Fielding Graduate University

All new students must complete a series of orientation activities designed to prepare students for success in the program. Online activities provide an overview of program requirements, library resources, and the online learning environment. These activities include an overview of professional conduct expectations, and how students will be assessed throughout their program regarding those expectations. During a six-day in-person orientation, students work with faculty and advanced students, primarily in a small group format, to familiarize new students with our learning model and to help new students develop a personalized and sequenced plan of studies called a Learning Plan. Your Learning Plan serves as a blueprint of your individual graduate studies specifically in relation to the program's requirements and your academic background, prior professional training, and special interests.

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The purpose of the Media Psychology Practicum is to obtain skills in the hands-on application of theory, technology and practice of media applications necessary to conduct independent research in the field of media psychology. The practicum includes experience in any relevant phase of research, creation, production or assessment under the direct supervision of a Media Psychology faculty member and/or an accredited professional in the media or enabling technology industries. The purpose of this requirement is to complement the more didactic and independent learning about media that occurs in other contexts in order to develop the student's media competencies. The amount and types of practicum training necessary to achieve those competencies will vary as a function of the entering student's prior research education, training, and experience. Regardless of the student's entry-level competence, the minimum practicum experience is 120 hours. The student may require more than the minimum hours of training in order to develop the competencies needed to conceptualize and carry out doctoral-level research and application. Media Psychology practicum training activities follow an apprenticeship model and include the following types of activities: (a) serving as an apprentice or an assistant to a qualified media producer; (b) assisting another student with supervised dissertation research or application under the supervision of that student's dissertation committee chair; (c) conducting a pre-dissertation media application under faculty supervision; (d) participating in a Fielding-sponsored institutional media project; (e) participation in Hands-On Media Labs offered at research and national sessions, in clusters, and online; (f) collaborate in the actual production, editing and/or engineering of a media or multimedia project; (g) participating in the research, design and production of a presentation for delivery before a professional audience or specialty application; (h) any other applied media activity approved by a Media Psychology faculty member.

The Comprehensive Assessment demonstrates a students capability to assimilate and communicate knowledge in a thorough and scholarly manner. The goal of the assessment is for the student to show his or her ability to write clearly and to integrate knowledge across all knowledge areas in the program. For the comprehensive essays, students are required to explore a range of relevant sources thereby displaying understanding of relevant research and theory in psychology, and also the application of theories in psychology to media.

When the dissertation is approved by the dissertation committee, a Final Oral Review (FOR) is scheduled. Here the student makes a formal presentation of his/her dissertation. This includes a brief summary of the literature review, the reasons for the study and specific hypotheses, methods, results, and recommendations. Following the FOR, the committee may accept the dissertation or agree to require further revisions. The FOR is open to the entire community, and attendees are given the opportunity to question the student on his/her methods and findings. These meetings are well attended and provide other students with exposure to models for successfully completing the dissertation process.

Pre-requisites: Dissertation Proposal Approval

Completion of this course signifies the student has a full dissertation committee and is working on their dissertation proposal.

Pre-requisites: PSY-700

Completion of this course signifies the full dissertation committee has reviewed the final draft of the dissertation and has indicated it is ready to be proofread and prepared for binding.

Students are required to obtain a minimum of 200 hours of research training experience prior to the approval of the dissertation proposal. This 200-hour research practicum consists of supervised, hands-on applied research training acquired through HOTLabs (Hands- On-Training labs), team research projects, and research projects at various organizations. Students with substantial prior research experience should plan their 200 hours to develop skills in new areas. All research practicum hours must be reviewed and pre-approved (i.e., before the students begins the practicum), with the exception of HOTLabs. Approval of acquired hours is also required upon completion of the research practicum for these hours to be recorded as complete. Hours are recorded as the ratio of 40 clock hours equals one semester credit.

Students are expected to demonstrate a thorough understanding of the components of critical thinking and the ability to apply these skills. Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to accurately evaluate claims, evidence, and conclusions and to develop coherent, well-articulated, convincing, formal arguments.

All students are expected to possess the ability to conduct scholarly inquiry and to understand complex research problems and issues. This course provides an overview of research epistemology and ethics, as well as the assumptions that underlie scientific inquiry. Students are expected to be familiar with major research methodologies and designs and to be competent at critiquing existing research studies. Mastery of this content is fundamental to dissertation research.

