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.     

TRANSFERENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL KNOWLEDGE AND ITS IMPACT ON MEXICO

The impact of the transfer of the psychological knowledge from the developed countries to Mexico, is briefly described. It is clear that scientific psychological methodology and contents were introduced to Mexico at the end of the 19th Century. The impetus to the National Educational System was primarily derived from psychometric methods and secondarily from modern conceptions of education. The professional psychological practice in Mexico today is practically indistinguishable from its exercise in the developed nations as far as client services are concerned. On the other hand, there is relatively scarce and often inept use of professional or applied research techniques to the social problems of groups or to the evaluation of programs. The impact on pure and applied research, none the less, has been extensive and a relatively large number of people are doing research in several areas of psychology, particularly cross-cultural, neuro-psychological, the experimental analysis of behavior, action and interdisciplinary research in social and educational psychology. Priorities are: (1) Systematic teaching at the graduate level of the statistical and computational methodology of psychology in the context of research design and evaluation; (2) The operationalization or transferring to every day language of the concepts and techniques of psychology for use of the general public; (3) The better staffing of many, particularly the private schools of professional psychology.     

School psychology: Its educational and societal connections

School psychology can be viewed either as a pragmatic response to the pressing and immediate needs of the schools ore as an outgrowth of ideological and technological forces in society. This paper argues that beliefs more than needs shaped the history of the profession. School psychology emereged because professional educators held psychological beliefs (and because a psychological testing technology was available to turn those beliefs into practice). Thus, adherence to psychological and developmental principles made age-grading and appropriate response to the sudden influx of large numbers of new students into the schools, and the acceptance of child-centered educational theories led logically to the study of individual children's needs, especially of those who were atypical. Both educators and psychologists subscribed, at least in principle, to the mainstream social ideology of individualism. School psychology became a means for translating such national values (e.g., individualism) and educational principles (e.g., individualized instruction) into school practice.     

The Use of Testing Technicians: Critical Issues for Professional Psychology

The controversial practice of using unlicensed individuals to administered psychological tests has been questioned by some psychologists, professional organizations, state and provincial boards of psychology, state governments, departments of education, and third-party health care providers. This article provides an overview of the ethical, legal, and technical issues surrounding the controversy. On the basis of a review of these issues, recommendations are offered that are directed toward state and provincial boards of psychology, developers and publishers of psychological tests, and licensed psychologists.     

The changing relationship between psychology and contemporary spiritual direction

As recently as the late 1970's, the relationship between spiritual direction and psychology was tentative and cautious. During the last decade, however, psychological methods and perspectives have been increasingly utilized in spiritual direction. This article examines how clinical psychology, developmental psychology, the psychology of women, and professional psychology are becoming increasingly relevant to the contemporary practice of spiritual direction in the United States, and how, in the process, the relationship between psychology and spiritual direction is changing.     

Clinical Expertise: A Preliminary Attempt to Clarify Its Core Elements

The recent emphasis on evidence-based practice revolves around an integration of three domains: client characteristics, relevant research, and clinical expertise. Unfortunately, most reports focus on the examination of current research, while few guidelines exist for clarifying or developing expertise in clinical psychology. Although expertise is more advanced than competence, basic clinical competence can set the foundation for the development of more sophisticated skills. It is best to strive for narrow domains of expertise instead of global ratings of a professional as an “expert”. Five criteria are proposed for evaluating, developing, and maintaining clinical expertise: (1) the professional must possess a terminal degree in the field, (2) the professional has accumulated multiple years of clinical experience in the direct provision of clinical assessment, psychological testing, or psychological treatment, (3) the professional has attained advanced credentials in a specific area of psychology, (4) the professional is visible in the professional community at a national level, and (5) the professional has demonstrated evidence of superior clinical skills in a specific application of psychology. Together, these five criteria help to objectify the evaluation and cultivation of clinical expertise in psychology. Because each criterion is weak and flawed if used alone, it is recommended that multiple criteria are used in combination to define clinical expertise.     

University psychology clinics in Australia: Their place in professional training

Abstract: There is universal recognition of the need for developmentally appropriate supervised clinical experience in professional psychology training. University clinics were established to provide a bridging function for postgraduate clinical psychology students, assisting the integration of psychological theory and research into real‐world clinical applications and professional identity development. The aim of training in university clinics is to provide opportunities for clinical practice and high‐quality supervision to monitor and shape clinical skills. The experiences gained in external practicum settings complement this initial training but cannot replace it. The recent introduction of Medicare rebates for psychology services has threatened the survival of university clinics because low‐cost psychological treatment is now available from experienced practitioners. This paper provides data on Australian university clinics collected before the introduction of Medicare. Concerted efforts are needed to protect university clinics in order to maintain standards required for accreditation of clinical psychology training programs. The potential impact of the loss of university training clinics is discussed and strategies to ensure their survival are suggested.     

