Predoctoral Students

The Clinical Psychology program at OSU offers a superior education. Students complete two years of a core curriculum averaging 4 courses per semester; course load is then reduced after the second year to 1-3 per semester. Practicum training begins in the second year. The average clinical student completes 1,000+ hours of clinical hours. Currently, pre-doctoral trainees are publishing at least 1 paper per year and make an average of 1-2 presentations per year at national meetings.

Students complete, at a minimum, three empirical projects: a first-year project, master's thesis, and dissertation. In addition to learning research design, statistics, and the scholarly literature, an important part of mentoring includes guided experience in scientific writing. Provided below are examples of the range of research projects and exemplar dissertation publications from the Andersen laboratory.

Exemplar dissertation studies:

Brothers, B. M., Yang, H. C., Strunk, D. R., & Andersen, B. L. (2011). Cancer patients with major depressive disorder: Testing a biobehavioral/cognitive behavior intervention. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 79(2), 253–260.

Carpenter, K. M., Fowler, J. M., Maxwell, G. L., & Andersen, B. L. (2010). Direct and buffering effects of social support among gynecologic cancer survivors. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 39(1), 79–90.

Conley, C. C., Agnese, D. M., Vadaparampil, S. T., & Andersen, B. L. (2019). Factors associated with intentions for breast cancer risk management: Does risk group matter?. Psycho‐oncology, 28(5), 1119–1126.

Cyranowski, J. M., & Andersen, B. L. (2000). Evidence of self-schematic cognitive processing in women with differing sexual self-views. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19(4), 519–543.

Jim, H. S., & Andersen, B. L. (2007). Meaning in life mediates the relationship between social and physical functioning and distress in cancer survivors. British Journal of Health Psychology, 12(3), 363–381.

Morrison, E. J., Flynn, J. M., Jones, J., Byrd, J. C., & Andersen, B. L. (2016). Individual differences in physical symptom burden and psychological responses in individuals with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Annals of Hematology, 95(12), 1989–1997.

Simonelli, L. E., Fowler, J., Maxwell, G. L., & Andersen, B. L. (2008). Physical sequelae and depressive symptoms in gynecologic cancer survivors: meaning in life as a mediator. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 35(3), 275–284.

Westbrook, T. D., Morrison, E. J., Maddocks, K. J., Awan, F. T., Jones, J. A., Woyach, J. A., ...Andersen, B. L. (2019). Illness perceptions in chronic lymphocytic leukemia: Testing Leventhal’s self-regulatory model. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 53(9), 839–848.

Yurek, D., Farrar, W., & Andersen, B. L. (2000). Breast cancer surgery: Comparing surgical groups and determining individual differences in postoperative sexuality and body change stress. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68(4), 697–709.

The lab environment is open and inviting, and Dr. Andersen cultivates a resourceful team of research staff and students who work and get along well together. Overall, a rich mentoring experience is offered. Dr. Andersen is a visible, "hands on" mentor and is regularly in the lab for individual, group, and collaborative supervision. Individual supervision and advising averages one hour every two weeks, at a minimum. In addition to individual meetings, there is a standing weekly lab group meeting consisting of presentations of new research ideas, discussion of recent articles in the literature, group review of manuscript drafts, and practice presentations for scientific meetings, MA/PhD practice defenses, job talks, and related activities.

Individuals accepted into the clinical program, and the Andersen lab in particular, have exceptional academic records and are embedded in interdisciplinary, cancer control research. Lab 'trainees' range from undergraduate honors students to post docs and junior faculty. Graduate students also learn from senior research staff, co-investigator faculty, and other faculty in the Comprehensive Cancer Center. Trainees' productivity is high, as indexed by publications in top tier journals, presentations at national meetings, awards, grant funding, and others. They are first successful in securing top, selective internships and secondly, suitable “first job” placements. Recent grads have faculty appointments at Duke, Georgetown, Howard University, Indiana University, U. of South Florida (Moffitt Cancer Center), U. of Washington (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center), Mayo Clinic, and others. The laboratory environment facilitates the 'best and the brightest' to their transition as independent investigators and leaders in cancer prevention and control.

For applications and information, please click here.