Program Overview
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Welcome to the website for DePaul University's Community Psychology M.A./Ph.D. Program. The Community Psychology Program prepares students to become excellent researchers, intervention specialists, consultants, and program evaluators who have a firm grounding in the theory, research, and practice of Community Psychology.
Our training program has a special focus on working with underserved, minority populations (e.g., low-income urban children, adolescents, families, and adults) and community-based organizations. We invite you to explore our website so that you can find out more about our program.
We believe there is a need to equip students with psychological skills that are targeted toward non-individually oriented topics, such as community and organizational change, and evaluators of social policy. Students in the Community Ph.D. program will be trained in research methodologies to be applied to social and community interventions. These students will gain an understanding of social-community change from a public health perspective rather than a traditional individual-counseling orientation and will be collaborating with either community agencies, not-for-profit groups or grass-roots organizations. Their principle roles are in research, evaluation, program development and other non-clinical activities.
The community psychology program utilizes a unique approach toward training graduate students. The program will stress training community professionals who work in the public or private sector with diverse gender, ethnic, racial, and sexual orientation populations. This program exemplifies the mission of DePaul University through its strong emphasis on service to others. An objective of training will be to provide graduate students with educational and practical skills for scientific and leadership development as community advocates of social justice and empowerment. The Community faculty and supervisors have both an intra- and interdisciplinary orientation, including but not limited to, social, experimental, and feminist psychology, plus sociology and public service.
The Community program seeks to achieve four inter-related goals in training, specifically:
- Provide students with a breadth of knowledge in the content of Community Psychology
- Provide statistical and methodological foundations in general psychology to demonstrate competence in core areas within the discipline
- Provide the means to contribute to new developments in the field of Community Psychology and the social basis of behavior
- Provide for the specific needs of the students and the communities they will serve
Since the Community Program has an ecological-community orientation that emphasizes a public health model rather than a clinical or medical model, those who have no specific interest in this area would be better served by another program. In particular, those having interests in traditional clinical work would not find the community program a good fit. Students accepted in the Community program are ineligible to transfer into the clinical program.
Using a research-in-action training model, our program focuses on providing students with the theory, knowledge, skills, and experience to work effectively with underserved communities to promote positive change, to examine the interaction between the individual and the environment, and to understand how contextual issues affect individuals and communities. Specifically, we train students to do the following:
- Develop, implement, and evaluate preventive interventions
- Conduct action research that will help us to better understand and address social problems
- Evaluate community-based programs to help them gather information that will lead to better service provision to disadvantaged populations
- Consult with non-profit social service organizations to build organizational capacity
- Teach and conduct community research in college and university settings.
Applications
Admission into DePaul's Community Psychology M.A./Ph.D. program is very competitive. Students that are offered admission demonstrate a deep desire for learning and a commitment to service that is commensurate with the mission of the University. Learn more about admission requirements for the program.
We typically admit 3 students per year (out of 25-50 applications), and these students are fully funded with tuition waivers and stipends (serving 20 hour per week on research and teaching assistantships). The Community Program has a mentorship model, so fit with faculty interests is important; however, students often have the opportunity to work closely with more than one faculty member.
The application deadline is December 5 (for admittance in the following fall). Interviews are typically held in late February, and offers are typically made in early March, although schedules can vary from year to year.
Courses
Students take core courses in psychology in research methods, statistics, diversity, and teaching, and specialty courses in Community Psychology, interventions, program evaluation, grant writing, and consultation. Students take at least two courses outside of our department (e.g., public services and sociology), and they can take up to eight interdisciplinary courses. Students complete empirical master's theses and doctoral dissertations, using qualitative and/or quantitative methods. These research projects are typically focused on marginalized populations and are geared to better understanding social or psychological problems and/or evaluating interventions.
The fieldwork sequence is a distinctive strength of our community program curriculum that illustrates our commitment to developing doctoral students' capacity to address social and community concerns in a sophisticated, state-of-the science manner. Students complete 2 years of fieldwork practica to meet the needs of 1 or 2 community-based organizations as part of their course fieldwork in community settings. This supervised fieldwork experience is complemented by courses and training in program evaluation and consultation.
