College of Arts and Sciences

                         General Information

General

Information

Program

Information

University of Rhode Island

             The University of Rhode Island is a state-supported co-educational institution with an enrollment of approximately 3000 graduate and 11,000 undergraduate students and a full time faculty of about 600. It was founded in 1892 as one of the land grant colleges and in 1971 became one of the first four sea grant colleges in the United States. The university is located in the picturesque village of Kingston, in historic "South County" near the state's beautiful coastline and many lovely beaches. Kingston is 25 miles south of the capital city of Providence and within easy access of the main population areas of the region, including Boston (70 miles) and New York City (150 miles).

 Department of Psychology

             The Psychology Department is one of the largest departments within the College of Arts and Sciences, the largest college in the university. The department has 30 tenure track faculty members and additional special instructors, practicum supervisors, research faculty and other teaching faculty; approximately 800 undergraduate majors; and over 100 graduate students, the majority of whom are enrolled in doctoral programs. The department offers training leading to the Ph.D. in three areas: clinical psychology, experimental psychology, and school psychology. The Psychology Department is the only source of doctoral level training in applied psychology available in Rhode Island, and its doctoral program is the largest Ph.D. program at the university. Psychology is an energetic and productive department and is committed to excellence in education, research and service. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs have been described by the highest ranking administrative officers of the university as excellent and are generally considered to be among the most outstanding programs at the university.

 Mission of the Department of Psychology

     Our mission is. . .

• To generate knowledge of basic psychological processes and contextual influences on psychological and physical functioning

• To apply knowledge to promote health and welfare in a pluralistic society by enhancing the functioning of individuals and social systems

• To translate knowledge into science based programs policies and professional practices responsive to societal needs

• To transmit knowledge through educational programs, which inform individual development, provide understanding of human behavior, and prepare scientist-practitioners to become future leaders and innovators.

In the accomplishment of this mission we. . .

• Value the fundamental rights, dignity, and worth of all people, while achieving our goal to create a climate of understanding and respect among diverse individuals

• Respect cultural, individual, and role differences, due to age, gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, language, and socioeconomic status

• Commit to fostering and integrating multiculturalism at both a didactic and personal level

• Promote conflict resolution in a just and responsible fashion that avoids or minimizes harm while respecting the rights of all individuals.

Educational Philosophy

The educational philosophy of the Clinical Psychology program is based on the scientist-practitioner model proposed at the Boulder Conference in 1949 (Raimy, 1950) and further explicated in the Conference Policy Statement of the National Conference on Scientist-Practitioner Education and Training for the Professional Practice of Psychology (Belar & Perry, 1992).  Consistent with this philosophy, we accept graduate students who are committed to receiving training both in practice and research.  An overarching objective in our training is to provide didactic and applied opportunities for students to learn about integration of practice and research.  Within this context, students have the opportunity to choose a more research or more practice oriented program of studies.  These are not formal tracks, but are individually developed plans of study based on choice of program committee, externship activities, and to some extent, coursework.

            Three beliefs underlie the specific application of the Boulder model in our program.  First is our belief that it is important to train innovators and leaders rather than experts.  We hold this philosophy because the history of clinical psychology is one of changing content areas and domains of expertise.  It follows from this belief that we have elected to train psychological generalists rather than adopt specific tracks based on content.  It seems evident that those trained in solid principles of reliable and valid measurement of psychological constructs; categorization and prediction; empirically-based intervention methods and other generalist goals (see section B2) will be able to adapt this knowledge to new content areas as changes in the field occur.  At the same time, we strongly encourage students to develop a focused interest area.  The primary focus areas within which we currently offer training are health psychology and multicultural studies.  However, through developing individualized programs, students may focus in neuropsychology and child/family.  Most importantly, we wish to train students in a broad spectrum of problem solving and scientific methods that will provide the tools for them to actualize their own visions at whatever level they deem appropriate.  We expect our gradates to be among the next generation of innovators who will make a significant difference whether as professors, psychologists in health care and mental health settings, or policy makers in government.

           Second, we believe in the importance of training students to assess and intervene at multiple levels.  It has become increasingly clear that important behavior change initiatives cannot rely on patients seeking one to one treatment in clinic-based settings.  Therefore, while we continue to offer training in assessment and interventions at the individual and family levels, we also offer training to enable students to assess and intervene in social, organizational, and community contexts. 

            The final underlying belief in our educational model relates to the importance of training in diversity and multicultural issues.  We believe that one of the profound changes that will impact training needs in the coming decades is the change in the demographics of our population.  Ethnic/minority groups constitute the fastest growing segments of the population in the United States.  It is clear that in order to meet the mental health needs of the population in the coming decades, it will be important to train scientist/practitioners who have specific knowledge of how cultural values as well as gender and other diversity factors influence health and behavior.  A belief underlying our educational philosophy is the necessity of training students to become multiculturally competent.  Consistent with our philosophy that behavior is embedded in multiple contexts requiring intervention at multiple levels, we view the cultural context to be of the utmost importance.