Medical Psychology in Australia

Medical psychology in Australia is heavily influenced by British and American thought. The dominant model for clinical training and practice is the scientist–practitioner model, yet a gulf exists between academic and practice settings. Membership of the professional society requires 6 years of university study in psychology. However, registration requires only 4 years training in psychology. Medical psychologists provide a broad range of services in hospital and community settings, often within multidisciplinary teams. Challenges for the future include bridging the divide between university and health settings, increasing qualifications required for registration, making psychology culturally relevant, and demonstrating to funding managers that psychological interventions are both clinically effective and cost effective.     

Pediatric Psychology: Child Psychological Health in the Next Century

The future of pediatric psychology is reviewed and placed in brief historical context in relation to children's psychological health care. Contemporary trends affecting the delivery of psychological services, research, and clinical training are highlighted, with suggestions for future development. Pediatric psychology is a child-based, developmentally-focused multidisciplinary practice directed toward psychosocial and neuropsychological issues of health and illness in children and youth. Pediatric psychologists need to develop strong professional identities as health care psychologists combined with a collegial and collaborative arrangement with physicians to ensure the future growth and development of pediatric psychology in the next century as a major vehicle to promote children's health care.     

An Exploration of the Experiences of Elite Youth Footballers: The Impact of Organizational Culture

The present study explored how the organizational cultural experiences of elite youth footballers shaped their identity development and behavior. The first author occupied the position of sport psychology practitioner-researcher within 1 professional football club over 3 years. Traditional ethnographic research methods were employed, including observations, field notes, reflections, and informal interviews. A cultural sport psychology perspective on identity as a social construction and research on the cultural characteristics of professional football were used as frameworks to make sense of the data. Despite the introduction of the Elite Player Performance Plan in 2012, the traditional masculine culture of professional football dominated the studied club. Creative nonfiction vignettes revealed that youth players were encouraged to develop their self-stories focused on a single-minded dedication to professional football. The limited identity-related resources offered at both club and cultural level are detrimental for players in terms of their well-being and long-term psychological development. From the results of this study, we suggest that future sports psychology practice within professional football may best be delivered at an organizational level. However, for sport psychologists to be effective in this role, they must develop an understanding of the subcultural features and characteristics of the organization. In line with this, there would be great value in introducing a focus on organizational culture within sport psychology professional training and education routes.

Lay Summary: This paper explores the impact of the professional football culture on the psychological development of elite youth footballers. From the findings we suggest that sport psychology should be delivered at an organisational level.     

Rehabilitation. Psychology's greatest opportunity?

Rehabilitation is one of the fastest growing areas in the health industry. Supported by several key pieces of legislation, psychologists have established themselves as integral health care providers in rehabilitation. Although psychologists have benefited from legislated membership in rehabilitation, most individual psychologists and the psychological associations have failed to recognize the importance of public policy for the practice of psychology. Escalating health care costs have resulted in major revisions in the manner in which health insurers reimburse treatment. Medicare, the major federal health insurance provider, increasingly has been viewed as a model for the provision of all health care. The historic exclusion of psychologists from Medicare has limited the scope of psychologists' practice and the growth of professional psychology. The recent inclusion of psychologists in Medicare improves but does not solve practice and policy issues confronting psychology. Knowledge of national health policy formulation and greater participation by psychologists in health policy is necessary to secure the scope of professional practice most psychologists expect.     

Internationalizing the counseling psychology curriculum: toward new values,competencies, and directions

The changing world in which we now live requires that counseling psychology alter its training curriculum assumptions, content, and methods to prepare students and faculty for meeting the challenges of life in the global community. Global problems such as poverty, migration, overpopulation, international war and violence, rapid urbanization, and cultural disintegration are posing new challenges for service professions that are no longer suited to ethnocentric values, content, and interventions. Adjustment syndromes such as alienation, culture shock, acculturation, identity conflict and confusion, and migration stress are now emerging as major problems for counselors in schools, colleges, industry, clinics and private practice. New competencies are needed. The present article offers 50 different ways to assist in the internationalization of the counseling curriculum, with specific recommendations for professional psychological associations and department of psychology curriculum content and extra-curricular activities, and universities. The article calls upon counseling psychologists around the world to help create a new professional and global consciousness that can advance our field by addressing the problems we face and restoring dignity to those we serve through the provision of more informed and culturally sensitive services.     

