Legal Psychology Curriculum
Our Psychology Ph.D. Program is designed to train all students in the fundamental areas of psychology. The department extends this training to concentrations in (1) Legal, (2) Health, (3) Social, Cognitive & Neurosciences, and (4) Language Acquisition & Bilingualism. Students with a Legal concentration have an opportunity to conduct research in areas such as detection of deception; facial recognition and eyewitness identification/memory; interviewing and interrogation; jury decision making; child/adult suggestibility, and mental health and the law. Ph.D. candidates are required to complete 78 semester hours.
Course Requirements
1) General Psychology Required Core Courses (33 semester hours)
Prefix/Number |
Course Title |
Credit Hours |
PSYC 6307 |
Applied Correlation and Regression Methods |
3 |
PSYC 6308 |
Experimental Design and Analysis of Variance |
3 |
PSYC 6334 |
Foundations of Research |
3 |
PSYC 6380 |
First Year Research I |
3 |
PSYC 6381 |
First Year Research II |
3 |
PSYC 6385 |
Research Applications (must be taken twice) |
6 |
PSYC 6395 |
Masters Thesis I |
3 |
PSYC 6396 |
Masters Thesis II |
3 |
PSYC 6398 |
Dissertation I |
3 |
PSYC 6399 |
Dissertation II |
3 |
Total credits in this section |
|
33 |
2) Breadth Course Requirement (Select 2 courses)
Prefix/Number |
Course Title |
Credit Hours |
PSYC 6309 |
Seminar in Psychopathology |
3 |
PSYC 6327 |
Seminar in Social/Cultural Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6330 |
Social Behavior |
3 |
PSYC 6357 |
Seminar in Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6367 |
Seminar in Cognitive Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6371 |
Animal Learning & Behavior |
3 |
PSYC 6372 |
Behavioral Neuroscience |
3 |
PSYC 6376 |
Developmental Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6377 |
Seminar in Behavioral Neuroscience |
3 |
|
|
|
Total credits in this section |
|
6 |
3) Required Concentration Course Requirement (select 4 courses)
Prefix/Number |
Course Title |
Credit Hours |
PSYC 6344 |
Survey of Legal Psychology (required) |
3 |
PSYC 6342 |
Special Topics in Psychology & Law (can be repeated) |
3 |
PSYC 6343 |
Clinical Issues in Legal Psychology |
3 |
Select any one additional course from the below list |
|
|
PSYC 6302 |
Structural Equation Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6303 |
Seminar in Meta-Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6304 |
Categorical Data Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6313 |
Multilevel Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6223 |
Psychometrics |
3 |
PSYC 6335 |
Research Design/Data Analysis |
3 |
Total credits in this section |
|
12 |
4) Concentration Elective Course Menu (select 2 courses)
Prefix/Number |
Course Title |
Credit Hours |
PSYC 6302 |
Structural Equation Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6303 |
Seminar in Meta-Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6304 |
Categorical Data Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6313 |
Multilevel Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6312 |
Program Evaluation |
3 |
PSYC 6317 |
Behavioral/Mental Health Intervention |
3 |
PSYC 6323 |
Psychometrics |
3 |
PSYC 6335 |
Research Design/Data Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6356 |
Scientific Writing (can be repeated) |
3 |
PSYC 6390 |
Field Placement (can be repeated) |
3 |
Total credits this section |
|
12 |
5) Psychology Elective Course Menu (select 6 courses)
Prefix/Number |
Course Title |
Credit Hours |
PSYC 5322 |
Theories/Methods Psychotherapy |
3 |
PSYC 5351 |
Behavioral Medicine |
3 |
PSYC 5355 |
Seminar in General Medicine |
3 |
PSYC 5360 |
Clinical Internship (can be repeated up to 2 times) |
3 |
PSYC 6385 |
Research Applications |
3 |
PSYC 6396 |
Thesis II |
3 |
PSYC 6010 |
Quantitative Certification Supplemental Requirement |
3 |
PSYC 6302 |
Structural Equation Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6303 |
Seminar in Meta-Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6304 |
Categorical Data Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6309 |
Seminar in Psychopathology |
3 |
PSYC 6312 |
Program Evaluation |
3 |
PSYC 6313 |
Multilevel Modeling |
3 |
PSYC 6315 |
Psychopharmacology |
3 |
PSYC 6317 |
Behavioral/Mental Health Intervention |
3 |
PSYC 6318 |
Seminar in Psychological Assessment |
3 |
PSYC 6323 |
Psychometrics |
3 |
PSYC 6327 |
Seminar in Social/Cultural Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6328 |
Special Topics in Social/Cultural Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6330 |
Social Behavior |
3 |
PSYC 6335 |
Research Design/Data Analysis |
3 |
PSYC 6342 |
Special Topics in Psychology & Law |
3 |
PSYC 6343 |
Clinical Issues in Legal Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6351 |
Behavioral Medicine |
3 |
PSYC 6355 |
Seminar in General Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6356 |
Scientific Writing |
3 |
PSYC 6357 |
Seminar in Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6358 |
Special Topics in Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6367 |
Seminar in Cognitive Psychology |
3 |
PSYC 6371 |
Animal Learning & Behavior |
3 |
PSYC 6372 |
Behavioral Neuroscience |
3 |
PSYC 6377 |
Seminar in Behavioral Neuroscience |
3 |
PSYC 6378 |
Special Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience |
3 |
PSYC 6385 |
Research Applications (can be repeated) |
3 |
PSYC 6390 |
Field Placement |
3 |
PSYC 6396 |
Thesis II (can be repeated) |
3 |
PSYC 6399 |
Dissertation II (can be repeated) |
3 |
Total credits in this section |
|
18 |
Transfer Students with Graduate Credit
Students accepted into the Ph.D. program with graduate credit from another university must satisfy the same requirements as those beginning their Ph.D. graduate training in Psychology at UTEP without previously earned graduate credits. The student may petition the Graduate Program Committee to accept a maximum of 24 hours of graduate credit completed at another institution. Students who have completed an empirical thesis prior to entering the UTEP Ph.D. program may petition the Graduate Program Committee for waiver of the thesis requirement.