Training in family psychology: a competencies-based approach

After providing an overview of the family psychology landscape and the competencies-based movement in professional psychology, attention is paid to eight family-specific competencies in the following areas: the application of scientific knowledge to practice, psychological assessment, psychological intervention, consultation and interprofessional collaboration, supervision, professional development, ethics and legal issues, and individual and cultural diversity. Effective strategies for providing family-focused education and training to psychology trainees at the doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral levels and to psychologists through continuing professional education in these core competency domains are provided.     

Guidelines for Cognitive Behavioral Training Within Doctoral Psychology Programs in the United States: Report of the Inter-Organizational Task Force on Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology Doctoral Education

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies initiated an interorganizational task force to develop guidelines for integrated education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology at the doctoral level in the United States. Fifteen task force members representing 16 professional associations participated in a yearlong series of conferences, and developed a consensus on optimal doctoral education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology. The recommendations assume solid foundational training that is typical within applied psychology areas such as clinical and counseling psychology programs located in the United States. This article details the background, assumptions, and resulting recommendations specific to doctoral education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology, including competencies expected in the areas of ethics, research, and practice.     

Postdoctoral education and training for clinical service providers in health psychology

It was recommended by the 1983 National Working Conference on Education and Training in Health Psychology (Stone, 1983) that 2 years of postdoctoral education and training be mandated for future licensed health service providers in health psychology. The background for requiring this postdoctoral training, a model for education, criteria for developing programs, issues of funding, and a rationale for accepting this mandate are presented. Highlighted are the stable and consistent growth of health psychology, the need to expand the period of clinical training to meet the many advances in the field, and the challenges that exist for the fully trained clinical health service provider.     

Training and credentialing in forensic psychology

The number of training programs in forensic psychology has grown considerably in the past 15 years. Numerous opportunities exist for individuals interested in pursuing careers in the forensic area. Interdisciplinary training in several forms is discussed: J.D. -Ph.D. Programs, specialist Ph.D. Programs, predoctoral internships, and postdoctoral fellowships. Continuing professional education, credentialing, and board certification in forensic psychology are also addressed. Despite the face validity of these various types of training and credentialing, little is known about their relative utilities.     

Community Psychology in higher education in Europe: Results of a survey and discussion of the basic competency approach

This report from the Standing Committee on Community Psychology of the European Federation of Psychological Association provides an overview of higher education in Community Psychology (CP) in 14 European countries. Our findings show that 10 countries have some kind of CP teaching in their educational system. Twenty European universities offer a CP‐oriented Master degree, two universities at the Bachelor level and 16 universities also have CP‐oriented Ph.D. programmes. The profiles of the universities focus on two areas: Community psychology in a pure form and a combination of social psychology and community psychology. The other universities vary between clinical, organisational psychology, and a pedagogical focus. Within a certain European emphasis, these universities are analysing and changing the social conditions of community life and mental health. The responding universities failed to report adequately on comprehensive core competences and key elements in CP. To compensate for this deficit, the Standing Committee on Community Psychology proposes to develop a primer of basic CP competences for inclusion in programmes like EuroPsy.     

Teaching assistant training in counseling psychology

We surveyed training directors and counseling psychology graduate teaching assistants at Council of Counseling Psychology Training Programs to acquire information concerning Teaching Assistant (TA) training, supervision and teaching experiences, and the extent to which TAs believe their training and supervision helped them to feel competent in their teaching duties. TAs were most satisfied with those training methods related directly to the practice of teaching (e.g., role playing and receiving feedback on practice teaching). Implications for training counseling psychologists as educators are discussed.     

Internet and the support of psychology education

The Computers in Teaching Initiative (CTI) Centre for Psychology has been promoting the use of computers in psychology education for the last 5 years. The advent of the Internet and ubiquitous access to the World-Wide Web has the potential to revolutionize the way the teaching and learning of psychology can be supported. This paper describes how we are using the Web to support psychology education through information dissemination, through the provision of teaching resources, and through facilities for communication.     

Teaching cultural sensitivity in psychological assessment: a modular approach used in a distance education program

In this article, I describe the teaching and evaluation of 8 multicultural assessment competencies in an American Psychological Association accredited, distance education, clinical psychology doctoral program. This modular approach consists of 15 hr of face-to-face, didactic and experiential multicultural assessment training designed to (a) augment personal awareness, (b) develop a conceptual base, (c) provide exposure to available assessment technologies, (d) ensure an understanding of an integrative model of culturally sensitive assessment, and (e) offer opportunities to apply this material to assessment cases. In addition to completing this training, students are evaluated on these competencies as part of their preinternship clinical comprehensive. I present preliminary evaluative outcome data as well as a critique of this approach.     

Psychology doctoral training in work and health

Psychology as a profession has an opportunity and obligation to advocate for and develop healthy work environments. This will require the design and conduct of doctoral-level training in occupational health psychology. A model for training might well be based on the assumptions that there is a viable role for occupational health psychologists trained at the doctoral level for both academic and applied work settings, and that doctoral training would be based on the integration of health psychology and public health. Issues remaining to be addressed in the development of doctoral training programs include appropriate predoctoral training, academic standards, the interdisciplinary nature of faculties, and appropriate settings for training. Future directions in establishing doctoral training in occupational health psychology will best be taken in dialogue with several other professions and institutions that share a common interest in reducing leading work-related diseases and injuries and promoting public health in the workplace.     

Applied developmental psychology

Applied developmental psychology is emerging as a new subspecialty in psychology. The perspective provided in this paper is grounded in the premise that it is primarily a research discipline of scholars and researchers who will carry out their activities in a university setting. The students of the described program have found academic or research institute positions. Most of these have been in an academic department of psychology. Some have been in medical schools or research institutes with university affiliations. I believe there is a further market, for example in hospital or school settings, where a research and evaluation program or center is maintained. However, applied developmentalists, as such, should not be expected to be in the business of primary care delivery.This paper is based on the experience of establishing an applied developmental program that is described briefly below. In addition, the content is influenced by a consulting role in establishing a program at another university and from the small conference on Training in Applied Developmental Psychology held at the Mailman Center in 1980.     

Comparison of counseling and clinical psychology graduates on the examination for professional practice in psychology

Doctoral recipients in clinical psychology scored higher than doctoral recipients in counseling psychology on the national licensing exam, the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. The largest discrepancies between the 2 groups were on Subtest I (diagnosis), Subtest II (intervention), and Subtest III (research). The differences were less large for Subtest IV (professional/ethical/legal issues) and for Subtest V (social application). The authors recommend that both counseling and clinical psychology graduate students take more course work in the department of the other discipline.     

Graduate training in school psychology

A survey was conducted in spring of 1975 to elicit factual information concerning organizational characteristics and training emphases of the school psychology training programs in the United States and Canada. Ninety-nine training institutions responded. The result indicated a rapid growth of graduate education programs in school psychology in the past 10 years. Faculty shortage constituted a major problem in many training institutions. Overall, the school psychology programs placed strongest emphases on assessment, consultation, and other active intervention techniques in their training content. Significant differences in training emphases were found between doctoral and subdoctoral programs.     

Psychological Assessment Training in Clinical Psychology Doctoral Programs

We surveyed American Psychological Association–accredited clinical psychology doctoral programs' (n = 83) training in psychological assessment—specifically, their coverage of various assessment topics and tests in courses and practica, and whether the training was optional or required. We report results overall and separately per training model (clinical science, scientist-practitioner, and practitioner-focused). Overall, our results suggest that psychological assessment training is as active, or even more active, than in previous years. Areas of increased emphasis include clinical interviewing and psychometrics; multimethod, outcomes, health, and collaborative or therapeutic assessment; and different types of cognitive and self-report personality tests. All or almost all practice-focused programs offered training with the Thematic Apperception Test and Rorschach compared to about half of the scientist-practitioner programs and a third of the clinical science programs. Although almost all programs reported teaching multimethod assessment, what constitutes different methods of assessing psychopathology should be clarified in future studies because many programs appear to rely on one method—self-report (especially clinical science programs). Although doctoral programs covered many assessment topics and tests in didactic courses, there appears to be a shortage of program-run opportunities for students to obtain applied assessment training. Finally, we encourage doctoral programs to be familiar with (a) internships' assessment expectations and opportunities, (b) the professional guidelines for assessment training, and (c) the American Psychological Association's requirements for preinternship assessment competencies.     

Challenges to professional psychology education in the 21st century: response to Peterson

Professional psychology education faces many critical challenges brought about by the major changes occurring in the health care arena. This article shows that professional schools and programs have a good record of responding to these challenges and of taking proactive steps sponding to prepare their graduates for new health care roles and delivery systems. Data on admissions to psychology doctoral training programs demonstrate little support for the toral concerns raised by Donald R. Peterson (2003, this issue) about the preparation of students for graduate training in professional programs. Although quality concerns are important to investigate, such examination best resides with portant the American Psychological Association's Committee on Accreditation, which has the promotion of quality and excellence in professional psychology education and training as its major goal and responsibility.     

