Research » The Integration Research Group

The Integration Research Group

Clinical psychology concerns the mental health and wellbeing of the human person.  It therefore should rely upon and be guided by a sound understanding of the complete reality of the human person.  In order to formulate and articulate such an integrated vision of the human person, the faculty of IPS meet regularly in a discussion and research group called the "Faculty Integration Project".  Because these meetings involve not only psychologists--both clinicians and theoreticians--but also neurologists, statisticians, sociologists, philosophers and theologians, they are wide-ranging and inherently multidisciplinary.  Moreover, they are collegial in the best sense of that word.

The Faculty Integration Project took as its first task simply setting down what it regarded as basic theses about human nature and the human person, which could serve, then, as a suitable foundation for reasoning and practice in clinical psychology.  This endeavor has resulted in a working document, called the "Anthropological Premises Sheet", which has recently been published with a full introduction and commentary.

The Faculty Integration Project has also given rise to ideas for new research paradigms; integrated psychological assessment tools; new therapeutic modalities; and helpful ways of relating theology and philosophy to psychology.

The IPS faculty have planned collaborative research initiatives, to be carried out by the Faculty Integration Project over the next several years, which will embody an integrated understanding of the human person, and which it is hoped will yield further evidence of the benefit and value of pursuing psychology within an integrative framework.


Director:  Craig Steven Titus, STD/Ph.D.


Associate Professor, Director of Integrative Studies.
S.T.D., University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
S.T.L., University of Fribourg (Switzerland)
M.A., Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology (Berkeley)


Dr. Titus’ current interests include virtue theory, moral development, philosophical psychology and the integration of psychological sciences, philosophy, and theology. His recent book sets up a dialogue between virtue theory and the psychological and sociological research on resilience and overcoming difficulty: Resilience and the Virtue of Fortitude: Aquinas in Dialogue with the Psychosocial Sciences (CUA Press, 2006). He is co-editor of The Pinckaers Reader: Renewing Thomistic Moral Theology (CUA Press, 2005) and has edited five other books and has published several articles. He is Editor-in-Chief for the IPS Press and Executive Administrator for IPS’s Centre for Philosophical Psychology (Oxford). Research Interests: Virtue Theory; Moral Development; Psychotherapy of Virtue; Philosophical and Theological Anthropology; Emotions and Morality; Fundamental Moral Theology; Marriage and Sexual Ethics; Catholic Social Teaching.