Mar 28, 2024  
2003-2004 Graduate Catalog 
    
2003-2004 Graduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

Psychology


The Department of Psychology offers graduate study leading to the M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in experimental psychology and the Ph.D. degree in clinical psychology.

Candidates for admission are expected to meet the general requirements of the Graduate School and to have had fundamental courses in psychology as undergraduates, including a laboratory course in experimental psychology and a course in basic statistics. Applications for the clinical program are due Dec. 31 for a September admission.

The program leading to the M.A. in experimental psychology requires a minimum of 30 credit hours. This requirement includes six credit hours for the writing of an acceptable thesis based on research, six credit hours of directed research, the first graduate statistics course, and fifteen credit hours of graduate content courses chosen by the student and his/her committee.

The programs leading to the Ph.D. in experimental psychology and clinical psychology have a residence requirement as specified in the general section of the catalog. However, the time required to complete course work and a thesis based upon an original investigation ordinarily is longer than that required for residence.

The Department believes the best graduate education involves close working relationships between faculty and students. Thus, a high faculty to student ratio and small class size characterize our graduate programs. Every incoming student is expected to work with a faculty member as a means of gaining valuable teaching, research, and professional experience. There also are opportunities for individualized study and experience in directed readings, research, and supervised teaching. A faculty committee, selected to represent the student’s interest, will assist the student in planning an appropriate graduate program.

Basic program requirements for all doctoral students are a minimum of 60 hours consisting of PSY 611 and 661; two statistics courses; five courses selected from PSY 522 or PSY 524, PSY 551 or PSY 520, PSY 556, PSY 558, PSY 561, PSY 567, PSY 634, PSY 641 (students in the clinical program are required to take 4 of these courses); 12 hours of elective graduate content courses; 12 hours of directed research; and 6 hours of thesis credit.

Experimental Psychology Program

The goal of this program is to prepare students for careers in college teaching and research. All students will be expected to demonstrate a high level of competence in one of the specialty areas listed below. Students also will be expected to demonstrate competence in statistics and experimental design, and in several areas of general psychology outside their specialty area. Competence will be assessed in terms of performance in courses, research projects, teaching, and a comprehensive examination. The comprehensive exam is given at the end of the second year of graduate study or at the end of the first year for students entering with a master’s degree from another university. The Department offers the following specialty areas within experimental psychology:

Developmental

The program offers lifespan training in social, cognitive, and psychobiological development. With children and adolescents, concentrated study is available in the areas of play, communicative competence, emotional development, friendship evolution, peer relations, learning, and information processing. Students are expected to become well-versed in developmental theory and methodology, as well as actively involved in research. Besides offering applied experience with preschool children in the Department’s Child Study Center, the program provides opportunities to work with developmentally disabled children at the Eastern Maine Medical Center. (Faculty: Eilers, Erdley, D. Hayes, M. Hayes, LaFreniere).

Cognitive and Biological

This program covers several basic areas of experimental psychology, including cognition, perception, biopsychology, and neuropsychology. Students develop research skills and conduct research in at least one specialty area. Students also become familiar with areas of general psychology outside their specialty, and with statistics and experimental design. Students work closely with a research advisor, and begin research involvement in the first year. There are many opportunities for individualized study and directed readings. Opportunities for teaching are available to advanced graduate students. Applicants should write to faculty members in their area of interest, with whom they might want to do research. (Faculty: Elias, Farthing, Martindale, Robbins, Rosenwasser, Smith {Coordinator}.

Social

The social psychology program, by emphasizing both basic and applied research at the Ph.D. level, offers graduate training to prepare future social psychologists for careers in academic institutions and/or applied settings. This program is designed to produce well-rounded academicians and practitioners by fostering in students a solid understanding of theory and research in social psychology, as well as knowledge of how social research can be applied to comprehend and solve practical problems. Graduate students are trained to think conceptually and to acquire proficiency in social behavior analysis, research methodology, statistics, scholarly writing, oral presentation, and teaching. Faculty research specializations include intergroup relations, stereotyping, social conflict, group dynamics, gender issues, social cognition, political psychology, attraction, relationships, and health. (Faculty: Alexander, Gold)

Clinical Psychology Program

The Clinical Psychology Training Program prepares students for the doctorate (Ph.D.) in psychology and for careers combining clinical practice with research. The program is accredited by the American Psychological Association and adheres to the scientist-practitioner model.

An academic core provides the foundation of knowledge in the areas of general and experimental psychology as well as psychotherapy, psychopathology, assessment, professional issues and ethics, and clinical research methods. Clinical training is centered around course work, individual tutorials in research, and clinical experiences conducted by professional models actively engaged in careers in those areas. Students are given increasing responsibility for the content and emphasis of their training by being encouraged to sample a wide variety of training opportunities at the University and in the community. They are encouraged to articulate career objectives early in training, and to contribute to modifications in the program to meet their goals. Applicants are urged to match their interests with those of the clinical, social, developmental, or general psychology faculty and to specify areas of compatibility. Students in the general track receive training from a generalist perspective. The developmental-clinical track is described below.

The Psychology Department’s Psychological Services Center serves as the primary practicum training agency with additional practicum experience available at inpatient, outpatient, community, and hospital settings elsewhere in Maine. Core training in the traditional areas of clinical psychology is supplemented with opportunities for innovative approaches to psychotherapy and community involvement; geographic considerations permit special attention to rural problems.

