Graduate Programs
The information shared here is intended to provide an overview of Georgia State's offerings. For details on admissions requirements, tuition, courses and more please refer to the university catalogs.
Search results are alphabetized
Political Science, Ph.D.
This program offers training for careers in research and teaching in the heart of Atlanta. It has particular strengths in Political Behavior, Public Law and Democratization.
Our Ph.D. program is methodologically, demographically and geographically diverse. Students receive careful mentoring from their first day. Alumni work in academic, private, governmental, non-governmental and policy agencies worldwide.
Psychology Ph.D., Developmental Psychology
The doctoral program in Developmental Psychology trains scholars in the methods and the science of normative as well as atypical paths of development from toddlers through adults. The program offers personalized training through a curriculum that is designed individually by the student in conjunction with faculty advisers.
Our goal is to prepare doctoral-level scientists to serve as faculty in university and other research or applied settings and to prepare professionals who will advance the science and practice within developmental psychology.
Areas of particular concentration include: typical and atypical development of communication and language and issues surrounding school achievement and policy. Both basic and applied foci are reflected across research laboratories. Coursework and research programs encompass genetic, neuropsychological, perceptual, cognitive, communicative, linguistic, methodological, social context and policy concerns. Understanding development within diverse populations is central to our research and training.
Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies
FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants
Faculty Accepting Students
Psychology, Ph.D., Clinical Neuropsychology
Psychology
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
Psychology, Ph.D., Clinical Psychology
Psychology
The General Clinical Psychology concentration trains psychologists committed and equipped to improve the human condition and alleviate suffering through transdisciplinary scientific inquiry and advanced psychological assessment and intervention. The program meets American Psychological Association (APA) requirements for doctoral training in clinical psychology. Upon graduation, students will have completed predoctoral requirements for clinical licensure in most states and will have solid preparation for American Board of Professional Psychologists certification in their areas of specialty. For more information about professional licensure, download our Professional Licensure Sheet PDF document.
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.
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
Psychology, Ph.D., Clinical/Community Psychology
Psychology
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
Psychology, Ph.D., Cognitive & Affective Neuroscience
Psychology
The Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience (CAN) concentration focuses on the neural bases for cognitive and affective processes in humans, and typically uses a combination of psychological experimental methods and non-invasive imaging techniques in healthy populations.
Our program is unique in that some faculty also focus on clinical populations or the translational components of noninvasive nonhuman primate-based research. The focus of this work is on its direct or translational value to human cognition and emotional systems.
Graduate students earn a master’s degree en route to the Ph.D. degree.
The CAN Ph.D. concentration does not provide clinical training nor is the primary work in behavioral neuroscience. Students interested in neuropsychology and clinical licensure should apply to the Clinical Neuropsychology (CLN) concentration. Students interested in behavioral neuroscience and/or research on basic model organisms should apply to the Neuroscience Institute.
The CAN and other faculty with neuroimaging research interests are involved in the Center for Translational Research in Neuroimaging and Data Science (TReNDS) with regular presentations and speaker series, collaborative projects and research initiatives.
Georgia State has a rich neuroscience community that fosters collaboration among our colleagues in the Neuroscience Institute and the Georgia State/Georgia Tech Center for Advanced Brain Imaging.
Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies
FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants
Faculty Accepting Students
Psychology, Ph.D., Cognitive Sciences
Psychology
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
Psychology, Ph.D., Community Psychology
Ph.D. students in the Community Psychology concentration receive training that will enable them to conduct research and collaborate with communities to improve the well-being of individuals and social settings.
Community psychologists:
- Seek to expand "helping" beyond traditional psychotherapy to promote wellness.
- Engage in action-oriented research to develop, implement and evaluate programs.
- Base their work on a scientific foundation to better understand the multiple influences of the social environment on health and wellness.
- Build collaborative relationships with community members, groups and organizations to solve social problems.
- Consult with and provide tools to organizations to build capacity to address social problems such as exploitation and victimization.
- Analyze government, civic life and workplace settings to understand and improve fair and diverse participation.
- Fight oppression, seek to reduce social inequalities and work with marginalized people toward their empowerment.
The department also offers a joint concentration in community-clinical psychology and a dual program in public health and community psychology.
Students in the Clinical-Community (CLC) concentration seek training in clinical and community psychology and aim to be eligible for clinical licensure following graduation. Dual enrollment 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.
The dual M.P.H.-Ph.D. program in Public Health and Community Psychology provides professional and graduate students with a solid and well-rounded background across two disciplines. Successful candidates will earn a master of public health degree upon completion of the graduate health behavior and promotion concentration or the epidemiology concentration offered by the School of Public Health and a Doctor of Philosophy degree (Ph.D.) upon completion of the community psychology concentration.
Our faculty share a common perspective as researchers rooted in psychology and informed by related disciplines, such as education, public health, sociology and women’s studies. We share an emphasis on changing resources, social norms and public policies that affect individuals and the contexts surrounding people’s lives (for example, social institutions, neighborhoods, families). We are involved at the local, state, national and international levels and work with community and governmental organizations to design, implement and investigate the efficacy of social interventions using a variety of research methods ranging from rigorous experimental designs to qualitative case studies. We collaborate with community partners to evaluate and improve existing programs.
Welcome from the Directors of Graduate Studies
FAQs for Graduate Program Applicants
Faculty Accepting Students
Religious Studies, B.A./M.A.
Religious Studies, B.A./M.A.
Students can save time and tuition money by earning bachelor's and master's degrees in religious studies in as little as five years.
Graduates of our interdisciplinary program develop the skills needed to work in today's diverse, multicultural workplaces. Our recent graduates have moved ahead by pursuing careers in education, non-profit management, law and business, as well as by returning to established careers with a better understanding of religion and culture.
The program also prepares students who aim to pursue a Ph.D. or who want to go on to a professionally oriented graduate program in areas such as public health or law.
Religious Studies, M.A.
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.