University of North Dakota

The University of North Dakota (UND) is the state’s oldest and largest institution of higher education. It is a major residential university, located on a 570-acre campus in Grand Forks, a community of about 45,000 on the North Dakota-Minnesota border. Grand Forks has been listed by Money Magazine as one of the most livable cities in the United States. UND offers the largest and most diversified graduate education program in the region. The University offers 170 degree programs as well as a variety of academic, social, and cultural services and activities to 10,000 students, including 1,700 graduate students, 500 professional students in law and medicine, and over 9,000 undergraduates.. Abundant cultural and recreational opportunities are found in the area, and the metropolitan centers of Winnipeg (Manitoba) and Minneapolis-St. Paul are readily accessible.

The Department of Psychology at UND offers doctoral programs in Clinical (full APA accreditation) and Experimental Psychology. The department has over 400 undergraduate psychology majors and typically awards six to eight degrees annually. Department outcome statistics and admissions guidelines are presented on our web page at ndwild.psych.und.nodak.edu/dept.

Doctoral Training in Clinical Psychology
The clinical psychology training program at UND awarded its first doctorate in 1960 and has retained full accreditation by the American Psychological Association since 1969. The program endorses a scientist-practitioner model of education and training which embraces the goal of preparing students for careers as academicians, researchers, and/or practitioners. It is our belief that the integration of science and practice is crucial to the formation of good clinical psychologists and to the further development of clinical psychology as a science and a profession. Department faculty model the application of the scientific method to identify and practice empirically-supported clinical assessment and treatment practices. This scientist-practitioner training is expected to guide the professional work of the graduate regardless of the employment setting or career path.

Clinical Program Attributes. The Clinical Program accepts six to eight new clinical students each year. When fully staffed, the program has seven clinical faculty members (six anticipated for 2003-2004). The average clinical doctoral student graduates within five years of enrollment. Our low rate of ABD (all but dissertation) clinical students also compares quite favorably with national averages. Our student attrition rate averages about two per year with resignations usually attributed to personal rather than academic or suitability reasons.

The clinical program provides specialized training in Native American mental health service delivery through our Indians into Psychology Doctoral Education (INPSYDE) program. In fact, about 25 percent of our graduate clinical student body is Native American. We are proud of our leadership role in the education of Native American clinical psychologists. UND is also a leader in the education of future Native American physicians, attorneys, nurses, and other allied health professionals.

About 40 percent of our clinical students are actively involved in teaching each year and 90 percent are members of at least one professional organization. In most years 100 percent of our clinical faculty publish and present their research in peer-reviewed venues. About 25 percent of our clinical students publish annually and 60 percent present their research at regional and national conventions. More than 90 percent of our clinical graduates pass the national EPPP licensure exam on their first try. According to Educational Reporting Service data, UND graduates of the clinical program during the 1997-2000 testing period exceeded the national average by a standard deviation in all eight areas of the EPPP (overall rank of 107th of 431 programs). Internship applicants from the clinical program at the University of North Dakota over the past three years have claimed an average of 627, 496, and 491 therapy, assessment, and supervision hours respectively. These figures appear to exceed the national averages (487, 404 & 409 respectively) reported by Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology for academic scientist-practitioner training programs. All of our intern applicants over the past five years attained accredited positions on the first day of the APPIC computerized assignment system. Approximately 13 percent of our graduates describe themselves as academicians and 26 percent are now employed in medical schools or psychology departments.

Doctoral Training in Experimental Psychology
The Department and its training programs are characterized by several common assumptions about the nature of graduate training. Each student is expected to develop general skills in the scientific method early in the program. By exposing students to a broad spectrum of psychological issues, an attempt is made to establish a firm theoretical and scholarly foundation which can support subsequent specialty training. Students are expected to develop the experimental and quantitative skills necessary to read the literature and conduct research, and the creative flexibility to generate new hypotheses and novel approaches to new and old questions. Presently there are 8 full-time faculty in the Experimental Program, with three areas of emphasis: 1) Applied Cognition; 2) Social Psychology & Law; 3) Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Clinical Faculty

• Alan King, Director of Clinical Training, Associate Professor, Louisiana State University, 1984; areas of interest include personality assessment and development, interpersonal perceptiveness, alcohol research, and general adult psychopathology.
• Jeffrey Holm, Full Professor Ohio University, 1987; areas of interest include the assessment/measurement and treatment of headache and other psychophysiological disorders; development and expression of sexually aggressive behaviors.
• Justin (Doug) McDonald, Director of our Indians into Psychology Doctoral Education (INPSYDE) program, Associate Professor, University of South Dakota, 1992; areas of interest include cross-cultural issues in clinical assessment, research, and graduate training.
• John Tyler, Full Professor, University of Texas, 1970; areas of interest include individual, gender, and cultural differences in conceptualizing mental health.
• Amy Wenzel, Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, 2000; areas of interest include information processing, schema content, and close relationships among individuals with anxiety disorders, postpartum anxiety and depression.
• April Bradley, Assistant Professor, University of Nevada – Reno, 2003; areas of interest include child psychopathology and child custody evaluation processes.

Experimental Faculty

• Jeffrey Weatherly, Department Chairperson, Associate Professor, Washington State University, 1996; areas of interest include contrast and induction effects; variables that influence gambling behavior.
• Mark Grabe, Full Professor, Iowa State University, 1975; areas of interest include the assessment and development of cognitive and metacognitive skills involved in reading and study behavior; instructional technology.
• James Antes, Undergraduate Director, Full Professor, Iowa State University, 1973; areas of interest include visual selective attention, mediation & conflict resolution, behavioral assessment, professional development, & the psychology of women.
• Robert Bennett, Assistant Professor, Auburn University, 1985; areas of interest include learning and environmental factors in development and maintenance of alcohol/drug abuse and alcohol/drug tolerance; pharmacological and cognitive/behavioral treatments for alcohol/drug addiction and abuse.
• F. Richard Ferraro, Full Professor, University of Kansas, 1989; areas of interest include cognitive aging and gerontology, Alzheimer’s Disease, Parkinson’s Disease; cognitive neuropsychology and neuroscience; older men’s and older women’s health; visual word recognition; inhibitory processing in cognitive performance.
• Douglas Peters, Full Professor, Southern Illinois University, 1975; areas of interest include psychology and the law and issues relating to the child witness, eyewitness memory, media effects, and expert testimony.
• Thomas Petros, Full Professor, Kent State University, 1981; areas of interest include reading processes and learning disabilities; the impact of alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine on memory performance.
• Cheryl Terrance, Assistant Professor, Carleton University, 2000; areas of interest include social psychology, gender issues, and perceptions of victims within the courtroom.

Contact Information
Department Chairperson: Jeffrey Weatherly, [email protected]
Clinical Program Director: Alan King, [email protected]
Experimental Program Director: Tom Petros, [email protected]