Faculty
Emphasis Areas.
An important feature of the program is specialized
training in one of these three areas: behavioral
medicine/health psychology, experimental psychology,
and neuropsychology. Students are selected by
each emphasis area, and applicants are encouraged to
choose potential mentors from the area in which they
are interested.
Behavioral
Medicine/Health Psychology This
emphasis area focuses on developing and integrating
knowledge and techniques in behavioral and
biomedical science with application to prevention,
diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of a wide
range of health conditions. Current faculty
interests include health disparities, quality of
life, chronic illness care and prevention,
cultural and gender bias, factors in disease
prevention and treatment and tobacco use.
Students in this emphasis area may obtain an M.P.H.
in addition to their Ph.D. through a cooperative
relationship with the SDSU Graduate School of Public
Health.
Experimental
Psychopathology Experimental
Psychopathology is the study of the causes,
characteristics, and treatment of psychological
dysfunction. Theory and research in this area
emphasize assessment and treatment of both childhood
and adult disorders. Experimental psychopathology is
broadly defined to provide students flexibility in
deciding upon a particular area for emphasis.
Current faculty interests include anxiety disorders,
chronic depression disorders, sleep disorders,
schizophrenia, cultural issues in service delivery,
child maltreatment, and mental health services for
children.
Neuropsychology
Clinical neuropsychology is a scientific discipline
encompassing identification, description,
multivariate quantification, and remediation of
psychological impairments resulting from central
nervous system disease and trauma. The
neuropsychology emphasis area provides a systematic
program in human clinical neuropsychology.
Current faculty interests include environmental
impact on test performance, substance use and the
neurological effects, cognitive function, and
Alzheimer’s disease. Faculty and students have
access to all of the latest imaging techniques for
use in their research.
Child/Developmental
Psychology While there is not an
emphasis area in child or developmental psychology,
there are any number of faculty from both campuses
who have strong research interests in children and
family issues. It is therefore possible to be
fully trained in one of the three existing emphasis
areas, using this population as the focus of
interest.
After completing the core
curriculum, formal training in the emphasis areas
includes: a) A year long seminar in the scientific
and clinical aspects of the emphasis area; b)
Advanced clinical and didactic training and
experience related to the emphasis area; and c)
Continued research and mentoring and experience in
the emphasis area.
