N.J. Admin. Code § 13:42-2.1 - Application; qualifications to sit for examination

(a) An applicant for licensure shall file with the Board an application together with all supporting material. The application form requests a brief summary of educational and employment experience. Supporting material required to be submitted with the application includes official transcripts; an abstract of the applicant's doctoral dissertation as published in Dissertation Abstracts International; and two certificates of good moral character. Documentation of two years of full time or full time equivalent supervised experience in the practice of psychology is required upon the applicant's completion of such experience.

(b) In order to be eligible to sit for the examination, an applicant shall have two years of full-time or full-time-equivalent supervised experience in accordance with N.J.A.C. 13:42-4 and:

1. An earned doctorate, which meets the criteria set forth in (d) through (j) below, in the field of psychology from an educational institution recognized by the Board;

2. An earned doctorate, which meets the criteria set forth in (d) through (j) below, in a field allied to psychology; or

3. Equivalent training as set forth in N.J.A.C. 13:42-2.3.

(c) The institution at which the applicant earned his or her doctorate shall have been fully accredited during the entirety of the applicant's attendance by a regional accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education. Alternatively, an educational institutional program shall have been granted continuous provisional accreditation by a regional accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education during the entirety of the applicant's attendance, with full accreditation having been awarded within five years of the candidate's graduation.

(d) No more than one-third of the doctoral credits shall have been transferred from other regionally/nationally accredited graduate schools.

(e) The doctoral degree must be based upon at least 40 doctoral credit hours earned specifically within the field of psychology and within a doctoral program requiring personal attendance at the degree-granting institution that meets the requirements of (f) below. Thirty-six of the required 40 credit hours shall be distributed across the following areas of graduate study:

1. Personality Theory and Human Development Theory: six credits;

2. Learning Theory and/or Physiological Psychology: six credits;

3. Psychological Measurement and Psychological Assessment: six credits;

4. Psychopathology: six credits;

5. Psychological therapy/counseling or Industrial/Organizational Psychology: six credits; and

6. Research and Statistical Design: six credits.

(f) In order to qualify as a doctoral program for the purposes of (e) above, a doctoral program shall:

1. Be accredited by the American Psychological Association or the Canadian Psychological Association, or listed by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards/National Register Joint Designation; or

2. Meet the following:

i. Have full-time faculty who are doctorally prepared in psychology;

ii. Require full-time students to physically attend classes on campus for at least one academic year; and

iii. Require part-time students to physically attend classes on campus for at least two academic years.

(g) An applicant for licensure who was enrolled in a doctoral program prior to September 19, 2011 shall not be required to show that the doctoral program met the requirements of (f) above.

(h) The applicant shall submit evidence of an additional 20 credit hours, also specifically in the field of psychology, but which were not necessarily obtained as part of the doctoral program. The additional 20 credits can have been granted at a pre-doctoral or post-doctoral graduate level and must have been obtained as part of an educational program in a regionally accredited institution.

(i) The Board may, in its discretion, recognize up to six credits for a dissertation which is psychological in nature. The six credits may be used either to satisfy the requirement of having at least 40 doctoral credit hours specifically within the field of psychology and earned within a doctoral program, or to satisfy a credit deficiency in one or more of the required distribution areas of doctoral study.

(j) The Board may, in its discretion, accept up to nine credits, taken at a regionally accredited school or university, to remediate a deficiency in the requirements of (e) and (h) above.

Notes

N.J. Admin. Code § 13:42-2.1

Amended by R.1995 d.332, effective 6/19/1995.
See: 26 N.J.R. 4738(a), 27 N.J.R. 2422(a).
Amended by R.2009 d.241, effective 8/3/2009.
See: 41 N.J.R. 712(a), 41 N.J.R. 2975(a).
Deleted former (g); and recodified former (h) and (i) as (g) and (h).
Amended by R.2011 d.241, effective 9/19/2011.
See: 42 N.J.R. 2228(a), 43 N.J.R. 381(a), 43 N.J.R. 2530(a).
In (c), substituted "a regional accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education" for "an accrediting body generally recognized within the national academic community" and "regional accrediting body recognized by the United States Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education" for "recognized regional or national entity"; in the introductory paragraph of (e), inserted "that meets the requirements of (f) below"; added new (f) and (g); recodified former (f) through (h) as (h) through (j); and in (j), substituted "(h)" for "(f)".
Amended by R.2013 d.016, effective 2/4/2013 (operative August 4, 2013).
See: 44 N.J.R. 214(a), 45 N.J.R. 220(a).
In the introductory paragraph of (b), substituted "full-time or full-time-equivalent" for "full time or full time equivalent", and deleted the comma following "N.J.A.C. 13:42-4"; and in (b)1 and (b)2, substituted "(j)" for "(i)".