The Clinical Psychology Program at Duke University is a Ph.D. program for students seeking excellence in academic, scientific, and clinical training. This program is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA) and by the Psychological Clinical Science Accreditation System (PCSAS). Our program has a strong history of scientist practitioner (Boulder) model and more recently has adopted a clinical science model of training in which the science of psychology and its clinical application are mutually interdependent and mutually evolving. That is, our program is designed to train clinical scientists who are capable of functioning successfully in academic, research, clinical, and community settings. Within this multifaceted training framework, we seek to develop students who are interested in careers in which the science of psychology is applied to address public health issues related to mental and physical diseases both nationally and internationally. The program is not appropriate for students interested solely in clinical practice and not in research. Rather, we strive for excellence in both the science and practice of clinical psychology.
At Duke, graduate training in clinical psychology emphasizes three domains of knowledge: adult clinical, child clinical, and health psychology. The expertise of the faculty, drawn from the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Duke University Medical Center, extends to a large number of interdisciplinary problems involving human behavioral and physical adaptation in its varying social contexts. Duke University’s Clinical Psychology Program is annually ranked among the top clinical psychology programs in the United States. Duke’s doctoral program in Clinical Psychology is a member of The Academy of Psychological Clinical Science, which is a coalition of doctoral training programs that share a common goal of producing and applying scientific knowledge to the understanding, assessment, and amelioration of human problems.
Specific interests include intervention and prevention methods across the life course for such phenomena as aggression and antisocial behavior, depression, personality disorders, eating disorders and obesity, substance abuse, HIVAIDS, cardiovascular disease, and chronic pain. Our faculty also study behavioral cardiology, behavioral medicine, global mental health, reducing disparities in minority mental and physical health services, assessment and intervention in pediatric psychology, and gene-environment interaction.
Clinical program faculty are also actively involved in University Institutes, including the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences (DIBS), Social Science Research Institute (SSRI) , and Duke Global Health Institute (DGHI).
Each year the Department admits 4-6 clinical graduate students, which will result in approximately 30 students being advised by our faculty at one time. As of September, 2015, our faculty advise a total of 30 students receiving clinical training, (5 males and 25 females, 7 of whom are racial/ethnically diverse). In the past, our Department has been fortunate to have students matriculate with excellent undergraduate training, outstanding academic performance, and average GRE scores of 160 (quantitative) and 165 (verbal). For more detailed program statistics, please see our section on Student Admissions, Outcomes, and Other Data.
In accordance with American Psychological Association requirements, a more complete description of the clinical program's goals, clinical training resources, and special requirements can be found in the on-line Clinical Graduate Student Handbook.
The clinical psychology program has been continuously accredited by the American Psychological Association since 1948. Our most recent site visit was in March 2013, and we were re-accredited for the maximum duration, seven years. Our next site visit will be in 2020. The APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation is located at the following address:
Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation
American Psychological Association
750 First St., NE
Washington , DC 20002-4242
Telephone: (202) 336-5879