Core Information
- Chair: Anna L. Marsland, Ph.D.
- Faculty
- Program requirements and grad student handbook (unofficial version)
- Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data
Program Overview
The aim of the program is to train clinical scientists who will apply basic psychological and biological knowledge to the understanding of major clinical psychological and health problems. The program integrates comprehensive clinical training with research training. This is based on the conviction that research advances in clinical areas require expertise with both the clinical phenomena as well as relevant research.
The University of Pittsburgh's Clinical Psychology Program offers graduate study leading to the PhD and has been accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association (APA) since 1948. For any questions regarding accreditation status, please contact the APA at 750 First Street, NE, Washington, DC, 20002, Phone: 202-336-5979, E-mail: apaaccred@apa.org, Web: www.apa.org/ed/accreditation.
Pitt's Clinical Psychology Program is also one of the founding members of the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science (APCS), an association of the leading research-oriented clinical psychology programs in North America. The Clinical Program has been accredited by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS) since 2013 and was recently reaccredited until 2034.
Program faculty members include presidents of national organizations, journal editors, and members of federal grant review committees. Faculty research funding was several million dollars for the past year, which supports extensive laboratory facilities.
In the Clinical Psycholocy Center, advanced graduate students in the Clinical Psychology Program offer a wide variety of treatment approaches, including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, and family systems psychotherapy.
Research
In general the field of clinical psychology is concerned with those individual differences in behavior and subjective experience that are viewed as problems, either for psychological/social reasons or due to associations with physical disease.
The unifying theme of the Clinical Psychology Program is a focus on research concerning these clinical problems. More specifically, the program has general interrelated research and clinical emphases in developmental psychopathology, adult psychopathology, and health psychology areas.
The field of psychopathology in general concerns itself with understanding the causes, development, pathologies, and prevention/treatment of problem behaviors and experiences. Developmental psychopathology especially emphasizes study of the antecedents and development of psychopathology, often in childhood. Adult psychopathology focuses on the study of psychopathologies with clinical onset in adulthood. Health psychology is the study of psychological causes and consequences of physical disease.
Additional training in developmental or health psychology is also available for Clinical Psychology Program applicants who desire to document further background in these areas by simultaneously completing requirements of both the Clinical Psychology Program and the Developmental or Health Psychology Programs in the joint Clinical/Developmental or Clinical/Health Programs.
Integrated research and clinical training is offered through ongoing research programs and specialty clinical externships in the following specific areas with relevant faculty:
Additional Training Options
There are two additional tracks for students with additional interests: Clinical/Developmental Psychology and Clinical/Bio-Health Psychology. Learn more.
Connections and Resources