Clinical Knowledge Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP7045 -  Psychopathology (3)
• PP7342 - Evaluation and Treatment of Diverse and Marginalized Populations (3)

Professional Issues and Roles Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP7100 - Professional Issues: Ethics, Conduct, and Law (3)
• PP7110 - Professionalization Group I (1)
• PP7111 - Professionalization Group II (1)

Psychological Assessment Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP7370 - Cognitive Assessment (3)
• PP7371 - Objective Personality Assessment (3)

Psychological Intervention Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP7365 - Clinical Interviewing (3)

Psychology Foundation Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP7010 -  Lifespan Development (3)
• PP7040 - Cognition and Affective Processes (3)
• PP7051 - Biological Bases of Behavior (3)

Science and Scholarship Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP6011 -  Integrative Paper (2)
• PP7041 - Quantitative Inquiry (3)
• PP7042 -  Statistics Laboratory (1)

Clinical Practicum Requirements — Students Are Required to Take the Following

• PP6204 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar I (3)
• PP6205 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar II (3)
• PP6206 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar II—Extended (0)

Professionalization Group Requirements

During the first year, students participate in Professionalization Groups that focus on topics related to professional psychology. Through readings and discussions led by a faculty member, students can begin to develop a professional identity and become familiar with current issues in clinical psychology. The groups are designed to provide a comfortable environment in which students can freely exchange concerns, questions, and issues relevant to their studies and their future careers. The faculty member who leads the student’s Professionalization Group also serves as his/her academic advisor.

Practicum and Practicum Seminar Requirements

Full-time students will normally be placed in a master’s practicum and seminar during their second year of study. For registration purposes, the practicum and seminar are treated like one course. The practicum/seminar carries a total of 3 credit hours per semester (2 credit hours per practicum/1 credit hour per seminar) and 6 credit hours per academic year. Practicum usually begins in September and concludes in June. Throughout the year, the student will be required to spend 20 – 24 hours per week or a minimum of 720 hours in the practicum training experience (not including the seminar). All students enrolled in practicum must be concurrently enrolled in a practicum seminar class, which meets weekly throughout the academic year (fall, spring, and summer I). Concurrent enrollment in practicum seminars is mandatory.

Note: Students who are placed in a 12 month practicum must enroll in practicum seminar class during the summer II term.

All students who enter the practicum application process must be in good academic standing (minimum grade point average of 3.0 on a 4.0 scale) and must have completed the academic planning that will allow for all the practicum prerequisite courses to be completed prior to the beginning of the practicum.

If a student who has accepted a practicum is placed on probation prior to the beginning of practicum, the student may not attend practicum. If the student is placed on academic probation during practicum, the student may be removed from practicum and referred to the Student Professional Development Committee (SPDC) to develop a remediation plan.

In cases of non-academic training difficulties, the student may be referred to the SPDC for development of a remediation plan. The student may be withdrawn from practicum.The goal of the practicum is to foster the training of competent clinicians capable of providing basic and effective clinical intervention. Evaluation of student progress in clinical field training focuses on four areas:

• Theoretical and empirical knowledge
• Clinical skills
• Professional attitudes and behaviors
• Ethics and values

Training in the Place of Employment

Clinical training may not be done in the student’s place of current employment. This restriction recognizes that training most optimally occurs in settings uncomplicated by dual relationships, employment pressures, and financial demands. Students can also profit from training in diverse organizational “cultures” or structures.

Occasionally, the interpretation of what constitutes “place of employment” is unclear. For example, a large corporation may own several smaller corporations that operate at different sites, managed by different supervisors, serving different populations. A student may request the opportunity to train at a subsidiary of the parent organization in which the student works. In order to identify what constitutes a student’s “place of employment,” the school has developed the following guidelines:

