Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology

The Department of Psychology at Jackson State University is a unit of the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts

Jackson State University (JSU) was approved by the Board of Trustees of Institutions of Higher Learning of the State of Mississippi to begin its Ph.D. program in clinical psychology in 1995 with an inaugural class of six doctoral candidates. The American Psychological Association awarded our program accreditation in 2001, and the first doctoral dissertation defense occurred in 2002. The program was first reaccredited in 2005, and then accredited in 2010, 2016, and 2020 (the completion of the 2020 application cycle did not occur until 2023 due to COVID-19 delays). The next reaccreditation application is due in 2033.

Students in this program immersed into a curriculum anchored in the cumulative body of psychological knowledge, with a firm basis in statistics, research design, and experimental methodology. The program develops a comprehensive knowledge base and teaches skills to improve the students’ ability to effectively function as an empirically-oriented clinical psychologist in diverse settings. This is accomplished through a sequence of formal clinical courses, and distinguished by an in-depth exploration of multicultural issues and exposure to ethnic minority communities.

APA Commission on Accreditation

The program is APA-CoA accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of the American Psychological Association. Questions related to the program’s accredited status should be directed to the Commission on Accreditation: