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About the Department

Introduction: Basic Facts about the Department

The Department of Psychology is part of the College of Humanities and Sciences on the Monroe Park Campus of Virginia Commonwealth University. The department has one of the largest undergraduate programs in the university, with more than 1,600 student majors. The department has four PhD granting graduate programs: Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Health Psychology, and an Experimental Psychology program with three sub-specialty divisions (Biopsychology, Developmental Psychology, and Social Psychology). The Clinical and Counseling Psychology programs are accredited by the American Psychological Association. Forty full-time faculty, four administrative faculty, and more than 130 graduate students teach courses and conduct research at VCU.

Training Programs and Research Specialties

Our department can be conceptualized in two ways. This Web site allows you to explore the department's information that is organized according to training program and research specialty.

The traditional model is through the training programs. VCU offers training programs in Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, Health Psychology, Biopsychology, Developmental Psychology, and Social Psychology.

A more practical approach is to conceptualize the department by research specialty. Research specialties typically span across programs, and faculty from different programs often collaborate on projects. By organizing the department according to research specialty, the VCU Department of Psychology can be considered one of the strongest departments in the nation in the areas of health psychology and behavioral medicine, and in prevention science, including community-, school- and family-focused interventions.

The department's research also focuses on issues of diversity across all of these research specialty areas.

Structure

The core organization consists of the chair, 32 tenured or tenure-track faculty, eight full-time non-tenure track faculty, approximately 50 affiliate faculty, a director and associate director of the training clinic, eight administrative and fiscal staff (including an associate director of academic operations and an assistant director of the academic advising center), and several student workers. In addition, the department consists of more than 130 graduate students who assist in research, teaching and administration. Altogether, the department has attained prominent status within the university as a whole and also among the psychology community.

Location and Facilities

Physically, the faculty, staff, and graduate student offices are housed in five historic buildings along West Franklin Street (820 Bird House, 810 Hunton House, 808 Thurston House, 806 White House, 800 Williams House; maps and directions to our buildings) in the downtown "Fan District" of Richmond, VA. These facilities include faculty and administrative offices, the Psychology Career Information and Advising Center, research laboratories, a graduate computer lab, classroom and seminar spaces, and conference rooms.

In addition, the department runs the Center for Psychological Services and Development (CPSD), located at 612 North Lombardy Street (the corner of Broad and Lombardy Streets). The CPSD provides a wide range of therapy and assessment services to the community. Advanced graduate students in clinical and counseling psychology, as well as graduate students in social work, psychiatric nursing and rehabilitation counseling work closely with their licensed faculty supervisors to provide interventions based on the most current research in their discipline. A variety of specialty clinics are housed within the CPSD, including the Anxiety Disorders and Assessment Clinics. The CPSD also provides space for a variety of research activities, as well as numerous clinically-based graduate courses for the department of psychology. The CPSD also administers the Miller Analogies Test (MAT) to the general public.

The department also houses a number of research and service centers and institutes, including the VCU Clark-Hill Institute for Positive Youth Development, the Center for Cultural Experiences in Prevention, and the Life Skills Center.