Course requirements and use of transfer credit

The qualified and accepted student may enter a degree program holding either a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Depending on the student’s previous preparation and needs, as many as 24 hours of advanced study beyond the master’s degree or its equivalent completed at another institution may be accepted and credited toward the doctorate, provided the candidate’s advisory committee recommends acceptance of transfer credit to the graduate school. The psychology department may waive doctoral program requirements if prior graduate course work is evaluated as equivalent to UNT doctoral course requirements. All psychology doctoral degree plans require a minimum of 42 hours of graduate credit beyond the master’s degree, or 72 credits beyond the bachelor’s degree, taken within the UNT system.

The clinical and counseling psychology programs require a one-year supervised internship. Students should be aware that internship training sites are spread across the country. Internships are competitive, and the student is responsible for securing an internship that meets with departmental approval. Responsibility for an internship training site’s compliance with the Americans with Disability Act rests with the internship site.

Behavioral Science

This program requires a minimum of 72 semester hours and includes 58 hours in behavioral science general core psychology, including social psychology, statistics (Quantitative Methods I and II), cognitive and affective bases of behavior, history and systems, biological bases of behavior, and thesis and dissertation. The remainder (14 hours) of the student’s program of study will consist of course work selected in consultation with the major professor, reflecting the student’s specialty area of research.

The student is expected to be involved in research throughout the program. Students are encouraged to affiliate with a faculty member sharing their research interests early in the program, i.e., the first year. It is hoped that a publication record can be established before graduation, which is necessary in today’s competitive job market.

Additional requirements

Dual degree options

All doctoral programs make provisions to allow the completion of a master’s degree in general psychology.

Residence requirement

The candidate must meet the doctoral residence requirement as outlined in the Doctoral degree requirements  section of this catalog.

Qualifying PhD examination in the major area

Each of the departmental PhD programs requires successful completion of a qualifying examination in the student’s respective program. The faculty in each program area is responsible for the format, administration and grading of the examination.

Dissertation examinations

The student completes two dissertation-related examinations: the proposal and the final comprehensive examination. The student first defends the dissertation proposal, which can be done only after successfully completing the master’s thesis or its equivalent, and the qualifying PhD examination for the program. Upon completion of the dissertation research, the student may schedule the final comprehensive exam for the dissertation.

Advisory committee

A temporary degree program advisor is assigned to doctoral students during the first term/semester of enrollment. The dissertation committee is formed at some point later in the student’s program. Each dissertation committee in the Department of Psychology is to have, as its basic structure, the following:

1. Three persons employed as faculty members by the Department of Psychology or as regular members of a Department of Psychology program committee.
2. Each committee may, but is not required to, have additional members from outside the Department of Psychology. An additional member may be (a) a UNT faculty member from another department; (b) a community professional especially appointed to the committee through the Department of Psychology; or (c) a faculty member from another university especially appointed to the committee through the Department of Psychology. Additional members may not replace the three departmental members.
3. Programs may place other restrictions on dissertation committee composition, but cannot authorize deviation from the basic structure (e.g., the three departmental faculty) described above.