MA General Theoretical Psychology

Fairleigh Dickinson University - United States

The general-theoretical program is designed to provide preparation for (a) further study at the doctoral level in more specialized substantive areas or (b) careers in industry (e.g., advertising/market research, organizational consulting), government (e.g., program evaluation, criminal justice research), education, or health sectors. The program is expected to take two years to complete for full-time students, but can be completed on a part-time basis for those working full-time. Students can be accepted for either the Fall or Spring semester; there are no application deadlines.

All MA students can tailor their elective courses to fit their areas of interest. The following are example elective concentrations (note, up to 6 credits can be taken outside of psychology):

Clinical Psychology: students interested in applying for doctoral programs in clinical psychology could take Psychopathology, Theories of Personality, Developmental Psychology, Biological Bases of Behavior

Social/consumer psychology: students interested in careers in market research could take Applied Social Psychology along with courses from the Silberman College of Business such as Marketing Research and Consumer Behavior

Organizational psychology: students interested in applying for doctoral programs in industrial/organizational psychology or in obtaining research-related careers in industry could take Applied Social Psychology along with courses from the Silberman College of Business such as Organizational Behavior and Strategic Human Resource Management

Behavioral Research Scholar Track: The Behavioral Research Scholar track (BRST) in the general-theoretical program is a selective, research-focused track for MA students with superior academic qualifications (i.e., GRE scores, undergraduate GPA, research experience). The BRST is differentiated form the standard MA program in that BRST students take the same sequence of research-related courses (research methods and two statistics courses) as students in our clinical Ph.D. program (this option is exclusive to students in the BRST). BRST students are also encouraged to complete a master’s thesis.