Graduate School of Psychology: Goal of Cultivation of Students / Goal of Education and Three Guidelines

Master’s course

Based on a wide-ranging education in psychology, the fostering of individuals possessing practical abilities enabling them to excel in the provision of psychological support, and students possessing the necessary research ability to enable them to aim towards proceeding to the Doctor’s course and taking up research positions.

Doctor’s course

The fostering of instructors of practitioners able to provide support to individuals and local communities, and researchers possessing ability in both fundamental research and practical research, and the capacity to integrate the two types of research.

Master’s course

We seek to cultivate graduates possessing the ability to sound psychological mechanisms and to conduct basic scientific research on psychology and behavior backed up by theory, and who are able, using ways of thinking and methods drawn from the study of psychology, to resolve, or provide support in relation to, diverse problems arising in society. In addition, we seek to cultivate graduates who, while tending their own psychological and physical health, are always sensitive to their relations with others, to their families and communities, to society in general and to their culture, who have the ability to act with consideration of a diverse range of environmental factors, and who are able to excel as sophisticated and specialized professionals in areas including education, medicine, welfare, law and industry.

Doctor’s course

We seek to cultivate graduates who, on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of the fields encompassed by basic psychology, educational and developmental psychology and clinical psychology, develop abilities as researchers or as instructors in these fields, possessing advanced specializations and able to provide instruction to clinical practitioners. In addition, we seek to cultivate researchers or professionals possessing high-level specializations, with the ability to understand and consider various problems arising in society from a psychological perspective and propose means of responding to those problems.

Master’s course

<Psychology Course>
In the Psychology Course, we cultivate “psychological explorers” able to substantively elucidate the psychological mechanisms that form the basis of human behavior (people’s ways of seeing things and thinking about things, their actions towards others, etc.) using psychological thinking and methodology, and to return the results of this process to society in the form of research or practice. In order to cultivate graduates possessing these qualities, we establish a solid foundation of disciplined study of the statistical and research techniques and knowledge essential to substantive psychology, and offer students a choice of subjects enabling them to systematically acquire advanced knowledge and research techniques in the fields which interest them most from among a wide-ranging selection of specialized fields of psychology. By means of these studies, we produce graduates who will contribute to society using specialized psychological knowledge and methodologies, in addition to contributing through their ability to solve problems and to think logically and critically. Specifically, we seek to foster specialized professionals able to contribute to society by approaching the analysis and resolution of phenomena arising in relationships with others or in groups and organizations using psychological perspectives and substantive psychological methods, or students who will proceed to the doctor’s course and become researchers who contribute to society by producing new findings to expand academic understanding and applying those findings practically.

<Educational and Developmental Psychology Course>
In order to produce highly specialized professionals who function as leaders in stimulating progress in school education, special needs education, the provision of support for developmentally disabled infants and children, and the provision of support for child raising, we formulate our curriculum to offer our students experience-based learning in the areas of theory and practice related to childhood education and development. Seeking to promote deeper knowledge regarding a variety of fields related to the subjects offered, we require students to take classes in developmental psychology, the psychology of disabled infants and children, and the psychology of education and learning as compulsory subjects. To ensure that students are able to deepen their knowledge of more specialized areas, we offer specialized subjects organized around the four axes of Understanding Development, Understanding and Supporting Behavior, Understanding and Supporting Learning and Supporting Teachers and Carers as elective subjects.

<Clinical Psychology Course>
Seeking to produce graduates able to understand a variety of psychological problems and provide help with those problems, we organize our curriculum to enable students to learn psychological assessment techniques that will allow them to identify problems and a range of therapeutic methods, in addition to studying a variety of highly specialized areas of theory and practice related to clinical psychology. As mandatory subjects, in the Clinical Psychology stream we first promote the study of various phenomena associated with clinical psychological practice from multifaceted perspectives. In the Psychological Interview stream, we then ensure that students are able to learn the methodologies involved in the interviews that form the basis of interpersonal relationships in clinical practice. Because this course places an emphasis on practice, we enable students to learn about the characteristics of human relationships and the nature of psychological support practically, via practical training in the fundamentals of clinical psychology that form the basis for the provision of psychological support and involvement in actual clinical practice in helping clients of the Clinical Center for Counseling and Special Needs Research. Students are also able to do practical work at medical, educational and other institutions outside the school. In order to ensure that the student develops the ability to conduct specialized research in addition to superior clinical abilities, we require the submission of a Master’s thesis related to clinical psychological practice, and offer detailed research guidance that takes advanced specializations into consideration. The curriculum is formulated looking towards the student, upon completion of the course, successfully passing the test for certification by the Foundation of the Japanese Certification Board for Clinical Psychologists, and applying their skills in areas such as medicine, education, law, welfare and industry.

Doctor’s course

In order to produce graduates able to function as researchers or instructors of clinical practitioners across the full range of fields associated with the discipline of psychology, and to ensure that graduates develop a multi-faceted perspective on the discipline, we present a curriculum enabling students to study and acquire a grounding in a wide range of areas of psychology, including basic psychology, developmental psychology, social psychology, the psychology of disabled infants and adults, psychiatry and clinical psychology. In addition to receiving guidance in the writing of their doctoral thesis from their supervising professor, our system also allows students to receive guidance and advice from other supervisors, and our curriculum also includes mandatory subjects in which students receive instruction from other professors.

The Admissions Policy of the Major of Psychology is as follows.

Master’s course

In the Master’s course of Psychology, we develop and cultivate the abilities that are essential for researchers and professionals possessing high-level specializations by fostering knowledge based on a broad perspective and research and practical skills in specialized fields. To enable this, we seek students of the following type: Individuals who have a deep interest in the psychology of others, who wish to pursue research and practice in specialized fields of psychology that center on the provision of psychological support to others, and who wish to achieve the level of specialization in their field expected of a working professional. Individuals who have studied the fundamentals in their undergraduate degree, and who have an interest in studying a more advanced psychological specialization, desiring to become researchers or practitioners possessing an intimate understanding of psychological theory and practice. Individuals who have an interest in psychology and differences in human relationships as they relate to the individual, the family, and the community, who have an interest in developmental changes and differences in human relationships across the human lifespan, from babyhood, infancy, childhood, adolescence and youth, to maturity and old age, and who, based on these interests, wishes to study a psychological specialization and work as a researcher or practitioner.

Doctor’s course

In the Doctor’s course, we seek individuals who desire to become researchers active in the field of psychology or instructors of clinical practitioners, who desire to develop into professionals possessing advanced specializations, and who are ambitious and highly motivated to study, craving a new challenge in the field of psychology.