Community M.A./Ph.D. Program
We believe there is a need to equip students with psychological skills that are targeted toward non-individually oriented topics, such as community and organizational change, and evaluators of social policy. Students in the Community Ph.D. program will be trained in research methodologies to be applied to social and community interventions. These students will gain an understanding of social-community change from a public health perspective rather than a traditional individual-counseling orientation and will be collaborating with either community agencies, not-for-profit groups, or grass-roots organizations. Their principle roles are in research, evaluation, program development, and other non-clinical activities.
The Community psychology program utilizes a unique approach toward training graduate students. The program will stress training community professionals who work in the public or private sector with diverse gender, ethnic, racial, and sexual orientation populations. This program exemplifies the mission of DePaul University through its strong emphasis on "service to others." An objective of training will be to provide graduate students with educational and practical skills for scientific and leadership development as community advocates of social justice and empowerment. The Community faculty and supervisors have both an intra- and interdisciplinary orientation, including but not limited to, social, experimental, and feminist psychology, plus sociology and public service.
The Community program seeks to achieve four inter-related goals in training, specifically:
- provide students with a breadth of knowledge in the content of community psychology
- provide statistical and methodological foundations in general psychology to demonstrate competence in core areas within the discipline
- provide the means to contribute to new developments in the field of community psychology and the social basis of behavior
- provide for the specific needs of the students and the communities they will serve
Since the community program has an ecological-community orientation that emphasizes a public health model rather than a clinical or medical model, those who have no specific interest in this area would be better served by another program. In particular, those having interests in traditional clinical work would not find the Community program a good fit. Students accepted in the Community program are ineligible to transfer into the Clinical program.
More in-depth information can be found at the community website.
More in-depth information can be found in our admissions requirements and application materials.
Other DePaul Graduate programs in Psychology: