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Christopher King

Associate Professor, Psychology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Office:
Dickson Hall 455
Email:
kingch@montclair.edu
Phone:
973-655-3325
vCard:
Download vCard

Profile

I am an Associate Professor of Psychology and the current Director of Clinical Training (DCT) for the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology at Montclair State. I am a licensed psychologist in New Jersey and New York State. I can be reached at the contact information above, or at the separate email below in connection to my role as DCT.

Specialization

I attended a joint-degree (JD-PhD) program. My PhD was in clinical psychology with a forensic psychology concentration, and I graduated from law school in parallel. I consider myself a general clinical psychologist first and foremost, and a forensic psychologist second. I use my legal training for scholarship; I do not practice law.

My research lab focuses on forensic psychology, correctional psychology, police and public safety psychology, and mental health law. The link to my research lab website is provided below, in addition to other websites reflecting some of my research. A link is also provided with answers to FAQs about how to apply to work as a research assistant in my lab. Due to my primary obligation to Montclair State applicants and incoming or current Montclair State students, many of whom are interested in my research lab, I very rarely consider others (e.g., high school students, those seeking postbac research experience) to join my lab.

I teach doctoral courses in professional practice and history and systems of psychology. I also teach graduate and undergraduate courses in forensic psychology and legal psychology.

My current clinical practice interests include program development and supervision in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), especially for persons involved with the criminal legal system. A link is provided before to learn more about the my university-based training clinic in this area. I also remain interested in preemployment psychological screening of police officer candidates.

I plan to review PhD applications for the 2026–2027 application season, for a mentee to begin fall 2027. In the interest of equity to all applicants, I do not conduct "pre-interviews." Rather, I direct all prospective candidates to review the extensive posted information about the PhD Program in Clinical Psychology at Montclair State, consider attending Montclair State's Graduate Virtual Open House in the fall or spring (at which there is a session about the program), and review my answers to FAQs from PhD applicants posted below.

I holistically review all completed applications that identify me as a mentor of interest and recommend a small number of these applicants to the program to be invited to the program's interview day. It is with these interviewees with whom I meet to discuss their experience and interests, and whether we might be a good fit to work together.

Thereafter, I do not offer individualized feedback to applicants nor interviewees, for similar reasons why I do not conduct pre-interviews. Instead, I again direct to my answers to FAQs from PhD applicants linked below, which includes links to still other helpful materials for self-appraisal. I also recommend contacting one's recommenders (letter writers) for feedback.

Resume/CV

Office Hours

Fall

Wednesday
9:30 am - 11:00 am
1:45 pm - 2:15 pm

Links

Research Projects

Forensic psychology and mental health law

Current directions/projects:

(a) Law and practice concerning forensic psychological testing.

(b) Law and practice concerning hybrid psychological–legal concepts for evaluation.

See link for recent articles, book chapters, and presentations.

Correctional psychology

Current directions/projects:

(a) The clinical utility of incorporating the self-perceptions of justice-involved persons and digital technologies into correctional human services, including the development of the latter.

(b) The interpretability of measures of developmental maturity and criminal sophistication, as used in evaluations of justice-involved juveniles, by examining the comparative performance of justice-involved young adults on these measures.

(c) Validation of theories underlying correctional human service principles.

(d) Program-evaluation work on a telehealth Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) program for persons who are reentering the community from federal prison.

See link for recent articles, book chapters, and presentations.

Police and public safety psychology

Current directions/projects:

(a) Multicultural topics in pre-employment psychological screenings for police officer candidates.

(b) The utility of structured professional judgment in conducting pre-employment psychological screenings for police officer candidates.

See link for recent articles, book chapters, and presentations.

Secondary research themes

I occasionally branch out within or beyond my primary research themes when a compelling idea arises from colleagues or students.

See link for examples.