More Information about our Clinical Program

Our clinical program provides for specialized training in the following methodological and substantive areas (among others):

Behavior genetics–includes work on the heritability of personality dimensions, adult and child disorders, and cognitive functioning; identifying genetic risk (and identifying specific risk genes) for schizophrenia, substance use, and related disorders; investigation of how genes and environment combine to influence the development of personality and psychopathology using family, twin, twin-family, and adoption designs; longitudinal studies of children at high-risk for developing psychopathology.

Biological bases of psychopathology–includes psychophysiological and neuropsychological approaches to the study of psychopathology; affective neuroscience; psychophysiology of emotion; brain-behavior relationships in adults and children; neurotransmitter activity and behavior; behavioral pharmacology; biopharmacological basis of anxiety disorders.

Classification and assessment–includes the use of quantitative methods to identify and distinguish psychopathological and other entities; measuring major dimensions of personality and investigating their relationship to psychopathology; research on the MMPI-2 and cross cultural measures of psychopathology; assessment of adolescent drug use and abuse.

Clinical disorders and their phenomenology–includes the study of substance use disorders, eating disorders, schizophrenia, antisocial behavior and personality disorders, criminality, anxiety and mood disorders, and disorders of childhood including attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder, and conduct disorder; comorbidity of mood, anxiety, antisocial, and substance use disorders.

Developmental psychopathology–includes projects on children at risk for psychopathology due to trauma, maltreatment, neglect, poverty, and homelessness; adolescents and young adults at risk for eating disorders; twin and adoptive children at risk for alcoholism, drug abuse, externalizing psychopathology, and mood and anxiety disorders; relational aggression in children; socioemotional development; attachment; developmental behavioral genetics; neuropsychology and cognitive functioning in children; the relation of puberty to psychopathology; brain development and psychosocial development; pharmacology of developmental disorders (e.g., PKU). As noted on the program’s main web page, specialized training in child clinical psychology is provided through the Developmental Psychopathology and Clinical Science (DPCS) track of the program, which is jointly administered by the Department of Psychology and the Institute of Child Development.

Stress, culture, and emotion– includes the study of stress and coping in severe environmental associations; stress and resilience in children; effects of adopting Asian children into Minnesota families.

Neurobehavioral Research Traineeships

Located within the main adult component of our clinical program, based in the Psychology Department, is a specialized traineeship funded by a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) training grant that has as its focus the training of biologically sophisticated clinical psychologists. The purpose of this NIMH-funded traineeship is to produce clinical students who can effectively integrate neurobiology, behavior genetics, and psychophysiology in the study of psychopathology and personality. Clinical psychology graduate students with biological interests typically apply for this NIMH traineeship at the end of their second year in the program. Traineeships are awarded competitively, based on merit, for two years, allowing the advanced clinical student to develop specialized skills in this area. In addition to course work and seminars, trainees run a colloquium series featuring nationally recognized psychopathology researchers and receive funds to travel to national conferences to present research findings.

Accreditation

Our clinical program is accredited by the American Psychological Association and by the Academy of Clinical Psychological Science.

Financing Your Education

Financial support for graduate students includes graduate school and departmental fellowships, research assistantships, traineeships from our Neurobehavioral training program and from the university’s Center for Cognitive Sciences, teaching assistantships, teaching instructor appointments, and from some practicum agencies. Essentially all of our clinical graduate students receive financial support from one or more of these sources. These financial packages include tuition remission along with a financial stipend to cover living expenses. Continued financial support in second and later years in the program is, of course, dependent on merit. However, essentially all students have quarter-time (50% tuition remission) or half-time (100% tuition remission) appointments through 4 years of graduate school.