Family Psychology

Program Overview

The Doctor of Psychology in Family Psychology studies the household as the unit that forms people. Individual distress rarely stays individual: a child's behaviour is embedded in a parenting alliance, a marriage sits inside two families of origin, and a grandparent's decline reorganizes everyone's week. Family psychology is the discipline that takes the whole system as its subject and brings research evidence rather than folklore to it. Students work through the systemic traditions with attention to what each one actually claims — Bowen on differentiation, triangles, and multigenerational transmission; Minuchin on structure, boundaries, and hierarchy; the strategic and solution-focused schools; and the attachment research that has given family work its most robust developmental findings. The programme then covers the lifespan: couple formation, the transition to parenthood, parenting science and what the evidence supports, adolescence, launching, divorce and repartnering, stepfamily formation, caregiving, and bereavement. Assessment and research methods appropriate to systems are taught directly, including family measures, observational coding, and the analysis of dyadic data, since studying two people who influence each other is not the same as studying two people. Theological reflection runs alongside: the household as a theological unit, covenant and obligation between generations, and the difference between a biblical account of family and a cultural one that has borrowed biblical language. The doctoral project addresses a real question about families in the student's setting. Graduates teach family psychology, direct family ministries and agencies, advise denominations on family policy and teaching, and write for parents and practitioners.

Core Courses

• FPS 801 — Family Systems Theory (6 credits)
• FPS 812 — Attachment and Development Across the Lifespan (6 credits)
• FPS 824 — Couples, Parenting, and the Parenting Alliance (6 credits)
• FPS 836 — Transitions: Divorce, Repartnering, and Caregiving (6 credits)
• FPS 848 — Family Assessment and Theological Reflection (5 credits)
• FPS 860 — Research Design for Family Data (4 credits)
• FPS 899 — Doctoral Research Project in Family Psychology (24 credits)

Admission Requirements

• Master's degree in psychology, counseling, ministry, or a closely related field
• Prior coursework in psychological theory, human development, or research methods
• Experience in care, education, chaplaincy, or human services
• Statement of purpose naming the population and question your research will address
• Current curriculum vitae
• Official transcripts from prior institutions when available