Clinical Science

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Vanderbilt University Clinical Psychological Science

View list of Clinical Science Facultyhere

The Clinical Science Program in Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt University subscribes to the clinical scientist model of training, with the primary goal of training clinical scientists. The Clinical Science Program is part of the outstanding program in Psychological Sciences at Vanderbilt that includes over 60 faculty spanning two departments (the Department of Psychology and the Department of Psychology and Human Development).

All students complete a core set of required coursework, research, and clinical training. This includes courses in the biological, social, cognitive, and affective bases of behavior; human development; individual differences; research design and statistics; psychopathology; psychological assessment; psychological intervention; and professional ethics.

Interested individuals can learn about the application processhere

In addition to these core requirements common to all students, the program has sufficient flexibility to allow students to concentrate their training and to develop specialized expertise in given areas that draw on the strengths of our faculty and the opportunities for research and clinical training. Students can focus their training in the following areas:

• Psychopathology, including the identification, etiology, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology in children, adolescents and adults. Within psychopathology students can further concentrate their training in any of three areas:
• Developmental psychopathology, including the identification, etiology, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology in children and adolescents (particularly with respect to mood disorders), and the study of typical and atypical development (particularly with respect to autism and intellectual disabilities). Faculty who are involved in the mentoring of students in this area include Drs. Bachorowski, Cole, Compas, Dykens, Garber, Hollon, Humphreys, Kujawa, Smith, Tomarken, Walker, and Weiss.
• Adult psychopathology, including the identification, etiology, treatment and prevention of psychopathology in adults including mood disorders, anxiety disorders, somatoform disorders, schizophrenia, and psychopathy. Faculty involved in the mentoring of students in this area include Drs. Bachorowski, Compas, Davis, Garber, Hollon, Kujawa, Olatanji, Park, Schlundt, Tomarken, Walker, Weiss, and Zald.
• Developmental disabilities, including the identification, etiology and treatment of autism, Prader-Willi Syndrome, and Williams Syndrome. Faculty mentors include Drs. Bachorowski and Dykens.
• Clinical neuroscience, including neuropsychological, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches to studying normal and abnormal behavior. Faculty mentors include Drs. Cole, Compas, Hollon, Humphreys, Kujawa, Olatunji, Park, Tomarken, and Zald.
• Basic emotional processes, including the biological, cognitive, and interpersonal factors influencing basic emotion-related processes, as well as individual differences in affective traits. Faculty mentors include Drs. Bachorowski, Compas, Dykens, Garber, Hollon, Kujawa, Olatunji, Smith, Tomarken, and Zald.
• Prevention and intervention, including the development and evaluation of optimal interventions for various psychopathologies, the prevention of diabetes and other biomedical disorders, and the identification of potential etiological or vulnerability markers that are linked to heightened risk for depressive disorders among children and adolescents. Faculty mentors include Drs. Compas, Garber, Hollon, Humphreys, Kujawa, Olatunji, and Weiss.
• Health psychology, emphasizing a biopsychosocial approach to health and illness throughout the life span, including chronic and recurrent pain, cancer, and eating disorders. Faculty mentors include Drs. Compas, Garber, Olatunji, Schlundt, Smith, and Walker.
• Quantitative analysis, including the application of advanced statistical techniques to the study of psychopathology and other clinical issues. Faculty mentors include Drs. Cole and Tomarken.

All students take the following courses as part of their core training in clinical science: Advanced Statistics (two semesters), Clinical Research Methods, Psychopathology, Psychological Measurement, Introduction to Psychotherapy, Cognitive Assessment, Psychological Assessment, Ethics and Cultural Diversity, and courses in the fundamental areas of psychological science (biological bases of behavior, cognitive/affective bases of behavior, human development, and individual differences).

Program Costs

Attrition

Research training

Our program offers training in research through a mentoring model in which students work closely with their primary advisor/mentor on research throughout their time in the program.

