Degrees & Majors

Clinical neuropsychology is a scientific discipline that involves expert understanding and application of the science of brain-behavior relationships. Clinical neuropsychologists advance and use evidence-based assessment and intervention to evaluate and improve functioning in healthy individuals, as well as those who have difficulties due to central nervous system disease or disruption.

Ph.D. students in the Clinical Neuropsychology concentration receive general clinical psychology training, as well as specialized clinical neuropsychology training consistent with American Psychological Association (APA) requirements for doctoral training in clinical psychology and the Houston Guidelines for training in neuropsychology.

Our students are trained as scientist-practitioners. They develop skills at critically evaluating and integrating information, generating hypotheses or alternative explanations that are grounded in the research literature, developing methods to evaluate those hypotheses or explanations and communicating effectively in scholarly and lay contexts. They also learn to deliver state-of-the-art clinical services, applying assessment and intervention techniques that are grounded in scientific evidence. Upon graduation, students will have completed predoctoral requirements for clinical licensure in most states and will have solid preparation for American Board of Professional Psychology certification in their areas of specialty. For more information about professional licensure, download our Professional Licensure Sheet PDF document.

The faculty, who include both clinical neuropsychologists and psychologists, have wide-reaching interests across the lifespan, various neurological and clinical populations, and complementary scientific methods.

Students have formed an interest group in the Association of Neuropsychology Students in Training, the trainee organization of the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (APA Division 40).

The concentration is jointly administered by the Clinical Psychology program area and the Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience (NCN) program area, reflecting a balanced emphasis on training in clinical psychology and cognitive and affective neuroscience. Students participate in both the Clinical Psychology and NCN program areas. Faculty in both areas are primary advisers. A secondary adviser is assigned when appropriate to ensure appropriate training in both areas.

We offer three clinical training concentrations: General Clinical Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology, and Clinical/Community Psychology. Each prepares students for distinctive paths within psychology.

Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies

FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants

Faculty Accepting Students

Training in the joint Clinical/Community Psychology concentration is informed by the traditions of prevention and social justice in community psychology and by the focus on assessment and individualized mental health interventions in clinical psychology. This dual-enrollment program provides a strengths-based, culturally competent approach to mental health and healthy development that emphasizes theory, research and practice at multiple levels of analysis – psychological, sociopolitical and ecological.  Upon graduation, students will have completed predoctoral requirements for clinical licensure in most states and will have solid preparation for American Board of Professional Psychology certification in their areas of specialty. For more information about professional licensure, download our Professional Licensure Sheet PDF document.

In addition, CLC students receive training in a range of indirect services necessary for interventions at the institutional and community levels:

• Consultation
• Program development and evaluation
• Social policy
• Action research

The CLC concentration is jointly administered by the Community and Clinical program areas. Students participate in both the Clinical Psychology and Community Psychology program areas. Faculty in areas serve as primary advisers. A secondary adviser is assigned in most cases to ensure appropriate training in both areas.

We offer three clinical training concentrations: General Clinical Psychology, Clinical Neuropsychology and Clinical/Community Psychology. Each prepares students for distinctive paths within psychology.

Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies

FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants

Faculty Accepting Students

The Cognitive Sciences concentration encompasses interdisciplinary interests in experimental psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, computer science and translational science. With cognition as its unifying thread, the program provides opportunities to specialize in research and training in basic or applied cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, social cognition, language and cognitive development, psycholinguistics and comparative cognition.

Research methods include noninvasive behavioral and cognitive testing with children, adults and non-human primates, as well as electroencephalography, magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, diffusion tensor imaging, eye-tracking, virtual reality/virtual environment testing, neurogenomics and cognitive neuroinformatics.

We accept students with wide-ranging interests across the cognitive sciences for this terminal Ph.D. program. Students shape their own programs of research in consultation with their advisers. Prospective applicants should contact faculty for more information about individual research programs.

Specific faculty interests include learning and memory; language acquisition and use, including the roles of experience, gesture and specific brain structures and processes; economic decision-making; attention and executive functioning (such as metacognition, planning, cognitive control); false memories and eyewitness accuracy; decision-making, including speeded judgments, economic decision-making and reasoning; inequity perception and response; comparative cognition; individual and group differences (such as species, race, gender, diagnostic category, age); cooperation and prosocial behavior; and brain-behavior relations that underlie various cognitive competencies.

Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies

FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants

Faculty Accepting Students

Religious Studies is an interdisciplinary area of study that prepares students to navigate multicultural environments successfully, to lead teams effectively in collaborative settings and to interpret and marshal various types of information and data while advancing a large project.

Graduates with religious studies degrees advance in a wide range of careers and hold positions at nonprofit, in healthcare, academia and other public and private settings. Studying religion puts you on the cutting edge of global politics, business, health care, education and the media.

Course offerings in religious studies, all of which are taught from a non-sectarian perspective, include comparative courses on such topics as world religions, religious thought, religious ethics, mysticism, and women and religion, as well as a host of courses on specific religious traditions, including Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Shinto and Taoism.

Studying world religions prepares you for economic success in professions where culturally diverse points of view are valued and to succeed personally in an international city such as Atlanta or anywhere else in the world. This Georgia State University program introduces you to ideas, practices and values you’ve never encountered.

Students can choose from two tracks - thesis and coursework intensive:

• Thesis Track: Students work with a thesis director and committee to research and write a thesis of publishable length.
  • Final project: Thesis
• Coursework Intensive Track: Students take more classes to gain more depth in their field or breadth across Religious Studies.
  • Final project: Research paper or project

Students can choose from two concentrations - Nonprofit Management and Religion and Aging:

• Concentration in Nonprofit Management: Students in this concentration earn the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies Certificate in Nonprofit Management while they complete their M.A. in Religious Studies.
  • Final project: Research paper or project that integrates work in Nonprofit Management, an internship and Religious Studies
• Concentration in Religion and Aging: Students in this concentration earn the Gerontology Institute's Graduate Certificate while they complete their M.A. in Religious Studies.
  • Final project: Research paper or project that integrates work in Gerontology, an internship and Religious Studies

Students can also choose the Graduate Pathway to Chaplaincy:
Students enrolled in the Religious Studies Master’s degree program at Georgia State University or another institution who aspire to become a chaplain can apply to the Graduate Certificate in Chaplaincy Studies during the second year of the master’s program. Through the Graduate Pathway to Chaplaincy, students complete 12 additional graduate credit hours during a third year of coursework and additional requirements by Association of Professional Chaplains for chaplaincy certification.

More information about the Pathway to Chaplaincy can be found below.

In today’s data-driven world, the Social Science Data Analytics Certificate gives students the tools to excel in analyzing and interpreting data within social science contexts. The curriculum covers essential skills in statistics, research methods and data visualization, preparing students to make data-informed decisions in various industries.

This certificate opens career pathways in public policy, market research, urban planning and more. Graduates can pursue roles as data analysts, policy researchers and social scientists, helping organizations use data to understand and solve real-world problems effectively.

The B.A. /M.A. Program is appropriate for qualified Georgia State University undergraduate students who have completed two years as a Sociology major with a GPA of 3.5. Students may pursue a dual Bachelor of Arts in sociology and either a Master of Arts in Sociology or Master of Arts in Gerontology.

Dual undergraduate/graduate programs enable admitted undergraduate students to begin taking specified graduate courses during their senior year (or earlier in some cases) and count the coursework toward both the undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students in dual programs are enrolled in each degree program either concurrently or in close succession. Dual degrees may, therefore, be awarded at the same time, or one degree may be awarded prior to the second.

Georgia State University's standalone Master of Arts (M.A.) in Sociology trains social researchers who do not necessarily plan to pursue a career in academia. Students in this program can receive training in social research skills that can allow them to work in industry or the non-profit sector as qualitative and quantitative researchers.

The Department and individual faculty members have consulted and engaged in research projects with many different agencies, including the National Science Foundation, U.S. Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, American Educational Research Association, U.S. Attorney’s Office, U.S. Bureau of the Census, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Georgia Department of Human Resources, Georgia Narcotics Treatment Center, Georgia Mental Health Institute, Atlanta Regional Commission, the City of Atlanta Bureau of Planning, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Pew Charitable Trust and numerous other government agencies, as well as private concerns.

A minor in a language is an excellent complement to a number of majors.  Students pursuing careers in law, business administration, criminal justice and health sciences, among others fields, should consider a minor in language as a way to increase their marketable skills. Students who wish to minor in French, German, Japanese, or Spanish must take 15-18 hours in courses in the language, including at least 9 semester hours at the 3000 level or above.

For information on required courses, visit the World Languages & Cultures website.