Curriculum

Flexible + integrated training

Our Clinical Science program includes a core set of required experiences, coupled with a flexible curriculum designed to meet your specific needs. The curriculum serves our longstanding goal of providing integrative training, in which students draw on multiple perspectives (e.g., biological, clinical, cognitive, developmental, social) in their research on clinical problems. You might choose to complete a dual Ph.D. in Clinical Science and in the Program of Neuroscience or Cognitive Science. Or, you might work in more than one area of Psychology within the context of a single degree. To earn a Ph.D. in Psychology requires a minimum of 90 credit hours, a standard set by the College of Arts and Sciences and University Graduate School.

You will form an Advisory Committee, consisting of your mentor and at least two other faculty members, during your first year. The committee assists you to design an individualized training plan, while ensuring receipt of adequate breadth, depth, and quality of training.

Training model

Our training model is sequential, cumulative, and graded in complexity. In the first two years, you will take four core courses, a semester of advanced statistics, a course on research methods and professional and ethical issues, and write at least one grant. You will also complete a first and second-year research project in collaboration with your mentor, which must be submitted to the department in written form.

In the summer after your second year, you take qualifying exams, which assess your core competencies in clinical science. Our clinical students also take one advanced clinical seminars, at least one year of internal practicum, several additional years of practicum, a course on the teaching of psychology, an additional advanced statistics or methods course, and complete at least three courses for a minor concentration. In the fifth and sixth year, you conduct your dissertation research and complete your internship.

Courses + Seminars

Core courses

Introduction to Clinical Science: covers contemporary and classic papers on the epistemological, conceptual, empirical, and methodological foundations of clinical science, as well as professional and ethical issues.

Intervention and Evaluation: critically examines theories and methods of intervention, covers approaches to evaluating interventions, and introduces issues of implementation and dissemination.

Assessment: covers measurement theories, methods, and issues as they relate to research and practice.

Principles of Psychopathology: covers descriptive, theoretical, and experimental approaches to investigating, classifying, predicting, and explaining psychopathology.

Elective clinical seminars

Our curriculum gives you considerable freedom to tailor your graduate training to your individual interests through the selection of numerous elective courses. A number of advanced courses and seminars in clinical and other areas of psychology are offered in your second, third, and fourth years. Many of our clinical students take advanced courses in Developmental Psychopathology, Behavioral Models and Substance Abuse, Cognitive Neuropsychopathology, Evidence-Based Clinical Supervision, Sexual Lives and Disorders, and other topical areas.

At least one advanced clinical elective is required, but most students exceed this number. Depending on your area of specialization, courses in other areas within the department, and outside the department, may be taken.

Minor concentration

Minors are typically individualized to meet your training needs. They are designed in consultation with, and approved by, your Advisory Committee. Recent minors include Social Neuroscience, Quantitative Modeling of Development, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, and Public Policy Research Impacting Child Development. Some of our students elect to complete a second Ph.D. major instead of a minor, usually either the doctoral program in Cognitive Science or Neuroscience programs.

Practicum courses

Our students work closely with their Advisory Committee and the Practicum Committee (a group of faculty responsible for determining practicum placements) to identify their plan for integrating their research and clinical training.

Beginning in your second year (occasionally earlier), you start with at least one year in one of our carefully designed in-house practicum. Current in-house practica include: The Parent-Child Clinic, which is focused on helping families with children who demonstrate oppositional problems, and the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Research and Training Clinic, which is focused on treating adults with depression and anxiety.

As you progress in your training, you usually take on a role of peer supervisor with on-going didactic training and supervision in how to conduct supervision. We offer an evidence-based clinical supervision (EBCS) seminar to supplement the peer supervision experience. IU’s EBCS seminar appears to be one of the only available among APCS programs.

Once you have successfully completed one year of in-house practicum training, you may choose to continue the in-house practicum or take an external practicum more closely related to your research or clinical interests. You have access to a variety of other practicum settings beyond the in-house practicum, including inpatient, day hospital, and outpatient experiences.

Internships

It is expected that our Clinical Science students will complete all of their academic and research requirements for the Ph.D. degree before leaving for their predoctoral internships. You may not even apply for an internship position until your written proposals for dissertation research have received formal approval from your faculty committee.

The variety of facilities and programs in which our clinical students have accepted internships in the past is illustrated by the following list of recent placements:

Western Psychiatric Institute/University of Pittsburgh
University of Illinois Chicago Medical School
Brown University Clinical Psychology Consortium
VAs: Baltimore, Boston, Hines, Minneapolis, New Haven, and Palo Alto
Medical College of Georgia
University of Washington Medical Center
Indiana University Medical School
Charleston Consortium Internship
Lurie Children’s Hospital

Learn more about our Ph.D. degree in the Student Portal

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Department of
Psychological and Brain Sciences

Curriculum

Flexible + integrated training

Training model

Courses + Seminars

Core courses

Elective clinical seminars

Minor concentration

Practicum courses

Internships

Interested in applying?

The College of Arts & Sciences

Curriculum

Flexible + integrated training

Training model

Courses + Seminars

Core courses

Elective clinical seminars

Minor concentration

Practicum courses

Internships

Interested in applying?

Psychological and Brain Sciences social media channels

The College of Arts & Sciences