This is a prerequisite for PSY-717 Intermediate Statistics. Course content covers basic concepts and measures in descriptive and inferential statistics, including the chi-square test, t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and bivariate regression and correlation analysis. Students typically demonstrate competence in this course by a written multiple-choice examination.

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All students are expected to have a solid under- standing of common statistical procedures and choose appropriate procedures for analyzing research data. This KA develops familiarity with univariate and multivariate tests, including MANOVA and multiple regression, as well as critiques of/alternatives to null hypothesis significance testing. Students learn to manipulate data sets using appropriate statistical software.

Pre-requisites: PSY-716

The problem of mediation, filters, organization, and censorship has often been studied as attributes of mass media. And yet, this issue is seminal to the study of cognition and how we process information. For the purposes of this course, perception will be broadly defined as the relationship between images and words that characterizes human thought and cognition. Using the psychology of advertising and photography as a point of departure, we will discuss selection, grouping, illusion and ambiguity as processes of visual perception, and briefly explore the role of memory and embedded subliminals in perception. This course will explore filters that occur at the level of personality and because perception involves words, we will discuss how words and rhetoric influence what we see. This discussion of mediation at the individual level will be integrated within the context of ideological, sociological, structural and cultural filters that occur at the level of mass media. The aim will be to show how mass media and audience effects are dependent on the psychology of cognition. In this course you will explore and consider possible alternatives to the problem of mediated perception for both media systems and cognition.

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Broadly defined, social psychology looks at how people think and influence each other. If we think of mass media as cultural centers that influence public opinion and attitudes, then social psychology is inherently tied to the study of mass media communications. This course will provide students with an overview of social psychological processes as they are related to issues in mass media. We will explore processes of self concept formation, the formation of judgments, explanations, and expectations, along with an exploration of attitudes and behavior, and social identity embedded within the context of mass media influence and new media interactions. We will then turn to the core relationship that exists between media and social psychology: the study of social influence. We will explore conformity and minority influence as paradigms for passive and active resistance to influence and discuss the micro processes behind the creation of norms and standards. How do these processes of influence play out in various forms of media today? Finally we will explore the important relationship between media contents and attitudes, opinions, and behavior. Other topics discussed include: video games, violence-aggression, prejudice and the social psychology of social networks.

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Media serve as vehicles for the communication of messages to audiences who interpret the meaning of the messages. The meanings intended by those who craft a message and the meanings understood by those who receive the message draw on a shared cultural repertoire of background codes and rules. This common background contains understandings of what words and images stand for and the kinds of meanings assumed by various presentation formats; e.g., scientific writing, narratives, poems, movies, twitters, and web-pages. The cultural background through which signs and symbols are linked to meanings is termed the semiosphere and its study is termed semiology. The content of this KA draws on the concepts and theories of semiology and their relationship to the crafting and interpretation of media.

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Media is called upon to define the public agenda. Interactive and social media get a great deal of attention and in many instances supplant print, radio, and television, yet major questions remain unanswered. How do voters and consumers actually process information? What is the connection between political technique, political conviction, and appeal to the heart and to the mind? This course focuses on political psychology and what happens when reason and emotion collide. How does one side in the political debate claim the political narrative? At first look these approaches to narrative and agenda setting appear to be uniquely American. But American-style political messages and spin are being sold to the world - and the world is buying.

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Includes an approved project or paper where the student examines a particular area of interest in depth.

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May include field study, research design and application, such as a publishable article or a special project, or other specific project design.

This course involves a review of pertinent research literature from the study of media effects. Some sample topics include court cases and legal principles involving such issues as freedom of expression, protected and unprotected speech, libel, obscenity, privacy, commercial expression, copyright, intellectual property, and related issues. The course will assist participants in developing an understanding of psychological theories that pertain to culture, the law, and media.

Normal human development across the lifespan is examined in this course. Included are the major theories and contributors to the understanding of emotions, cognition, language, social behavior, moral reasoning, intelligence, sex roles, and identity. Students analyze how different development approaches/models might conceptualize a given topic of interest.

