Graduate study in psychology at the University provides students with excellent research facilities and opportunities, flexible, individualized courses of study, and a productive faculty working closely with students in a wide range of areas across the College of Arts and Sciences and the School of Education.
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The Certificate of Graduate Studies in Autism effectively prepares participants for understanding and addressing the needs of individuals with autism spectrum disorders across the lifespan and in varied contexts including general and special education classrooms and community settings. The program is a three-course sequence, which focuses on the characteristics of autism spectrum disorders and the science of behavior. The Certificate of Graduate Studies in Autism advances individuals in their field and supports them to enhance knowledge, gain skills through hands-on learning, promote quality programs for individuals with autism, and develop professionally. Upon successful completion of the program, students may partially meet the education and supervised experience requirements necessary for admission to the licensing examination for Certified Behavior Analyst Assistant (CBAA) with the NYS Education Department. Please click here for additional program information Autism CGS program.
Graduate students in Biopsychology are given a strong research background and work closely with faculty on laboratory research projects. In this regard students have the opportunity to acquire skills in molecular and cellular techniques in neuroanatomy and neurochemistry, small animal surgery, animal behavior testing, histology, computer applications, and analysis of human behavior. Students also have the opportunity to interact with additional Neuroscience faculty in the Biology Department at Albany Medical College and the Wadsworth Center, New York State Department of Health. anatomy and histology, and neurochemistry. Course offerings beyond the first year are individually tailored to each student's interests, and can include courses in the Developmental Neurobiology Research Center at the University and at Albany Medical Center.
The Clinical Psychology program is steeped in tradition as one of the best cognitive-behavioral training programs in the country. The program integrates scientific and professional training in a series of didactic, practicum, and research experiences. It focuses primarily on a social learning approach to behavior, with cognitive and more strictly behavioral approaches also represented. The program is structured such that students are able to complete it with a Ph.D in hand in 5 years (four years on campus plus one year for the pre-doctoral internship).
The cognitive area consists of a group of active faculty whose research interests span topics including Human Memory, Visual Attention, Auditory and Visual Word Recognition and Reading, and Second Language Processing and Bilingualism. Graduate students take courses in the core areas of cognition, memory, perception, psycholinguistics, statistics, and advanced seminars on selected topics. In addition, students benefit from weekly cognitive seminars, informal readings seminars and departmental colloquia.
The Master’s program serves students who desire either predoctoral training or practitioner-oriented training and operates within the broader structure of the current doctoral program in I & O psychology. A minimum of 36 credits of approved coursework is required for the degree. Two tracks are offered to students: a thesis and non-thesis track. Students choosing the thesis option will write a master’s thesis that reports the results of a scholarly investigation of a phenomenon of importance to the field of I & O psychology. This option is targeted at those who anticipate further training at the doctoral level. Students in the non-thesis track will take internship credits or additional coursework instead of completing a thesis. The non-thesis option is targeted at those seeking a career in applied or organizational settings.
The program provides broad training in I-O with a heavy research emphasis. The program follows a scientist-practitioner model with the goal of preparing students to be active contributors to profession of I-O psychology and prepares students for careers in academia, business, and consulting. The active faculty have research interests span topics including organizational justice, work motivation, job attitudes and worker satisfaction, work and family issues, performance appraisal, and group decision making.
Students the social-personality psychology program are given a strong research background. Because of our flexible course offerings, each student can develop a specialization in any of several broad areas of social and personality psychology. Research training is a major component of our program and follows an apprenticeship model. Students are expected to engage in full-time research throughout the course of their graduate study, beginning in their first year. The program is distinguished by its unique focus on self-regulation and self-control. The faculty investigate applied and basic issues in topics such as emotional regulation, goal setting, socioemotional development, and willpower. We also conduct extensive research on creativity and cognitive performance, at risk populations, along with many other topics. Core faculty in social-personality psychology also share a common interest in studying addictive behaviors.
