PhD in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine

The program designed to prepare students to work as clinical researchers and practitioners in health care settings. The program provides broad and general training in the foundations of psychology and in clinical psychology as a scientist-practitioner program. Students are exposed to professional roles that represent the activities of clinical psychologists who study the clinical psychology of health and provide behavioral medicine services. The theoretical emphasis is one based on knowledge of the physiological and psychological antecedents of illness and health. The emphasis on clinical health psychology and behavioral medicine is to integrate biological and behavioral science approaches to the promotion of health, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of illness and health. The program emphasizes an interdisciplinary understanding of bio psychosocial factors relevant to health and illness and the applications of this knowledge to prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. This program is offered in collaboration with their sister department at the UNT Health Science Center. Professional study requires a minimum of 90 semester hours, including 20 hours of general psychology (quantitative methods, history and systems, human development, physiology, and social psychology) and clinical core courses (psychological assessment, clinical health psychology, practicum, research design, ethics, psychopathology, psychotherapy, interventions, multicultural issues, psychotherapy supervision, and preceptor-ship). Students are continually involved in clinical and research experiences before culminating professional preparation with a one-year, full-time clinical internship. The doctoral degree plans require a minimum of 42 hours of graduate credit beyond the master's degree, or 72 credits beyond the bachelor's degree, taken within the UNT system.