This course offers a historical understanding of the field of psychology with attention to its major systems and the individuals who contributed to its evolution as an organized discipline. Students demonstrate independent and critical thinking and examine how psychological theory, methods of inquiry, and professional practice are historically and culturally embedded.

This course explores major personality theories, the status of knowledge regarding personality variables and primary schools of psychotherapy and behavior change. Students evaluate emic (culture-specific) and etic (universal) hypotheses related to clients from identified groups and develop accurate clinical conceptualizations.

The functioning of the individual within the context of the social environment is examined in this course. It comprises an appraisal of current research and theory in the sub-areas of social psychology, including perception of self and others, interpersonal relationships, group dynamics, attitudes and social behaviors, and cultural/sexual roles.

Students investigate how human behavior is shaped and modulated by cognition, affect, and their interaction. Findings from the fields of perception, motivation, language, memory, and learning are covered. Topics include artificial intelligence, fuzzy logic, metacognition, Gestalt theory, Gibson's ecological view, and Marr's computational approach.

This course surveys the structural and functional relations of the central nervous system, physiology, sensory processes, and behavior. Study is divided into two subsections: (1) physiological psychology and (2) evolution, genetics, and behavior. Students become familiar with the biology of memory and the biological/genetic aspects of psychiatric disorders.

This course presents approaches to the systematic description of psychological disorders: historic- al, sociopolitical, medical, behavioral, and epidemiological. Topics include the nosological system (DSM-IV), the differential diagnoses among its subcategories, etiology, possible alternatives to the existing system, and research in this field.

Psychological assessment refers to the appraisal of individuals, groups, and other human systems. This course examines the assumptions, uses, and limitations of diagnostic appraisal, including the relationship between diagnostic formulations and treatment planning. It also examines the construction, application, and evaluation of prominent personality, aptitude, and ability tests.

This course goes beyond an introduction to the primary models of psychotherapy and focuses on process and research. Students develop a conceptual understanding of how psychotherapy works. They become familiar with current issues in practice as well as the state of research, including studies, methods, and contemporary developments.

This course addresses the implications of a multi- cultural perspective for developing improved approaches to social and individual problems and intergroup and international conflict. The aim of this course is to progress toward intercultural competence in the theory and practice of clinical psychology.

Tests and measurements refer to standardized instruments used in psychological or educational assessment. This course involves a basic understanding of the purposes of assessment and their influence on assessment design. Students develop an appreciation of how tests are used in psychological research, including validity considerations in test construction and administration.

Qualitative research usually involves analyzing text from transcribed interviews, focus groups, reports, field notes, and other sources. This course focuses on computer software that extracts patterns and meaning from large amounts of text. Most students learn NVivo, a further development of NUD*IST. Training sessions on NVivo are available at research and national sessions. Students may learn other packages with the agreement of their assessor.

Quantitative data analysis software programs have simplified storing, processing, and analyzing large amounts of research data. This course helps students become competent in the use of software such as SPSS. Training sessions on SPSS are available at research and national sessions. Students may learn other packages with the agreement of their assessor.

This course might include coursework in qualitative interviewing, qualitative data analysis, qualitative data presentation, construction of data collection instruments, and advanced research methodology. The specific content of this course must be negotiated and approved with a faculty member using an assessment contract.

This course might include coursework in causal modeling, classification methods, multi-level modeling, etc. The specific content of this course must be negotiated and approved with a faculty member using an assessment contract.

The purpose of this course is for students to learn the theory and practice of quantitative analysis of textual messages. The course focus is on analysis of messages in public media and documents, in person-to-person communications, and in open-ended responses in questionnaires. Students will learn to select messages which relate to a research question, analyze those messages with the SPSS Text Analysis software, and report findings.

This course extends the study of brain chemistry into the topic of drugs and the chemical treatment of emotional and behavior disorders. This course provides an overview of drugs and biological interventions commonly used in clinical practice, their underlying brain mechanisms, and the research to support their effectiveness.

This course addresses the wide-ranging discipline of clinical neuropsychology. This field is represented by four emerging areas: the classic analysis of behavioral sequelae to brain damage, including substance abuse; pathology from slow development of specific cognitive functions; neuropsychological deficits based on unusual learning histories which have no organic basis; and the developing and aging brain.

