Department of Psychology

Overview

Faculty

• Associate Professor Lauren Littlefield
• Professor Jim Siemen

The Clinical/Counseling program in Psychology is designed to prepare students interested in going into the helping professions and human services. Course work and related experiences should provide students with a foundation for graduate work, or, in some cases, entry level positions in counseling, school psychology, clinical psychology, child/adolescent assessment and intervention, occupational therapy, rehabilitation psychology, and other areas within the mental health field.

The Clinical/Counseling track helps students to develop an array of skills that are quite useful for a number of post-undergraduate pursuits. Feedback from former students has clearly indicated that transitioning into graduate school, research work, and entry level occupations has been quite easy. This is likely due to the interactive, hands on approach used in many of our classes. Our students learn how to work individually and in groups. They learn how to think critically and to make professional style presentations. They learn research and testing techniques not commonly offered in undergraduate institutions. Specifically within the Clinical/Counseling concentration, students can learn how to use biofeedback equipment and other psychophysiological instrumentation to see how physical measures are affected by psychological variables. Students also have opportunities to learn how to administer a variety of clinical measures in order to assist in diagnosis of psychopathological conditions.

Techniques range from clinical interviewing and paper-and-pencil testing to the use of computerized tests. Students are invited to take a full year of psychopathology which allows for very deep explorations regarding the etiology, symptoms, and treatments of a large variety of abnormal behaviors.

All students work closely with a clinical or counseling faculty member on a senior research project of interest to the student. By graduation, most students have worked on at least one additional project with a faculty member and played a role in presenting the findings at a regional psychology conference.

In its first year (1998-99), there were five psychology majors who graduated with clinical/counseling distinction. By the next academic year, 1999-00, that number had grown to eleven. As of right now, the clinical/counseling program is averaging 24 graduates per year, making it one of the largest specialized concentrations on campus. In the short period of time the Clinical/Counseling psychology program has been in existence, it has helped students get accepted into a number of graduate programs including those in the following human service specializations: clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work, developmental psychology, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. In addition, several students have also gone on to both clinical research positions and careers in child care or teaching.

Course Requirements

A. Requirements of all General Psychology Majors

• General Psychology (PSY 111, 112)
• Biology, Chemistry, or Physics (2 semester sequence)
• Psychology Statistics (MAT 109 or ECN 215 considered as a substitute for PSY 309)
• Research Design (PSY 390)
• Senior Seminar, non credit-bearing (PSY 399 and 400)
• Senior Capstone Experience (PSY SCE)

B. The Clinical/Counseling Concentration in Psychology

Clinical/Counseling students must take 7 additional courses (rather than the 5 required for those seeking the general B. A. in Psychology), 3 of which are lab courses.

B1. Clinical/Counseling Core (no fewer than four of the following six courses)

• Theories of Personality (PSY 331)
• Psychopathology I (PSY 332)
• Psychopathology II (PSY 334)
• Tests and Measurements (PSY 333)
• Theories and Processes of Counseling (PSY 404)
• Psychology Internship (PSY 490-491)

B2. Clinical/Counseling Lab Courses - choose 2

• Health Psychology (PSY 320)
• Behavior Modification (PSY 403)
• Child Assessment (PSY 401)
• Human Neuropsychology (PSY 410)*
• Advanced Problems (PSY 401); with prior approval of the Clinical/Counseling faculty

*one of the Neuroscience Research Methods courses (topics vary)

B3. Biological Lab Courses - choose 1

• Biopsychology (PSY 310)
• Learning (PSY 313)
• Psychopharmacology (PSY 405)
• Neuroscience Research Methods (PSY 410)- any topic other than Human Neuropsychology

C. The Senior Thesis in Psychology

A senior thesis related to the provision of human services and assessments, approved in advance by the Clinical/Counseling faculty.

D. Electives

The following are non-required course offerings that would provide supplemental learning experiences for Clinical/Counseling students.

Recommended Elective Courses

• Lifespan Developmental Psych (PSY 302)
• Social Psychology (PSY 321)

Related Elective Courses

• Drugs and Behavior (PSY 305)
• Intro to Sociology (SOC 101)
• Intro to Philosophy (PHL 100)
• The Family (SOC 212)
• Medical Ethics (PHL 325)
• Sociology of Childhood (SOC 313)
• Educational Psychology (EDU 302)
• Intro to Social Welfare (SOC 382)

Internships Summary

Over the course of the past three and one half years, the Psychology Department's internship program has helped 74 students in a total of 32 different internship placements. Each student is permitted to take up to two internship classes, so several students participated in at two different settings. The average number of students participating in an internship placement each semester was 10.4.