Ph.D. training culminates with the doctoral dissertation and a full-year internship in an approved clinical setting. (Faculty: Hecker, Nangle, Sigmon, Thorpe, Zeman)

Developmental-Clinical Track in the Clinical Program

The developmental-clinical track offers joint training in developmental and clinical psychology, resulting in eligibility for licensing as a clinical psychologist with expertise in child psychology. Students complete core programs in clinical and developmental psychology, in addition to the practicum, internship, and dissertation requirements of the traditional clinical program.

Research Facilities

Facilities for experimental and clinical research include laboratories for the study of animal behavior, operant conditioning, social psychology, behavioral gerontology, and anxiety disorders. There are also rooms designed for observation and audio-visual recording of behavior, as well as an electrically-shielded room for electro-physiological recordings. The department also operates a Pre-school Child Study Center for instructional and research purposes. Research opportunities are also provided through faculty affiliation with the Exceptional Child Research Institute and the University Affiliated Program at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

Graduate Faculty

Jeffrey E. Hecker, Ph.D. (Maine, 1986), Associate Professor, Chair. Anxiety disorders, cognitive behavior therapy, juvenile sex offending.

Alan Cobo-Lewis, Ph.D. (University of Wisconsin, 1992), Associate Professor. Visual perception; language development; statistical and computational methods.

Rebecca Eilers, Ph.D. (University of Washington, 1972). Language development, bilingualism.

Merrill F. Elias, Ph.D. (Purdue, 1963), Professor. Neurobiological correlates of hypertension, age, and cardiovascular disease; behavioral-cardiovascular epidemiology and aging.

Cynthia A. Erdley, Ph.D. (University of Illinois, 1992), Associate Professor. Social development, children’s peer relationships, children’s social-cognitive processes.

G. William Farthing, Ph.D. (Missouri, 1969), Professor. Decision-making, risk-taking behavior, intrinsic motivation.

Joel A. Gold, Ph.D. (Colorado State, 1966), Professor. Interpersonal attraction (love, equity, jealousy); authoritarianism.

Donald S. Hayes, Ph.D. (Iowa, 1975), Associate Professor. Mass media effects in children; children’s memory functioning; children’s friendships.

Marie J. Hayes, Ph.D. (Northeastern, 1979), Associate Professor. Psychological determinants of development in infancy; sleep state organizations and sleep habits; mother-infant attachment.

Peter LaFreniere, Ph.D. (Minnesota, 1982), Professor. Director of Child Study Center. Ethology; developmental psychopathology; attachment and early peer relations.

Colin Martindale, Ph.D. (Harvard, 1970), Professor. Aesthetics; cognition; creativity.

Douglas W. Nangle, Ph.D. (West Virginia University, Morgantown, 1993), Associate Professor. Child and adolescent peer relations; assessment and treatment of juvenile sex offenders.

Alan M. Rosenwasser, Ph.D. (Northeastern, 1980), Professor. Biopsychology and behavioral neurosciences; mechanisms and functions of circadian and other biological rhythms.

Richard M. Ryckman, Ph.D. (SUNY, Buffalo, 1968), Professor Emeritus. Individual differences in competitive attitude, physical self-efficacy, and locus of control; physique stereotyping; health psychology, and sport psychology.

Sandra T. Sigmon, Ph.D. (North Carolina at Greensboro, 1989), Associate Professor, Director of Clinical Training, Graduate Coordinator. Seasonal affective disorder; depression; coping with stress and health-related problems; gender issues in psychopathology.

Laurence D. Smith, Ph.D. (New Hampshire, 1982), Associate Professor. History and philosophy of psychology; psychology of science; intuitive statistics; perception of graphs.

William F. Stone, Ph.D. (Florida, 1963), Professor Emeritus. Political psychology, humanistic and authoritarian personality, attitudes and ideology.

D. Alan Stubbs, Ph.D. (George Washington, 1967), Professor. Teaching interests: perception, animal behavior, and learning. Research interests: picture perception, perception of graphs, multimedia.

Geoffrey L. Thorpe, Ph.D., ABBP (Rutgers, 1973), Professor. Cognitive-behavior therapy; anxiety disorders.

Janice Zeman, Ph.D. (Vanderbilt, 1991), Associate Professor. Child-clinical, emotional development in children; pediatric psychology.

Associate Graduate Faculty

Jeffrey Aston, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Jonathan Borkum, Ph.D., Faculty Associate

Susanne Carol Duffy, Ph.D., Faculty Associate

Penelope K. Elias, Ph.D., Senior Research Associate and Adjunct Associate Professor

Margaret Fernald, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Christine Fink, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Bruce Hale, Ph.D., Cooperating Professor

Jerold Hambright, Ph.D. Clinical Associate

Jonathan Heeren, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Anne Hess, Ph.D., Clinical Associate Professor

Keith Houde, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Gina Kenney, Psy.D., Clinical Associate

Larissa Mead, Ph.D., Clinical Assistant Professor

David Mills, Ph.D., Faculty Associate

Karen Mosher, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Philip S. Pierce, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Kevin Polk, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Lucy Quimby, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Susan Righthand, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Robert Riley, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Michael Robbins, Ph.D., Cooperating Associate Professor

Raymond C. Russ, Ph.D., Faculty Associate

Laura Santilli, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Susanne Stiefel, Ph.D., Clinical Associate

Cristin Sullivan, Ph.D., Clinical Associate