Handbook
for the Graduate Program,
Last Revised August 8, 2006
Maintained and Updated by:
Cris Sullivan, Ph.D.
(Email: sulliv22@msu.edu)
Graduate Associate Chairperson
Julie Detwiler, Graduate Secretary
(Email: psygrad@msu.edu)
The Graduate Office
202 Psychology Building
Based on previous versions by Dr. Bob Caldwell, Dr.
Fernanda Ferreira, Dr. Hiram Fitzgerald, Dr. Antonio Nuñez, and Dr. Lester
Hyman
Quick links
Committee membership rules and course requirements, for Master’s and Ph.D.
Current list of Psychology Adjunct Professors, approved to serve on Master’s and Ph.D. committees
Forms available for
download, for Master’s and Ph.D.
Table of Contents
1.1 Structure
of the Graduate Program and the Department
2 Degree Requirements, Guidelines, and Forms
2.1.2 Take care of your financial support
paperwork
2.1.5 Set up Master’s Guidance committee
2.1.6 Write your Plan of Study
2.1.8 Write and Defend Master’s research
2.1.10 Admission to the Ph.D. program
2.1.12 Academic Standards
for Master's Program
2.2.1 Arrive at MSU (get PID etc.)
2.2.2 Take care of financial support
2.2.5 Set up Doctoral Guidance Committee and
Doctoral Dissertation Committee
2.2.6 Write your Plan of Study
2.2.7 Write your comprehensive examinations
2.2.8 Time Limits for Comprehensive Exams
2.2.9 Write Dissertation Proposal
2.2.10 Write and Defend the Dissertation
2.2.11 Get your Ph.D. and graduate
2.2.12 Time limits for Doctoral Program
2.2.13 Academic Standards
for Doctoral Program
3 Graduate Studies Beyond the Requirements
3.1 What
does it mean to be a graduate student?
3.2 Annual Evaluations - How do I know if I’m making good progress?
3.4 Attending
colloquia and other seminars and presentations
3.5 Projects
beyond the requirements
3.6 Your
relationship with your advisor, committee members
3.9
The Graduate
Employees Union
3.10
Dealing with the
Unexpected
4.2 Funds
for travel and research
4.3 Financial
Support (assistantships, stipends, fellowships)
5 Conducting Research, Giving Talks, Publishing Papers
5.2 Guidelines
for authorship and other forms of credit
5.3 Rules
concerning the use of human subjects
5.4 Rules
concerning the use of vertebrate animals (who aren’t human)
5.5 Rules
concerning the use of hazardous materials
6 Interest Group Requirements and Guidelines
6.5 Industrial
/ Organizational
7 University-wide materials and resources
Congratulations! You are a graduate student in one of the top Psychology Departments in the country. Your admission to this program is the result of a rigorous selection process. You should be proud of yourself for this achievement. The goal of your graduate training program is to turn you into a first-rate scientist, scholar, teacher, and practitioner.
The
“Graduate Program” in this Department is a Ph.D. program. This is true
even though those who enter our program without a Master’s degree are required
to obtain one. The expectation is that you will continue after the Master’s and
get your Ph.D. We therefore refer to the Master’s portion of the Graduate
Program as your “Master’s Program,” and the post-Master’s portion as the
“Doctoral Program.” Terminal Master’s are normally granted only in cases
in which the student has completed all Master’s requirements and a decision is
made not to continue in our Graduate Program.
The
Psychology Department is divided into six Interest Groups. These are:
2.
Clinical
3.
Cognitive
5.
Industrial /
Organizational
Each Interest Group has a
chairperson who is chosen every couple of years by the Interest Group members.
The Department maintains an up-to-date list of Interest Group chairs and members.
These
Interest Groups run separate graduate training programs. They are described in Section 6
of this Handbook. You were admitted into one of these training programs and
therefore you have a home Interest Group. Each Interest Group has developed its
own set of guidelines for its training program. Links to these Interest Group
handbooks are included in this document in Section 6. These Interest Group
handbooks contain a great deal of very important information for you. Any
information that is not included in this Departmental Handbook is most likely
included in the Interest Group handbook for your specific program.
The
main body of this handbook describes the guidelines that are Department-wide.
The University guidebook entitled “Academic Programs” describes policies that
are – yes, you guessed it – University-wide. All University rules must be
followed and our Department has little power to override them; all Departmental
policies must be followed in addition to those; and all Interest Group
guidelines and regulations must be followed in addition to those defined by the
University and the Department.
The main body of this Handbook summarizes the Department-wide policies of our Graduate Programs. Section 6 describes the guidelines for each Interest Group. All Departmental forms that you need to fill out can be downloaded using links in the relevant sections of this Handbook or from our Forms web page. Some University forms are also available on the web). The files are in MSWord format, so you can fill them in electronically.
This
Handbook is divided into seven main sections:
The
first section describes the regulations for the Master’s Program. The information is organized chronologically,
starting with matters you need to take care of when you first arrive on campus.
The second section
describes the regulations for the Doctoral Program. This information is also
described chronologically.
For
each of these first two sections, the forms that you will need to fill out as
part of our requirements are provided as links and given in the appropriate
locations. For example, your Master’s Plan of Study Form can be
downloaded from this site.
The third section is about
graduate school beyond the requirements.
The fourth focuses on the
resources that are available to you as a graduate student in the Psychology
Department at MSU.
The fifth discusses issues
related to research, giving talks, and publishing papers.
The sixth section
describes the regulations that are specific to the different Interest Groups.
The seventh and final
section lists university-wide materials and resources. You’ll find links to the
Graduate
School, the Academic Programs Handbook, links to
information about Grievance Procedures, and so on.
Please send comments, suggestions
for changes, and problems with broken links to the Graduate Associate
Chairperson, Professor Cris Sullivan, (sulliv22@msu.edu).
Definition: You are considered to be in the Master’s
Program if you were admitted to the Graduate Program in the Department of
Psychology and you don’t have a Master’s Degree from another University. You
may also be admitted into the Master's program if you have a non-Psychology
Master's degree.
One
of your first items of business (besides minor things like finding a place to
live and so on) will be to make sure you know your Personal Identification
Number. This task might be the easiest of your graduate career: You were
assigned your PIN when you applied to MSU. Your PIN is the letter “A” followed
by eight digits. This piece of information is important—it’s who you are, as
far as the University computers are concerned.
In
addition, once you have a PIN you can get your MSU NetID as well. Your NetID allows you
to do things electronically at MSU, including access email, library resources,
your student record, and so on. Your NetID is the first part of your MSU email
address something@msu.edu. Using your NetID you can also access some
server storage space (called AFS space) which you can use to create personal
web pages.