M.A. Academic and Career Pathways | UWG

Skip to content
Skip to main navigation

Sign In
- OneLogin
- myUWG
- CourseDen
- Wolf Connect
- WorkWest
- Handshake
Search

Main Menu

Explore West

Take advantage of what the University of West Georgia has to offer. UWG boasts 87 programs of study.

UWG offers an exciting, diverse curriculum that allows its students to flourish and become community and world leaders.

See all Programs of Study

masters degree path tree

Your Future in Psychology

Psychology is a very broad field with many career paths for you to pursue. In consultation with a faculty advisor, some students choose a specific informal area of concentration. We offer the following examples as possibilities. Note that these areas are overlapping and are not intended to suggest exclusivity of emphasis, and note, too, that not all of these content areas and courses may be offered during a student's period of master's enrollment.

Master's Tree (PDF)

Historical and Theoretical Foundations

Investigate psychology's historical development as a discipline and the philosophical controversies surrounding psychological theories, concepts, methods, and technologies.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Consciousness Studies

At the heart of our master's program is the question of the meaning of being human, and central to this question is the issue of consciousness. This concentration bundles coursework and experience that help students explore the meaning of consciousness, the phenomenology of its modalities as lived experience, and its potentialities, in both everyday and extraordinary modes.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Spiritual and Transpersonal Psychology

Transpersonal Psychology emerges from the study of those experiences and their correlates in which the sense of self in some way extends beyond individual identity. These are often described as spiritual events and inform consideration of human consciousness, development, and potential. Courses in this concentration invite consideration of the nature of knowing, the life of mystics, developmental crises and opportunities, integration and distinction of psychology and spirituality or any number of related interests.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Psychologies of the Mind and Body

The emerging research in neuroscience joins the already extensive literature in mind-body medicine and philosophical-theoretical conceptions of the body, both eastern and western, to provide fertile ground for varied in-depth exploration of the bodymind. This is commonly grounded in and applied to the lived experience of embodiment ranging from the consideration of pleasure to healing to stress; the body may be taken up as text, shadow, a source of intelligence, lived meaning, a social construction, energy, and much more. This concentration reflects such areas of emphasis.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

PSYC 6000 Foundations of Humanistic Psychology
PSYC 6021 Psychology as Human Science
PSYC 5040 Psychology of Dreams
PSYC 5230 Phenomenological Psychology
PSYC 5070 Psychology of Myth and Symbol
PSYC 5700 Ecopsychology
PSYC 6785 Advanced Horizon Seminar (depending on the faculty and title)
PSYC 6800 Psychology of the Mind and Body
PSYC 7020 Transpersonal Development
PSYC 7050 Consciousness Studies
PSYC 7490 Phenomenology of Social Existence
PSYC 7650 Buddhist Psychology
PSYC 7670 Music and the Mind
PSYC Tutorial, with doctoral students (depending on the faculty and title)

Psychologies of Language and Narrative

This concentration focuses on language as an activity, as a performance, and allows students to explore how language-in-use is practical, situated, and psychologically important. Methods of research (e.g., critical discourse analysis narrative inquiry) are also a Concentration emphasis, with application to identity and self, language-based thinking, and negotiation of various interpersonal contexts.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Parapsychology and Exceptional Experiences

Parapsychology is the empirical study of subjective experiences that are difficult to accommodate within the current dominant scientific paradigm. Parapsychologists employ quantitative and qualitative research methods to study a range of subjective experiences that appear to expand the limits and capabilities of human consciousness. This concentration allows students to explore the conceptual and experiential facets of these sorts of experiences.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Pedagogy

In one way or another many of our learners find themselves as teachers. Teaching and learning are inextricably linked to questions of how we know, what we value, what is needed, and also, who we are—as Jung wrote, “We teach mostly who we are.” In developing their own voice as teachers, students might: explore various approaches such as contemplation or Socratic dialogue, delve into fields such as holistic, psychological, or transformative education, and refine their practice through mentoring and related opportunities. The courses in this concentration reflect a common emphasis on the work of teaching and learning.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Pre-Doctoral

The courses bundled in this concentration area reflect an emphasis on helping students prepare for later Ph.D. or Psy.D. study through a combination of conceptual and applied scholarship foundation. The courses and other activities reflect our shared commitment that the single best thing students can do to prepare for such involvement is to complete a thesis.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as:

Pre-Clinical

This concentration area is intended to prepare students with a foundation of coursework and some supervised experience enabling them toward humanistic praxis. Unlike practice, which refers to exercise of skills or techniques, praxis is a process whereby a theory is enacted, embodied or realized. Students choosing to structure their master's program work around the pre-clinical concentration will seek, in apprenticeship to supervising and appropriately qualified faculty, to prepare themselves for work in community mental health and consultation.

Those interested should enroll in courses such as: