the practicum/externship site available to students in their fourth year of the Psy.D. program.  Prerequisite:  PSY 802 and Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 820 - Group Psychotherapy (3 credit hours)

    This course helps students develop an understanding of group processes and how such processes can be applied therapeutically in the treatment of children, adolescents, and adults. The course covers a variety of group formats, such as time-limited vs. on-going groups and heterogeneous vs. problem-specific groups. Also examines the use of psycho-educational groups in the treatment of psychological problems.

  • PSY 822 - Biological Bases of Behavior (3 credit hours)

    This course serves as a general introduction for students to the field of physiological psychology, emphasizing a number of areas that are most useful in the practice of clinical psychology. These areas include the nervous system, behavioral genetics, and psychopharmacology.

  • PSY 825 - Social Psychology (3 credit hours)

    Serves as an overview of the major theories, areas of study, and research methodologies in the field of social psychology. Includes such topics as impression formation, attribution theory, social influence, attitude development and change, prejudice and discrimination, antisocial and prosocial behaviors, affiliation and attraction, and sex role behaviors.

  • INT 828 - The Therapeutic Team: Psychological, Ethical, and Spiritual Development and Health (3 credit hours)

    An integrated approach to human health and faith invites a collaborative effort among experts in medicine, psychology, ethics and spiritual direction. The competencies of these interdependent fields contribute to an efficacious team approach toward therapy. This course addresses the definition and development of health and flourishing according to these disciplines. It will address case studies in an interdisciplinary way. It will include special focus on spiritual development, on issues of spiritual direction and prayer, and on the use of symbols in religion, psychological research, and clinical practice.

  • PSY 830 - The Psychologist as Consultant, Supervisor, and Educator (3 credit hours)

    As leaders, psychologists find themselves called to participate in many roles beyond those of clinical practice and research. This course introduces students to the leadership roles of consultation, supervision, and teaching. Students will be introduced to the literature concerning these areas, as well as being provided with opportunities for experiential learning about these roles.

  • INT 832 - Integration Seminar (3 credit hours)

    This seminar is the final integration course in the Psy.D. curriculum. Its purpose is to review, refine, and further develop the students' understanding of psychology from an integrated perspective. The seminar also serves to assist students in adopting an integrated approach to the completion of their doctoral dissertation.

  • PSY 836 - Advanced Personality Assessment (4 credit hours)

    Develops skills in the administration and interpretation of more advanced projective personality techniques such as the Rorschach. Develops further report writing skills by examining the ways in which the results of a variety of psychological assessment instruments can be integrated and used to make diagnoses and treatment recommendations. (Prerequisite: PSY 613)

  • PSY 896 - Independent Study (Psy.D. Program) (1-3 credit hours)

    Individualized plan of study designed through agreement between the instructor and student, and approved by the Department Chairman. Such plans may include designated readings, viewing of videotaped learning resources, individual meetings for discussion with the instructor, research, and writing, as well as other types of assignments.  The instructor determines in advance the requirements and criteria by which a grade is assigned and the number of credit hours to be awarded.  (Students are limited to a maximum of combination of two Independent Study and Psychology Seminary courses per degree program.)  (Prerequisite:  Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 897 - Psychology Seminar (1-3 credit hours)

    This seminar course offered to a group of students on topic or topics specified by the instructor and approved by the Department Chairman. The seminar format typically includes regularly held class meetings in which the instructor gives lectures and/or facilitates discussion.  (Students are limited to a maximum of combination of two Independent Study and Psychology Seminary courses per degree program.)  (Prerequisite:  Consent of Faculty Advisor and Department Chair)

  • PSY 899 - Dissertation (1-3 credit hours)

    Registration for dissertation hours is required for all Psy.D. students from the time their dissertation chair is appointed until their dissertation is defended.