Psychology

Clinical Psychology

Training people able to offer practical psychological counseling

The breakdown of the family and of local human relationships and the weakening of shared moral-ethical values have led to the isolation of the individual and to an increase in the types of psychological problems individuals suffer from. There are fewer persons in the immediate environment to aid in the resolution of such problems, and thus society's need for professional psychological counselors has greatly increased. Providing professional mental-emotional care involves having a sympathetic understanding of the many different states of mind of a variety of individuals.

The aim is to help the client to be aware of such differences and thus gain the ability to live while fully expressing his or her own individuality within a variety of social contexts, rather than completely submerging it in the social group.

The program in Clinical Psychology seeks to produce high-level professional psychological counselors with the attitudes, knowledge, and techniques necessary to provide actual concrete counseling so as to aid in this process. The major in Clinical Psychology seeks to train highly qualified professionals, offering a curriculum that makes it possible for students to gain qualifications as clinical psychologists.

Forensic Psychology

Training people able to offer high-level psychological assistance in areas of legal practice

The multitude of problems arising in contemporary legal practice -- including methods of investigation, evaluation of evidence, operation of the jury system, crime itself, aid to its victims, corrective education and rehabilitation of criminals, various forms of abuse, etc. -- cannot be solved within the confines of the legal system and its standards alone. Their resolution requires a fundamental psychological understanding of human beings and of individual cases concretely involved with the law. As reform of the legal system progresses, the need for assistance to individuals within the system is heightened. There is an increasing need to provide such individual assistance based on psychological understanding.

The problem areas in which psychology can make a positive contribution in the actual practice of law are also growing. Thus there is an ever-increasing need for qualitative advances in legal services. The aim of the major in Forensic Psychology is to train specialists in practical psychology in law-related fields. Ours is the first graduate school program in Japan to actualize such a collaboration between law and psychology.

Degree: Master's in Psychology

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