The school psychologist as an organizational boundary role professional

An organizational perspective on the school psychologist's role can provide a basis for integrating disparate activities, reduce ambiguity produced by lack of role consensus, and facilitate more effective role behavior. The school psychologist is herein described as an organizational boundary role professional. Relevant theory and research on this conception are presented and parallels to school psychological practice are drawn. Implications for practice, training, and research in school psychology are also discussed.     

建立心理学学科门类及学位类别的分析与展望

摘 要 为了促进中国本土化心理学体系建设和心理学学科的整体发展,从中国与发达国家心理学学科管理制度的比较中发现中国心理学学科归属所存在的问题,并在反思中探讨形成问题的原因。通过心理学在现有学科归属中的局限性,心理学成为独立学科门类的可能性,心理学成为独立学科门类后学科新体系的系统性,心理学成为独立学科门类的社会性四个方面的分析与讨论,研究了使心理学成为独立学科门类与学位类别的必要性与可行性。特别是从建设和谐社会的角度对心理学的学科归属、心理学的未来发展、现代社会发展及心理学与其它学科的广泛联系等需要的讨论中,指出中国心理学在专业设置方面隶属于理学和教育学的不足之处,认为这种隶属关系将会制约心理学的发展和学科成熟。提出应该在现有学位体系中增加心理学学科门类与学位类别,使心理学作为一个与理学和教育学并列的独立学科门类。通过改进学位体系让心理学在更大的学科背景中,建设中国本土心理学自身体系,使心理学研究方法更加多样化,为产生众多边缘学科和更好地发挥社会应用功能创造条件,也为今后心理学发展带来许多发展机遇,并在此基础上为展望心理学未来发展提供新的视角。     

The construction of counselling psychology in Britain: A discourse analysis of counselling psychology texts

Counselling psychology is a relatively recent arrival on the professional psychological scene in Britain. This paper examines the ways in which this new branch of professional psychology has been constructed by the counselling psychology community. Articles which embodied this construction process from the 1990 and 1996 volumes of the journal Counselling Psychology Review were subjected to discourse analysis. The main themes of the 1990 articles concerned the construction of identity and legitimation, achieved largely through representations of similarity with and difference from related professions at a general level, whereas in the 1996 articles, the emphasis was on more fine-grained constructions of similarity and difference. Implications for the future construction of counselling psychology are considered.     

工夫论:研究梁漱溟心理学思想的新视野

对梁漱溟心理学思想的研究中始终存在以下问题:西方心理学框架的束缚,思想与生活实践的分离,思想演变历程的忽视。要解决这些问题,需要新的研究视野。工夫论具有“知行合一”的特质,其中思想与行动融合无间,而且具备动态展现的条件; 梁漱溟有丰富工夫实践,且与他的心理学思想有不可分离的联系。这些使工夫论作为研究视野契合于梁漱溟的心理学思想成为可能,并使之有别于既有的心理学史和本土心理学研究。     

Professional Training in Applied Psychology: Towards a Signature Pedagogy for Forensic Psychology Training

Forensic Psychology is a recognised and important sub‐specialty of the Psychology discipline. However, after an expansion in the number of training places that were offered when programmes were first developed, recent years have seen these diminish in response to changes in university policies, resulting from reformulated Federal government funding models. In this article, we argue that it is important for the future of specialist areas of professional psychology to not only articulate the core skills and competencies that are associated with specialist practice but also to develop unique and distinctive approaches to teaching and learning signature pedagogies. Based on the premise that forensic psychological practice is, indeed, a distinctive activity that requires different skills and, importantly, different ways of thinking about the work from other areas of professional psychology, it is suggested that professional training in this area should aim to develop a signature pedagogy which combines methods of teaching and learning that have been developed in legal training programmes with principles of problem‐based learning.     

Redefining the science-practice relationship and professional training.

A revised conception of the relationship between psychological science and professional practice is proposed in the light of postmodern changes in perspectives on knowledge. Positivistic science, which has dominated the traditional interpretation of scientist-practitioner training, is considered from a constructivist point of view to be only one possible foundation of psychological knowledge. It is argued that the knowledge base of the profession should be derived with diverse methods and from multiple sources, including the knowledge of practice. The mutuality of science and practice is emphasized. An evolving framework for understanding the epistemology of practice, based on cognitive psychology, is presented. Emphasis on broadened choices of research methods, the development of reflective skills, and better linkage between teaching in the domains of research and practice are urged. Suggestions for research related to scientific training and the knowledge processes of practice are offered.