Some foundations and directions for applied developmental psychology

Applied developmental psychology (ADP) is an “umbrella” discipline which includes a range of psychological sciences and professions committed to use of the data base and methods of developmental psychology to address problems in education, health, human services and public policy. ADP emerges now as a manifestation of increasing recognition of the limits of developmental psychology's traditional models and paradigms, increasing recognition of our appropriate role in social problem-solving and public policy formation and an employment market which reflects these awarenesses. Consideration of clinical psychology as an ADP provides examples of synergies and distinctions helpful in defining ADP. The “linkage” concept inherent in a “scientist-practitioner” model is emphasized as a key in this definition and as a basis for designing appropriate doctoral training programs in ADP.     

Graduate education in qualitative methods in U.S. psychology: current trends and recommendations for the future

The visibility of qualitative research methods (QRM) in U.S. psychology has increased with the dissemination of qualitative research in journals and books, formation of professional and scientific organizations, and recognition in educational institutions. While gains have been made, the current state of doctoral training in qualitative methods remains uncertain. It is unclear what training graduate students receive in U.S. psychology programs about qualitative methodologies and how further gains can be made in expanding visibility of QRM in graduate education. In this mixed-methods study, we surveyed a sample of faculty in U.S. psychology graduate programs about the frequency of QRM course offerings, graduate training, and students’ use of QRM in their dissertation research. We also explored qualitative responses from faculty regarding their attitudes about QRM and how these attitudes might help increase or diminish the frequency of methods training available to students. We found that even within graduate programs where there was support for QRM, enduring perceptions about the value of qualitative research limit faculty and graduate students’ use of qualitative methodologies in their research. With these findings in mind, we offer several recommendations for increasing the visibility of QRM in U.S. graduate education and the discipline of psychology as a whole.     

Doctoral school psychology program graduates in the United States: The first seventeen years

Graduates of all known doctoral school psychology programs in the United States from the inception of school programs in 1953 through 1970 were identified and sent survey forms to determine their background, professional development and interests, and their concerns about training. Findings were based on a 78% return rate. The conclusion reached is that separate doctoral programs in school psychology appear at present to be an efficacious way to ensure orientation, commitment, and training for the application of psychology to school problems.     

Applied psychology in Mexico

Two important issues must be made clear in the context of the development of psychology in Mexico. Psychology in general and applied psychology in particular are relatively new and fast-growing fields of study in this country. In 1940, there were only six students registered in the Department of Psychology at the National University of Mexico (the largest institution both for teaching and research in this country), and the first research papers in what at the time could be considered applied psychology appeared in the 1950s (e.g. Días-Guerrero, 1952, on the mental and social health of Mexicans living in the cities; and Gómez-Robleda, 1959, on industrial psychology).     

The state of the psychology health service provider workforce

Numerous efforts to describe the health service provider or clinical workforce in psychology have been conducted during the past 30 years. The American Psychological Association (APA) has studied trends in the doctoral education pathway and the resultant effects on the broader psychology workforce. During this period, the creation and growth of the PsyD degree and the formalization of the predoctoral internship placement system (the APPIC Match) have been well noted, but efforts to gain a complete understanding of professional practice are lacking. Specifically, piecemeal research on the provider workforce has led to the study of specific subpopulations using varying approaches and definitions of those providing direct clinical service. Consequently, estimates of the supply and need for health service providers are distinctly divergent and generate protracted debate in organized psychology. The APA membership directory and the APA Doctorate Employment Surveys have traditionally been relied on for workforce analyses. Yet, these data have become characterized by limited generalizability in recent years because of declining survey response rates and the fact that APA member data may not be as representative of the entire psychology health service provider population as they were previously. The 2008 APA Survey of Psychology Health Service Providers targeted these limitations by including nonmember psychologists in the sampling frame. Results revealed emerging themes in the demographics, work settings, and delivery of health services of the psychology health service provider workforce. Future areas of research for APA and organized psychology to undertake in addressing need and demand are suggested.     

Teaching group treatment in doctoral programs for counseling psychology

We surveyed the 71 doctoral programs in counseling psychology approved by the American Psychological Association to examine whether and how group counseling or therapy was taught. Responses from 31 programs listed at least one graduate course in group counseling; over half offered more than one. In most cases the introductory course was required. Analysis also indicated that introductory courses often included an in-class or an out-of-class experiential component, focused either primarily or exclusively on outpatient therapy and used Yalom's interpersonal approach. Discussion focused on the importance of courses in group interventions in doctoral programs in counseling psychology and the differences and similarities in academic training of group interventions in programs in counseling and clinical psychology.