MA in General Psychology
The MA in General Psychology Program prepares students to enter the workforce directly after graduation or for further graduate education in a variety of fields, such as law, business, economics, health sciences, social work, public health, geography and psychology. Many of our MA graduates have applied their advanced training in psychology to work as researchers, mental health workers, managers and administrators, or have gone on to pursue a PhD.
The Learning Environment
The MA program is a mentor-based program designed to provide students the opportunity to become fully immersed in laboratory activities and obtain hands-on research experience. Through selection of appropriate elective courses, students can choose a concentration within the field of general psychology. Areas of concentration represented in the department include Behavioral Neuroscience, Clinical Psychology, Cognitive Psychology and Social-Personality Psychology.
Please note: The program is not intended to qualify students for the independent practice of professional psychology.
The MA in Psychology program takes approximately two years to complete.
MA Coursework (30 Credit Hours):
- One graduate statistics course (607 Advanced Statistical Methods 1, 608 Advanced Statistical Methods 2 or 613 Data Analysis, 3 credits)
- One distribution course from each of our four areas (12 credits)
- Behavioral Neuroscience (513 Biological Bases of Behavior)
- Clinical (618 Developmental Psychopathology, 624 Psychopathology or 625 Community Psychology)
- Cognitive (627 Perception, 639 Cognitive Processes, 642 Psycholinguistics, 645 Cognitive Development or 728 Memory)
- Social – Personality (680 Advanced Social Psychology or 725 Attitudes and Social Cognition)
- Electives (15 credits)
- No more than 6 credits of PSY 600 or 799
Students must obtain a grade of B- or higher in one graduate statistics course and in all four distribution courses and maintain an overall GPA of 3.0 or higher.
Mentored MA Project:
The mentored MA project is supervised by the student’s mentor. The project consists of a well-organized and thoroughly documented scholarly paper with an identifiable research question. The project can take several forms depending on the needs of the student, including but not limited to, an original empirical study, a critical review paper or a paper reporting a meta-analysis
Goal 1: Students will exhibit competence in statistical methods.
- Expected Competencies: This will be evidenced by successful completion of the required course in statistics.
Goal 2: Students will have both broad and deep exposure to current ideas and evidence in the study of behavior.
- Expected Competencies: This will be evidenced by successful completion of the four required course distribution across the four areas of the Department and the successful completion of elective courses.
Goal 3: Students will exhibit competence in the execution of a well-organized and thoroughly documented scholarly paper on a substantive topic area in psychology.
- Expected Competencies: Students will prepare and successfully defend a quality MA project as evaluated by the MA committee.
The Admissions Process
As our program is mentorship-based, students are admitted to work with an individual faculty member. Faculty members accepting students vary from year to year. Before applying, prospective students should view the list of faculty members accepting students and/or contact potential mentors.
Interested in Specializing in Data Analysis?
Consider UB's interdisciplinary MS Program in Data Analytics in Social Sciences. Psychology is a participating department.
