Department of Psychology
College of Liberal Arts
The Department of Psychology at Jackson State University is a unit of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts
Program Application Materials and Student Selection Process
The GRE requirement has been waived for this year’s applications.
The first step in the application process is to apply to JSU’s Graduate School at the following Graduate Admissions Portal: https://mygradschool.jsums.edu. After creating an account, you will be able to complete the program application process. After entering personal, demographic, and academic information, you will complete the Supplemental Application. You will also find the Application Instructions, Rights, and Consent Form, which includes the instructions for completing the application and a signature line for the applicant to agrees to participate in the admissions screening, evaluation, interview, and selection process. Note that you can also access the documents at the links noted below.
1. Please review the Division of Graduate Studies Prospective Students page at https://www.jsums.edu/
2. The first step in the application process is to complete the admission’s application to JSU’s Graduate School in the Graduate Admissions Portal located at https://mygradschool.jsums.edu
3. After creating an account, you will be able to complete and upload the “Application Instructions, Rights, and Consent Form” and “Supplemental Application” for the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program to the Graduate Admissions Portal.
4. All documentation must be completed and uploaded into the JSU Graduate Admissions Portal for applications to be considered for admission.
**UNIVERSITY IMMUNIZATION REQUIREMENTS
ABOUT THE PROGRAM
More about us
By the time JSU officially gained university status from Mississippi’s state legislature in 1979, the Department of Psychology’s primary focus on research made its move to the School of Liberal Arts a natural transition. Then, Dr. Janet St. Lawrence, a faculty member and clinical psychologist at JSU, began to investigate HIV and STD issues in vulnerable populations during the advent of the AIDS epidemic. Out of this work with those in drug treatment, people contending with incarceration, or people from other at-risk groups, came the genesis of the Community Health Program (CHP). This program became the foremost research division within the Psychology Department and works to provide community service while training students and conducting original studies, which gain national attention. Additionally, during this time period, Dr. Cynthia Ford designed a course to teach psychology from an afro-centric perspective. This type of enhancement to the curriculum highlights JSU’s focus on both cultural and individual diversity and remains a popular elective in the discipline.
LEARN BY DOING
The mission of the Undergraduate Major in the Psychology Department is to expose students to the breadth and depths of the various fields of psychology. Students are encouraged and taught to think critically about psychological issues and to understand the value of empirical investigation. The department seeks to foster each student’s appreciation for the field of psychology and its applications to individual and social problems. The department is dedicated to high standards of original inquiry and personal growth. Students are taught that sound research and scholarship serve to expand knowledge and improve the quality of peoples’ lives. Our program provides students with the education needed to enter a variety of careers or to pursue graduate work in psychology or related fields.
“Challenging Minds, Changing Lives.”
APPLY YOUR KNOWLEDGE
After years of preparing undergraduates to pursue advanced research degrees, JSU began to develop its own plan for graduate study. Spearheading this movement was a working group whose goal was to design a program in clinical psychology that would provide multicultural training. The idea behind such multiculturalism is that the most effective clinical psychologists are those who have separated themselves from their personal biases and that this can only occur through in depth understanding of other cultures. In 1995, program was launched with a charter class of five students. APA accreditation then followed in 2001, and the first dissertation defense occurred in 2002. The concept of multicultural training remains a primary mission and requires the program actively to support those from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds while ensuring that even the most traditional of graduate students becomes immersed in as many different environments as possible. This occurs most directly through practica, externships, and field research experience with underserved people; in the area of Jackson, this most often means rural and African-American populations.
CAREER OPPORTUNITIES
Psychology majors have a plethora of career options after studying:
| Psychiatrist | Industrial-Organizational Psychologist | Neuropsychologist | Clinical Psychologist |
| Engineering Psychologist | Counseling Psychologist | Forensic Psychologist | School Psychologist |
| Correctional Psychologist | Sport Psychologist |
PERSONNEL
READY TO JOIN?
For more information, please contact us at (601) 979-2371. We look forward to meeting with you and seeing how our program can help you achieve your goals.
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