• Dual Relationships The field training supervisor periodically evaluates the student’s progress in training and submits reports to the school. These reports must be objective, fair, and candid. Therefore, the student should not be evaluated by someone who is a co-worker, work supervisor, or employer. The director of Practicum Training will evaluate the student’s training request to ensure that no dual relationship exists.
• Multiple Identities A student should enter a training site with a single identity: a professional-in-training. Students attempting to train in their place of employment continue to be identified as an employee. This identity can place competing demands on a student and thus compromise the training that a student receives.
• Geographical Relationships Occasionally, health organizations, like other corporations, merge with or acquire, other companies that are at some geographical distance from one another. In these circumstances, the corporations  continue to operate independently of one another and are united “in name only.” Under these circumstances, a student may train at the separate corporation, so long as the other criteria are met.
• Power in Relationships Students enter training programs to be the recipients of educative, professional training experiences. This arrangement places the student in a role in which the student depends upon the supervisor and the agency for a successful training experience. Students may not hire their supervisors, nor pay the agency for their training experience. Such arrangements remove the professional-in-training from the student role and elevate the student to the status of business partner in the training process. No student will be waived from the practicum requirements. Whenever possible, students who come to the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i with extensive clinical backgrounds are placed in practicum sites offering experience in areas where they have an interest and do not have previous experience.

A thorough review of site and seminar evaluations is conducted by the director of Practicum Training, and an overall grade of “Credit” or “No Credit” is included in the student’s academic record. All students should be familiar with the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Clinical Training Manual. The manual provides a comprehensive overview of the practicum and its requirements.

Clinical Evaluation Conference Requirements

The Clinical Evaluation Conference (CEC) is a series of two competency-based examinations that are designed to evaluate students’ mastery of major clinical assessment and therapeutic skills.

Students are expected to demonstrate clinical competence both conceptually and in application. It is also expected that students, having learned theoretical and applied bases in classroom courses, will have made use of out-of-class clinical contacts (i.e., practicum, seminar groups, supplementary supervision, visiting lecturers) to refine and extend the skills to be evaluated by the CEC. Passage of the CEC is a requirement for passing the seminar.

The first CEC takes place in conjunction with the Clinical Interviewing course during the fall semester of the first year. The second CEC takes place in conjunction with the Master’s Therapy Practicum Seminar during the summer I semester of the year in which the student is enrolled in the Master’s Therapy Practicum.

The CEC is graded “Credit/No Credit.” Students have three opportunities to receive a passing grade on the CEC. After the first failure, students will receive an informal remediation plan developed by the faculty involved in the CEC. After two failures, students will be referred to the SPDC for a formal remediation plan. After the third failure, students will be dismissed from the program.

Further information about the CEC is found in the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i Clinical Training Manual.

Master’s Integrative Project Requirements

As part of the requirements for the Master of Arts (MA) in Clinical Psychology degree program, each student is required to complete the Master’s Integrative Project.

The purpose of the Master’s Project is to demonstrate the student’s critical and analytical skills focused upon a specific topic in applied psychology. The Master’s Project is most useful when the topic is related to the student’s area of interest and projected career goals. The Master’s Project serves to deepen the student’s knowledge and understanding of the current thought and research in their area of interest. As the focus of the Master’s Project is on the application of theoretical perspectives to clinical work, the paper may be a review of the literature as it relates to clinically relevant topics.

Students write the project within the context of a two-semester Master’s Project Seminar that is a requirement for all master’s program students. MA in Clinical Psychology degree program students must register for the 1-credit hour course of Integrative Project (PP6011 ) in the fall and spring semesters of their second year. This course is graded on a “Credit,” “Progressing,” or “No Credit” basis. Credit is granted upon approval of the paper by the instructor. In  addition, students are required to register for two consecutive semesters of formal seminar meetings. Students who do not meet requirements in the seminar by the stated deadline, during either of the first two semesters, will not receive credit for that semester.

Because the curriculum requires two Master’s Project credit hours for graduation, students who do not receive credit must register for one or more additional Masters Project credits to be eligible for graduation. Students who do not complete and receive approval of the Project by the end of the second semester must continue to register for Master’s Project and register for one credit hour of project credit each semester until the project is completed and accepted.

Clinical Practice Policy

The Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i recognizes the responsibility of institutions preparing clinical psychologists to provide training experiences of the highest quality for their students and to ensure that this training protects the best interest of the public. It is entirely consistent with training goals for the institution to require that students not engage in professional activities that may infringe upon a primary commitment to training, have a negative impact on quality of mental health services, or are inconsistent with ethical and legal standards. The participation of students in outside work activities should be secondary to training and should also uphold and be consistent with the ethical and legal standards of the profession.

While matriculating at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i, students are specifically prohibited from being involved in private practice unless the following standards are met:

• Any student who has appropriate state registration, certification, credentialing, or licensure relevant to the practice and delivery of mental health services is entitled to practice independently in that particular area of registration or certification.
• It is the responsibility of any student engaged in private practice to notify the program chair of this private practice and to provide evidence of appropriate current registration, certification or licensure by the state in which the practice occurs.

