James Emshoff, Program Director
(404) 651-2029 phone
jemshoff@gsu.edu e-mail
(404) 651-1391 fax

For application materials contact:
Korinne Louison
(404) 651-1254 phone
psykgl@panther.gsu.edu e-mail
(404) 651-1391 fax

GSU offers an APA - accredited clinical program as well as free-standing community program. Students may apply to either program or to both programs simultaneously. Students who apply in this manner are reviewed independently of the reviews made for each free-standing program. Students admitted into this program complete the requirements for each program. The Community-Clinical program of Georgia State U. offers the "best of both worlds." Students participate in the full curricula and practical experiences for the free-standing community and clinical programs. Thus, students develop conceptual and methodological skills appropriate for the intervention at multiple levels, including individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities. The program seeks to blend the experimental psychologist's focus on methodologically rigorous research and the applied psychologist's interest in understanding and influencing human behavior in complex social settings. For this reason, traditional training in methods, statistics, individual psychology, and social psychology is supplemented by an extensive curriculum emphasizing methods for individual, family, organizational and community research and action, including the principle of prevention, community intervention, and treatment, multi-level assessment, organizational change and development, consultation and program evaluation.

The program is most appropriate for students who are interested in research and intervention in social and environmental problems, such as drug abuse, troubled youth, homelessness, crime and violence, disasters and other environmental stressors, and/or in the study and creation of resources and interventions that may combat such problems such as counseling, social support, service provision, grass-root organizations, advocacy, public policy, and community empowerment.

GSU is located in downtown Atlanta, only a few blocks away from the State Capitol, strate offices, and City Hall. Access to governmental, policy, and community organizations is generally easily facilitated. Students may expect to find employment in various levels of government, human service agencies, research centers, consulting firms and academia.

All students are required to take a course, Issues in Human Diversity in Psychology. The faculty is diverse across several dimensions, and several members are engaged in cross-cultural research. Attention to diversity is given when recruiting students, staff, and faculty. There is a departmental Diversity Committee comprised of graduate students and faculty. This committee is recently contracted to have a survey administered to all undergraduate and graduate students, as well as faculty. The survey assessed the department's perceptions of issues of diversity. The results will be used to guide further action.