Academic Requirements

A "Program in psychology" shall mean a psychology program that: (1) is designated as a doctoral program in psychology by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards or the National Register of Health Service Psychologists or is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation (CoA) of the American Psychological Association, at the time the degree is granted or within three years thereafter; and (2) meets the following criteria: (a) Training in psychology is doctoral training offered by a recognized educational institution. (b) The psychology program must stand as a recognizable, coherent organizational entity within the institution. (c) There must be clear authority and primary responsibility for the core and specialty areas of the program whether or not the program cuts across administrative lines. (d) The program must include an organized sequence of study. (e) There must be an identifiable psychology faculty and a psychologist responsible for the program. (f) The program must have an identifiable body of students who are matriculated in that program for a degree. (g) The program must include supervised practica, internship, field or laboratory training appropriate to the practice of psychology. (h) The applicant shall complete a course of studies which encompasses a minimum of three academic years of full time graduate study, or its equivalent, of which a minimum of one academic year of full time, or its equivalent, academic graduate study in psychology must be completed in residence at the institution granting the doctoral degree. "Completed in residence" shall be determined by the Board based on criteria which includes the following factors: frequency and duration of interactions between faculty and students; opportunities for appropriate and adequate supervision and evaluation; student access to a core psychology faculty whose primary time and employment responsibilities are to the institution; and student access to other students matriculated in the program. (i) In addition to receiving instruction in scientific and professional ethics and standards, research design and methodology, statistics and psychometrics, and history of psychology, the core program shall require each student to demonstrate competence in each of the following substantive areas: 1. Biological Bases of Behavior: Physiological psychology, comparative psychology, neuropsychology, sensation and perception, psycho pharmacology. 2. Cognitive Affective Bases of Behavior: Learning, thinking, motivation, emotion. 3. Social Bases of Behavior: Social psychology, group processes, organizational and systems theory, issues of social/cultural diversity. 4. Individual Differences: Personality theory, human development, abnormal psychology. 5. Racial/Ethnic Bases of Behavior with a Focus on People of Color: Cross-cultural psychology, psychology and social oppression, racism and psychology. (j) Competence in the substantive content areas listed in 251 CMR 3.03(2)(i) will typically be met by including a minimum of three graduate semester hours (five or more graduate quarter hours) in each of the five substantive content areas. (k) All programs in psychology must include course requirements in specialty areas. (l) The dissertation, or equivalent, must be psychological in method and content. (3) Programs that are designated as a doctoral program in psychology by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards or the National Register of Health Service Psychologists, or accredited by the American Psychological Association, at the time the degree is granted or within three years thereafter, shall be presumed, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, to meet the requirements of 251 CMR 3.03(2). (4) Applicants with a doctoral degree in psychology from a foreign institution will be required to establish equivalency to a doctoral program in psychology in the United States through a credentials evaluation, and must meet the requirements of 251 CMR 3.03(2).