This course covers the structure and function of the various portions of the brain, what lies next to what, and what does what. Knowledge from this course will help students estimate the structures involved in a given trauma and the functions that are expected to be disrupted by it.

This course recognizes the broadening role of psychologists in health care settings. Students examine psychological principles and interventions to treat and prevent illness, promote health, and analyze and improve the health care system. Topics include research on the interaction of psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology, economics, and the environment, as well as controversies, current research, and interventions in the field.

The development of language takes place from birth to adulthood and is directly linked to cognitive and cultural variables that can be understood from multiple perspectives. Language disorders, on the other hand, may involve central deficits in phonemics, semantics, syntax, morphology, and pragmatics. This course focuses on the basic concepts of language development in the early school age years and different forms of language and reading deficits and their remediation.

This knowledge area addresses the underlying neurological and organic bases, psychological ramifications, and neuropsychological consequences of common neurological disorders.

This course embraces historical and cross-cultural views of the complex and changing social unit known as the family, dealing with contemporary theories and current issues in marriage and family therapy.

Positive psychology is an orientation to the field of psychology going beyond the emphasis on illness and pathology and instead examines areas such as happiness, well-being, optimism, and fulfillment. The course readings will examine topics including strength, virtue, and positive institutions; subjective well-being and happiness; the science of happiness; self-esteem; hope and optimism; resiliency; humor, flow, and emotional intelligence; creativity; and the role of religiosity.

This course helps students develop skills that form one of the cornerstones of scholarship as well as provide a thoughtful approach to every aspect of life. Students identify their existing critical thinking skills and learning needs and obtain an understanding of metacognition, which forms the foundation for critical thinking skill development.

This course assists both new students who wish to develop their graduate-level writing skills and ongoing students who wish to polish their skills.

The underpinnings of scientific psychology foster inquiry into the fundamental forces that shape human thought, emotion, and action. This knowledge area entails study of the philosophical and methodological contexts within which our science has developed and which guide psychological inquiry.

Special elective course number that may be designed and offered as appropriate in response to current issues, trends, and events. Each offering is a one-time course that may take advantage of a current issue, pilot a new course, or one-time colloquium. Title and content will vary.

Students may propose and develop an independent study contract in subject areas or sub-areas of psychology not encompassed by another course.

The objective of this course is the development of information and attitudes that enable psychologists to deal effectively with sexual problems and sex-related issues presented to them. Topics include the physiology of sexual behavior, sexual development, and treatment of psychologically based sexual disorders.

This course explores the role of the psychologist in organizational consultation. It includes the study of general systems theory and the study of organizational development and change.

This course considers a wide range of issues that affect the mental and social functioning of the aged. Topics include mental illnesses related to aging and other health issues that influence social, physical, and mental functioning, as well as social attitudes, stereotypes, and bias related to this stage of life.

Forensic psychology applies psychological art and science to legal and quasi-legal problems. This course addresses principles that underlie the use of psychologists in legal problem solving and the growth of forensic psychology. Topics include the role of forensic specialists in child psychology, neuropsychology, abnormal psychology, and psychological measurement.

Designed to allow for a diverse array of electives. Each assessment involves an individual special topic agreed between the student and the faculty member. Students may choose from a large array of electives that reflect theories on psychology as applied to the media. These may be applied to media technologies in practica, research projects, and special studies in media effects. The current list of topics is available on our Web site.

This KA explores the relationship between media, public opinion and the comparative and competitive identity of nations, regions and cultures. Ever sense the introduction of "nation branding" in the mid - 1990s, there has been growing interest in the notion that countries, regions and cultures can build and maintain their own images. There is very little agreement on how, or even if, the techniques of brand management can apply to places. There is broad agreement, however, that the effect and power of the media drives public opinion in one direction or another toward a conclusion about the quality, openness, and desirability of visiting, doing business with or entering into agreements with a nation, region or culture. Just how is this public opinion "framed" and how can it be changed? What determines whether the media will accept of reject a countries perspective on how it would like to be viewed? What are the ways that encourage the open exchange of ideas between governments and the media and between the media and the public? What consequences does this new media environment have for how a country sees itself and how others see it?