Program Overview

Health Psychology PhD

The Health Psychology PhD program is designed to train psychologists as both scientists and practitioners, providing distinctive educational experiences with exemplary teaching, scholarship, and service. The program prepares students for careers in healthcare, education, and business, and provides leadership in the field through cutting-edge research and prominent national roles.

About the Program

The program has three distinct health psychology concentrations: clinical health psychology (CHP), pediatric school psychology (PSP), and occupational health psychology (OHP). The goal of each concentration is to prepare highly qualified psychologists to work in various settings, including primary care teams, hospitals, health organizations, academic settings, and industry.

Concentrations

• Clinical Health Psychology (CHP)
  • The goal of the CHP program is to prepare highly qualified clinical psychologists to work within primary care teams, hospitals, health organizations, and academic settings.
  • This program has a scientist-practitioner model, training students in both the science and practice of clinical health psychology.
  • Students completing this program are eligible for licensure as Licensed Psychologists and Health Service Providers by the NC Board of Psychology.
• Pediatric School Psychology (PSP)
  • The goal of the PSP program is to prepare highly qualified doctoral-level school psychologists to work with children, families, and other professionals in both public school and healthcare settings.
  • The PSP program prepares students to advance school psychology through original research and to apply health psychology principles to school psychology practices across a three-tier model of service delivery.
  • Students completing this program meet educational requirements for licensure by the NC Board of Psychology as Licensed Psychologist and Health Services Provider; graduates are also eligible for school-level licensure.
• Occupational Health Psychology (OHP)
  • The goal of the OHP program is to prepare highly qualified psychologists to work with industry and workforces to improve the quality of working life and to enhance the safety, health, and well-being of workers across occupations, either within the industry or in an academic setting.
  • This is a four-year program requiring full-time attendance.
  • Students are admitted knowing they will pursue a master's degree on route to their doctoral degree.

Program Requirements

The Health Psychology PhD program is a post-baccalaureate program (95-108 s.h.). Students choose a concentration in either clinical health (108 s.h.), occupational health psychology (95 s.h.), or pediatric school psychology (102 s.h.) at the time of their application to the program. A one-year pre-doctoral internship is required for the clinical health and pediatric school concentrations. A summer internship is required for the occupational health psychology concentration.

Course Requirements

• Professional standards and ethics - 3 s.h.
  • PSYC 6404 - Ethics and Law in School Psychology
  • PSYC 6465 - Ethics and Professional Practice
• Foundations of psychology - 18 s.h.
  • History and systems - 1 s.h.
    • PSYC 6408 - History of Psychological Thought
  • Content areas in scientific psychology - 9 s.h.
    • PSYC 6406 - Advanced Developmental Psychology
    • PSYC 6421 - Social Psychology
    • PSYC 6428 - Biological, Cognitive, and Affective Foundations of Behavior
  • Individual differences - 3 s.h.
    • PSYC 6407 - Cultural Psychology
  • Health psychology - 5 s.h.
    • PSYC 8001 - Colloquium in Health Psychology (take two times)
    • PSYC 8002 - Health Psychology
• Research methods and practice - 27 s.h.
  • Statistics and research design - 9 s.h.
    • PSYC 6430 - Statistics and Research Design
    • PSYC 7431 - Regression and ANOVA
    • PSYC 7433 - Multivariate Statistical Analysis
  • Thesis and predissertation research - 6 s.h.
    • PSYC 7000 - Thesis
  • Dissertation - 12 s.h.
    • PSYC 9000 - Dissertation
• Concentrations - 47-60 s.h.
  • Clinical health concentration - 60 s.h.
    • Core - 9 s.h.
      • PSYC 8416 - Psychopharmacology
      • PSYC 8468 - Health Psychology: Psychotherapy Methods and Interventions
      • PSYC 8995 - Seminar in Health Psychology
    • Psychopathology - 3 s.h.
      • PSYC 6450 - Advanced Psychopathology
    • Interventions - 6 s.h.
      • PSYC 6466 - Psychotherapy Concepts and Techniques
      • PSYC 6468 - Psychotherapy: Theories, Research, and Practice
    • Assessment - 6 s.h.
      • PSYC 6484 - Cognitive Assessment
      • PSYC 6485 - Clinical Assessment
    • Practicum - 29 s.h.
      • PSYC 6460 - Clinical Psychology Practicum I
      • PSYC 6461 - Clinical Psychology Practicum II
      • PSYC 6462 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum I
      • PSYC 6463 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum II
      • PSYC 7995 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum III
      • PSYC 8460 - Health Psychology Practicum
    • Clinical supervision training - 1 s.h.
      • PSYC 8500 - Seminar in Clinical Supervision
    • Internship - 6 s.h.
      • PSYC 8990 - Predoctoral Internship (take two times)
  • Occupational health psychology concentration - 47 s.h.
    • Core - 9 s.h.
      • PSYC 7504 - Occupational Health Psychology
      • PSYC 7506 - Counterproductive Work Behavior
      • PSYC 8996 - Seminar in Applied Occupational Health Psychology
    • Methods in human measurement - 3 s.h.
      • PSYC 6437 - Psychometrics
    • Psychology of organizational behavior - 3 s.h.
      • PSYC 6343 - Psychology of Organizational Behavior
    • Issues in personnel selection - 3 s.h.
      • PSYC 6420 - Issues in Personnel Selection
    • Internship - 3 s.h.
      • PSYC 6970 - Internship in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
    • Electives - minimum of 26 s.h.
      • PSYC 6423 - Employee Motivation and Leadership
      • PSYC 6521 - Special Topics in Industrial and Organizational Psychology
      • PSYC 7501 - Employee Evaluation and Development
      • PSYC 7502 - Leadership Assessment
      • PSYC 7503 - Career Development and Executive Coaching
      • PSYC 7505 - Structural Equation and Hierarchical Linear Modeling
  • Pediatric school psychology concentration - 54 s.h.
    • Core - 9 s.h.
      • PSYC 6452 - Child and Adolescent Psychopathology
      • PSYC 8404 - Pediatric School Psychology
    • Interventions - 9 s.h.
      • PSYC 6402 - School Consultation
      • PSYC 6467 - Psychotherapeutic Interventions with Children and Families
      • PSYC 7442 - School Interventions I
    • Assessment - 9 s.h.
      • PSYC 6353 - Behavioral Assessment and Intervention
      • PSYC 6409 - School Assessment I
      • PSYC 6410 - School Assessment II
    • Practicum - 21 s.h.
      • PSYC 6462 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum I
      • PSYC 6463 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum II
      • PSYC 7950 - School Practicum I
      • PSYC 7951 - School Practicum II
      • PSYC 7995 - Advanced Clinical Psychology Practicum III
      • PSYC 8460 - Health Psychology Practicum
    • Internship - 6 s.h.
      • PSYC 8990 - Predoctoral Internship (take two times)

ECU Advantage

The program has a dynamic faculty, including world-renowned experts, and is nationally recognized through outstanding research, clinical, and service roles. The program maintains small class sizes to maximize an outstanding student-to-faculty ratio and provides a challenging yet supportive learning environment. This enables students to gain elite internship placements and post-doctoral level positions. The program has also been successful in securing national accreditation and partnering with nationally recognized industries, while securing tuition remission and assistantships for students upon entry into the program.