Clinical faculty research areas include:

• Basic cognitive and emotional processes, including the biological, cognitive, and interpersonal factors influencing basic emotion-related processes, as well as individual differences in affective traits.
• Clinical neuroscience, including neuropsychological, psychophysiological, and neuroimaging approaches to studying normal and abnormal behavior.
• Developmental psychopathology, including the identification, etiology, treatment, and prevention of psychopathology in children and adolescents (particularly with respect to mood disorders), and the study of typical and atypical development (particularly with respect to autism and mental retardation).
• Prevention and intervention, including the development and evaluation of optimal interventions for various psychopathologies, the prevention of diabetes and other biomedical disorders, and the identification of potential etiological or vulnerability markers that are linked to heightened risk for depressive disorders among children and adolescents.
• Health psychology, emphasizing a biopsychosocial approach to health and illness throughout the life span.
• Quantitative analysis, including the application of advanced statistical techniques to the study of psychopathology and other clinical issues.

Underlying each of these areas is a common philosophy that emphasizes theoretical development, empirical validation, methodological rigor, and the establishment of links between normal and abnormal processes using multiple methods and levels of analysis.

The Program faculty enjoy strong relationships with theJohn F. Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development;theCenter for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience; the Departments ofPsychiatry,Pediatrics, andMedicinein the Vanderbilt School of Medicine; theVanderbilt University Institute for Imaging Science; theVanderbilt Brain Institute; theVanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center; theCenter for Developmental Medicine; theMeharry Medical CollegeandVanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer's Center.

A strong focus of Clinical Science at Vanderbilt is the integration of research with professional expertise. Students are actively involved in research on a continuing basis throughout their graduate training. The primary orientations are cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and neurobiological. The program is able to provide students with a wealth of training experiences, both scientific and professional, that is unmatched even by programs much larger in size. Students are involved in clinical practicum work at a number of Vanderbilt sites and more broadly throughout the Nashville community. They receive supervised research and clinical training in a wide variety of agencies that serve children, adolescents, and adults, and that address a wide spectrum of psychological problems.

Clinical Internship

As with practicum training, the clinical internship is carefully planned to meet each student's career goals and needs. Our students typically intern at highly regarded, APA-approved internship sites. The vast majority of our students are matched at the internship ranked as their first or second choice. Evaluations of internship placements indicate both that our students are well prepared for internship by our training program and that they find the internship experience to be highly rewarding.

Internship Placement - Table 1

Internship Placement - Table 2

* Should only include students who applied for internship and are included in applied cell count from “Internship Placement – Table 1"

Our Graduates

Graduates of the Clinical Science Program over the last decade occupy important positions in academic as well as service institutions, and have research interests that are at the cutting edge of clinically and socially relevant issues. Their success is evidence of the effective combination of research and clinical training we offer, and of their own commitment to professional, research, and academic careers in clinical psychology.

Time to Completion for Students entering the Program with a Bachelor's Degree (if applicable)

Psychology licensure

As an APA and PCSAS Accredited Clinical Training Program, it is our intention to train students in all the particulars of health service psychology, such that they are equipped to be both excellent scientists and excellent clinicians. We expect that the majority of our graduates will be able to obtain professional licensure as clinical psychologists and to engage in clinical practice and supervise trainees. Given that licensure is controlled by individual governmental bodies in all 50 US states (typically State Boards of Psychology under the Division of Occupational Affairs in State Governments), and that each jurisdiction may impose its own unique requirements, we cannot guarantee that the specific training we provide will meet the exact criteria for licensure in every individual state. Please proceed to the following link to review the list of states for which we have determined our program satisfies the curriculum requirements for licensure, as well as information about additional requirements necessary to obtain licensure in two states (California and New Jersey).

For more information, seeLicensing Requirements

Accreditation

The graduate training program in Clinical Science is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association (last accredited 2014; next site visit 2024). For more information concerning accreditation, contact:

Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC 20002-4242
Phone:202-336-5979
Website:http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation

The Vanderbilt University Clinical Sciences program is also accreditated by thePsychological Clinical Science Accreditation System(PCSAS), with accreditation until June 30, 2028. Information regarding this accreditation may be obtained from:

Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System
1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW. Suite 402
Washington, DC 20036-1218
Tel +301.455.8046
http://www.pcsas.org/accreditation/accredited-programs/

For more information, please contact the program Co-Directors:Bruce CompasorBunmi Olatunji