Failure to comply with these policies may result in dismissal from the program.
 

Recommended Course Sequence for the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology Degree Program at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai’i

Student progress through the program is intended to be sequential. Certain courses are offered to first-year students that provide a theoretical and practical foundation for courses that will follow in subsequent years. Certain advanced courses also require the student to have the background of more basic courses in order to benefit fully from the course experience. Students must satisfy all stated prerequisites for a course before registration for that course can be considered official.

Course/Credit Transfer

Transfer of Courses/Credit from other Institutions

The Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i does not automatically transfer credit from graduate coursework taken at other institutions. Students who have taken graduate courses elsewhere may petition to have these courses apply toward transfer credit for courses in the curriculum. Course transfers are not reviewed or granted until the student has been accepted and paid the initial deposit following admission to the program.

For a course to be considered eligible for transfer credit, the following conditions must be met:

• The course must have been taken no more than five years before the student’s entry into the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i.
• The course must have been a graduate-level course, taken for graduate-level credit from a regionally accredited college or university. In the case of institutions outside the U.S., the appropriate state or national accreditation is required.
• Any course submitted towards a transfer of a 3 credit course must have itself carried 3 or more graduate credit hours.
• A student must have earned a grade of “B” or better in any course submitted for transfer credit.
• A maximum of five courses (15 credit hours) may be transferred towards the master’s program in psychology.

Argosy University does not accept any credit earned as military credit, credit by examination, credit by correspondence, credit for life experience, or graduate credit from non-accredited schools.

A student who desires to submit a course for transfer review should notify the Student Services Department and obtain the appropriate Transfer Request Form. This form should be completed and returned to the Student Services Department. Only requests made in writing are reviewed.

Course/Credit Transfer Procedures

All credit transfer requests must be submitted during the first academic year of the student’s enrollment. Students petitioning for transfers may be requested to provide course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups. Transfers are granted by a faculty member if there is an 80 percent overlap in course content and objectives between the course submitted for transfer credit and the course as it is offered at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i. Students may obtain the procedures to be observed in submitting transfer requests from the Student Services Department.

Students who wish to submit a course for transfer credit:

• Must complete a separate form for each transfer request
• May submit the request anytime before the end of the first academic year
• Will provide a transcript and other supporting documentation, such as course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups
• Must submit the appropriate forms to the Student Services Department

Non-Transferable Courses

Students who wish to transfer Cognitive Assessment (PP7370 ), Objective Personality Assessment (PP7371 ), and Projective Personality Assessment (PP7372 ) will complete the below review process, and, if they are determined to be eligible, may be required to pass a practical competency exam in order to be granted a course transfer. The Student Services Department may answer general questions about the transfer examination procedure and will direct specific questions to the faculty members who administer the examination.

The following is a list of courses that may not be transferred into the MA in Clinical Psychology program.

• PP6204 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar I (3)
• PP6205 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar II (3)
• PP6206 - Master’s Intervention Practicum and Seminar II—Extended (0)
• PP7100 - Professional Issues: Ethics, Conduct, and Law (3)
• PP7110 - Professionalization Group I (1)
• PP7340 - Issues in the Assessment and Treatment of Diverse Populations (3)
• PP7365 - Clinical Interviewing (3)

Transfer of Courses/Credit from another Argosy University Campus

If students internally transfer within the Argosy University system, approved transfers are transferred if the course is identical to the one offered at the campus to which the student is transferring. If the course is similar but not identical, the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i will review for approval or denial. Credit transfers are only accepted if the course being transferred is a requirement of the degree program at the Hawai‘i School of Professional Psychology at Argosy University, Hawai‘i.

All transfer requests must be submitted during the first academic year of the student’s enrollment. Students petitioning for transfers may be required to provide course descriptions, syllabi, exams, diagnostic test protocols and write-ups.

Transfer of Courses/Credit to the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology Degree Program from the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology Degree Program

Overlapping coursework in the Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology degree program with the Doctor of Psychology in Clinical Psychology degree program will be automatically transferred to the doctoral degree program for those students who transfer from the master’s to PsyD in Clinical Psychology degree program.