Welcome
Dear psychology friends and family,
Welcome to the Department of Psychology at ETSU! As you may know, psychology is the scientific study of the brain, and mental and behavioral processes. Our internationally-renowned and award-winning faculty investigate some of the most complicated, intriguing, and contemporary research questions related to the human condition. For example,
- How can we communicate with patients with “locked-in syndrome,” and how can they communicate with us?
- Gambling, video gaming, risky sex, and illicit drugs: can understanding impulsivity and expectancies help understand who is at risk?
- How do babies learn to talk?
- How do parents transmit mental health (or dysfunction) across generations?
- How do drugs of abuse warp associative learning and create behaviors that are resistant to change?
- How do transgender individuals in rural Appalachia experience health care?
- How does religious belief impact mental and physical health?
- Does prenatal exposure to opioids place infants at risk for cognitive delays?
- How do mental illness and trauma contribute to violent sexual offending?
- How do adolescents development emotion regulation skills, and how do these skills improve mental health?
- What are the long-term neurobiological consequences of starting drug use in adolescence?
The Department of Psychology at ETSU offers doctoral and undergraduate programs of study. At the doctoral level, we offer the Ph.D. in both Clinical and Experimental Psychology. The Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology emphasizes clinical services in rural, primary care settings; while the Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology emphasizes “translational” applications of psychological science and theory in the service of improving human health. Across both programs we enroll approximately 40 doctoral students at any one time. Admission is highly competitive.
At the undergraduate level, we offer the B.A. and B.S. degree in each of four concentrations:
General Psychology, Child Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Health Professions.
The Health Professions concentration, our newest addition, was designed as a track
for premed students more interested in majoring in psychology than in the other natural
sciences. The other concentrations also provide excellent all-around training in critical
and quantitative thinking, and in written and oral communication. The popularity of
the ETSU psychology major has exploded in recent years, and we now have more than
600 majors. We are the most popular undergraduate major in the entire college.
For students not interested in pursuing graduate study, the psychology major prepares
students for practically an infinite variety of career paths, including in: Business;
Advertising; Finance; Marketing; Sales; Working with Children and Families; Working
in Health-Related Professions; and Working in Social and Human Services.
Whether you dream of being a clinical psychologist, a psychological scientist, a college professor, or just want a well-rounded, undergraduate liberal arts education, the ETSU Department of Psychology is the perfect home for you. Won’t you join us?
Wallace E. Dixon, Jr., Ph. D.
Chair and Professor of Psychology