The most common placements during this most recent time period include:

• Radcliffe Creek school where students work very closely with children up to age 14 with learning disability and/or attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Eight students have been placed at Radcliffe Creek School and three currently work there, as a result of the internship exposure, following graduation.
• Elementary Guidance Counselors at local public schools where students work with behavioral concerns that have impact on academic success. Often our students are asked to work with groups on anger management, conflict resolution, and impulse control. Eight students have been placed with local elementary guidance personnel.
• Regional Midshore Mental Health Outpatient Clinic where students shadow a PhD Psychologist working with outpatient psychiatric patients. These students work on treatment planning, psychological testing, team staff development, individual and family counseling sessions, and chart review. Four students have participated at the Regional Midshore Mental Health Outpatient Clinic.
• Crossroads Community Center where students work with primarily post-psychiatric hospital patients in a day-treatment setting. These students participate in direct treatment and patient care, often-leading group counseling sessions and engaging in personal interactions. Eight students have participated at Crossroads Community Center and two are currently employed there as a result of their internship exposure.
• Uppershore Community Mental Health Center Inpatient Units where students shadow a PhD Psychologist working with inpatient psychiatric patients. These students work on direct treatment planning, testing, group therapy activities, and team staff development. Ten students have participated at the Uppershore Community Mental Health Center Inpatient hospital.

Other students have participated in a wide variety of internship experiences. Some include Physical therapy units, inpatient units for children and adolescents (e.g., the Meadowood Program in Delaware, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Health program, & The Jefferson School), college and vocational counseling, and detention centers. Others include drug and alcohol rehabilitation centers, residential treatment facilities for developmentally disabled youth, other inpatient psychiatric facilities (e.g., the Veterans Hospital in Baltimore & Sheppard-Pratt Hospital in Baltimore). Still others include working with cancer survivors and their families, working with the elderly, working with learning disabled adolescents at a local middle school, working with children at special summer camps, and working with social/emotional children in school based intervention programs.

The bottom-line is that there are a very large number of experiences relevant to the work of psychology and our students have taken advantage of the opportunity to explore a wide variety of them.

While most of the value of sustaining a viable psychology internship program is for student training, much goodwill and networking is generated in the process. Washington College and the community coexist in a relationship where mutual needs are often met by the resources of the other, and nowhere is this any better exemplified than our psychology internship activity. Countless students have benefited by professional development and countless community agencies have benefited by an influx of our energy and expertise.

Application

Faculty supervisor: Professor Jim Siemen

Any interested Washington College junior or senior student may apply for one of the Psychology Department's internships. Requirements for internship activity include the following:

1. The candidate for an internship should have some experience in psychology and/or sociology coursework.
2. When selected, the intern is expected to participate in the day-to-day activities that pertain to psychological delivery systems. Some examples include counseling, testing, education, participation in team meetings, continuing education experiences, interagency consultations, and any other activities that constitute the mechanisms for psychological intervention. In general, a minimum of 140 hours of direct contact is necessary for each section of the internship class. This averages out to about 10 per week in a normal semester calendar.
3. During the semester, each student will participate in classroom activity. This activity will entail discussions on the nature and activity of the psychological delivery system consistent with specific placements, and discussions in general on various psychotherapeutic intervention strategies.
4. Each student will be required to read material consistent with the intervention strategies used at their placement sites. This onsite reading will be suggested and monitored by the agency supervisor. Also, each student will be given reading material, by the faculty supervisor, on therapy interventions for an area of psychopathology, and report to the class, psychotherapy strategies specific to that one major psychological pathology.
5. A journal will be kept to document, much like a diary, all intern activities. This journal should include a running account of the people worked with, training, interactions with colleagues, and any other events that pertain to the placement. At the end of the journal, each intern will be asked to critique the internship placement and outlining ways that the experience could be more enriching.
6. Each intern is required to obtain malpractice insurance. See faculty supervisor for information and an application. Typical fee is about $23.00 for one year of coverage.

Common Internships

Some of the placements are rarely used, some are specific for a specific type of candidate, but most are available every semester. This portion of the handout is to recruit students into the course and to demonstrate the wide range of psychological employment, consultation, and activities.

Some recent examples of Psychology Internship placements include: