Online Graduate Psychology Preparatory Courses

This course presents a broad overview of the realm of abnormal psychology. Students will examine and review critically the cultural construction of mental health and illness, the history of psychiatric diagnosis, and the major historical and contemporary theoretical perspectives regarding the diagnosis, causes, and treatment of abnormal behavior. The course also introduces students to the major categories of child and adult mental disorders and the current North American system of psychiatric classification and nomenclature as illustrated in the most current edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V). 

This course fulfills the Abnormal Psychology pre-requisite for our PsyD Clinical program.

Instructor: Caroline Miller, PsyD
Course Textbook: Kring A,M., Johnson, S.L., Davison, G.C., & Neale, J.M. (2014). Abnormal Psychology, (12th Ed-DSM-5 Update). New York: Wiley. ISBN#: 9781118640883

This course offers an exploration of a person's development throughout the lifespan. This exploration plays particular attention to the wide variety of the human experience and to cultural variations. A developmental perspective tracks neurobiological, cognitive, affective, psychomotor and intra an interpersonal features of human growth. Key models of development representing psychodynamic, structural, behavioral and cognitive schools of thought will be reviewed as well as current trends in developmental research.

This course fulfills the Developmental Psychology pre-requisite for our PsyD Clinical program.

Instructor: Ronda Goodale, PhD
Course Textbook: Feldman, Robert (2018). Discovering the Life Span. 4th Edition.

This course introduces the student to the concept and study of human personality and presents a survey and critical review of the major theories in the field, including their historical bases, core tenets and concepts, strengths, weaknesses, current status, and major applications. Among the approaches covered are the psychodynamic, interpersonal, social, behavioral, humanistic, biological, and evolutionary.

This course fulfills the Personality Theories pre-requisite for our PsyD Clinical program.

Instructor: Caroline Miller, PsyD
Course Textbook: Sollod, R.N., Wilson, J.P., & Monte, C.F. (2009). Beneath the mask: An introduction to theories of personality. New York: Wiley. ISBN#: 978-0-471-72412-4 

 Each 3 credit course costs $500/credit + $50 student services fee, totaling $1550. Students who take more than one course at a time only pay one $50 student services fee per term.

 Yes! Several courses serve as pre-requisites for our PsyD in Clinical Psychology program.

 No. Courses cannot be transferred into a William James College program, however they may be transferable to other institutions. Please contact the institution for their specific transfer policy.

 Each course is 8 weeks long, and is broken up into 8 weekly modules. Students are expected to complete one module a week, for a total of 8 weeks.

Our Graduate Psychology Preparatory Courses are offered in an asynchronous format which means you can complete most of the course requirements at your own pace, provided you meet the weekly deadlines. For each week/module there will be several activities including readings, video lectures and assignments. Readings and lectures can be completed at any time during the week, however assignments must be turned in by the weekly deadline. A typical course calendar can be found below:

Dates indicate final deadlines. Early submissions are acceptable
Light Yellow = student due-date
Dark Yellow = instructor due-date

 The GPPC courses have an open and rolling registration with a start date every Monday. For applications received on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, students will most likely be able to start the course that Monday. For applications received on a Thursday or Friday, students will likely be enrolled for the following Monday. Upon receipt of your completed registration form, someone from the EdTech department will contact you regarding your course start date.

 Since the GPPC courses are self-paced, you will not likely be a part of an online cohort of students. Instead you will have frequent interaction with your course instructor as well as guided interaction with the course material. If another student enrolls at the same time you do, there may be an opportunity for peer to peer collaboration. This will be determined by the course instructor.

 Courses are limited to 10 students at a time, so that instructors can provide frequent interaction and ample feedback for each student. If a course meets maximum enrollment, applicants will be placed on a waitlist in the order in which they applied. Waitlist times will vary depending on the time of year, however it may be as short as one week.

 If you submit a withdraw request before your scheduled start date, a full refund will be issued. Please note however that no refund can be issued after a student has opened the online course.

We design our online courses to be accessible to students even with the most limited of technological knowledge. However, to be successful in any online course, including the ones we offer here at William James College, basic computer literacy is required.

Since we know our students come from varied backgrounds, educations, and technological abilities, we have created a list to give you an idea of the technology abilities expected of our CE students. This is not a comprehensive list nor will you necessarily be using these specific skills in your CE course; however, the examples will give you a sense of the type of technology skills needed to succeed.

Here are some examples of things that people with basic computer literacy can do:

•    copy and paste
•    write and send e-mails, including with attachments
•    refresh a webpage
•    open a new browser tab or window
•    download and save a file to your computer
•    use a search engine
•    basic word processing skills, including changing fonts

Having the right skills for an online program is important but equally essential is to meet the minimum technical requirements. Click here to see what we currently suggest. 

 William James College's online courses are just as rigorous and engaging as the face-to-face courses, however the self-paced and intensive format may not be conducive to all learning styles. Please check out the quiz found below to see if online learning is right for you!