The courses in evaluation and consultation provide students with theory and knowledge, and the fieldwork practicum provides students with the opportunity to apply what they learned in coursework and practice their skills, using a service learning approach, where both students and organizations benefit. Thus, this course sequence enables students to craft an experience that is of interest to them, in order to apply knowledge and theory and hone important collaborative consultation and evaluation skills. Students first learn about an organization and do a site assessment, then gain entre and develop a contract. They implement the agreed upon project (which often includes data collection, analysis, and feedback), and produce a product for the agency (e.g., training manual, evaluation report, etc.).
They also write up a literature review on a topic relevant to the agency, so that the agency can use this material in grant proposals, annual reports and other documents. Students give reports to the class on their progress each week and do formal presentations related to their final projects and literature reviews. Typical experiences include teaching organizations about evaluation; conducting interviews, workshops and focus groups; and designing and implementing a needs assessment, process evaluation, or outcome evaluation.
Given the diversity in Chicago, students have numerous options to work with any particular population and setting of interest. We attempt to facilitate paid opportunities when feasible, in order to bolster graduate student funding; however, this may or may not be possible, depending on student interests, community-based organizational needs, and organizational funding situations.
Academics
The academic life at DePaul is rich with innovative, community-based research, and courses that challenge students through critical reflection and the use of rigorous methodologies. Please refer to the course requirements checklistfor information on the classes offered in the community program and their sequence. The recommended timeline shows a typical path that students follow as they pursue their degree. In addition students have an opportunity to acquire a number of certificates such as the Certificate in Community Development and the Women's and Gender Studies Graduate Certificate Program .
Faculty
The Community Psychology Program includes 13 interdisciplinary faculty members, whose research interests focus on a variety of social and mental health issues, urban and disadvantaged populations, and prevention and intervention. For more information about our distinguished faculty, simply click on the name of a faculty member to view their personal faculty page.
Douglas F. Cellar, Ph.D.
Organizational change, development, and motivation applied to
community settings; chronic illness.
Joseph R. Ferrari, Ph.D.
Caregiving and volunteerism; sense of community; addiction recovery;
faith and civic engagement; poverty perceptions.
Patrick Fowler, Ph.D.
Mental health policy; child welfare and housing problems; prevention
and intervention.
Gary W. Harper, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Adolescent HIV prevention; gay/bisexual youth of color;
community-university partnerships; adolescents living with HIV.
Leonard A. Jason, Ph.D.
Public policy; prevention; substance use; chronic illness; recovery homes.
Christopher B. Keys, Ph.D.
Empowerment of people with disabilities; culture and attitudes;
community research methods.
Fr. Patrick McDevitt, Ph.D.
Psychology and spirituality; social justice.
Susan Dvorak McMahon, Ph.D.
Urban youth; school-based intervention; contextual and individual risk
& protective factors.
LaVome W. Robinson, Ph.D., ABPP
Prevention; minority mental health; adolescent risk and resiliency.
Howard Rosing, Ph.D.
Urban food access; migration; economic restructuring; community health.
Bernadette Sánchez, Ph.D.
Positive youth development; youth mentoring; culture; education.
Nathan Todd, Ph.D.
Engagement with social justice; religious settings; Whiteness.
Midge Wilson, Ph.D.
Physical attractiveness/body size and ethnicity; humor; gender;
feminist scholarship.
Student Resources
This page contains more information about the field of community psychology in general. This information may help to provide some background for DePaul's niche in the field.
Program Highlights
Learn more about what makes DePaul University's Community Psychology program unique.
Living in Chicago
DePaul students not only enjoy the fun and excitement of living in Chicago, they benefit from the multifaceted and multi-cultural community, and the many ways the city becomes an integral part of their educational experience.
Contact
For general inquiries or admissions information, please contact DePaul University's Psychology Department at (773) 325-7887 or gradpsych@depaul.edu.