A snapshot of Canada’s psychology graduates: Initial analysis of the 2015 Psychology Graduates Survey.

Abstract

Statistics Canada's cancellation of the University and College Academic Staff System Survey and Survey of Earned Doctorates-after over 60 years and over 30 years of data collection, respectively-has left significant gaps in health human resources planning and surveillance as it relates to the discipline of psychology. In response to these gaps, and in follow-up to a summit on need, supply, and demand held by the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) in 2013 (Votta-Bleeker & Cohen, 2014), the CPA initiated a comprehensive survey of individuals who had graduated with a terminal master's or doctoral psychology degree, whether or not they were registered psychologists. In developing the survey, the CPA conferred with the American Psychological Association (APA) and obtained their permission to use and modify the APA's Doctorate Employment Survey (Michalski, Kohout, Wicherski, & Hart, 2011) for the Canadian context.1MethodThe goal of the 2015 Psychology Graduates Survey was to obtain a demographic profile of all individuals with a graduate degree in psychology working across the multiple domains of psychology in Canada. The survey was structured to produce a minimal dataset with a limited number of questions tagged as mandatory, while collecting useful data relevant to education, science, and practice, as well as data at national and provincial/ territorial levels. Specifically, the survey was designed to provide data that would help to answer several important questions about the present and future of psychology in Canada, such as the following: How many people graduate each year in Canada with a master's or doctoral degree in psychology? What is the job market like for a psychology graduate? Are there enough jobs for psychology graduates? How many psychologists are there working in Canada? How many psychologists do we need to meet the teaching, research, and service needs of Canadians? During its development phase, the survey underwent extensive review by chairpersons and members of the CPA's Education and Training and Scientific Affairs committees, as well as the CPA's Board of Directors. The survey was launched on April 24, 2015, in both English and French, and remained open until December 1, 2015. The survey was circulated via numerous means including CPA's Website, electronic newsletter, and social media outlets; CPA's section chairpersons, committee chairpersons, and Board of Directors; Council of Canadian Departments of Psychology (CCDP) Listserv, followed by direct/personalized e-mails to all department chairpersons and faculty whose e-mail addresses were publicly available; provincial psychology associations; psychology regulatory bodies; informal networks (e.g., Statistics Canada, Canadian Mental Health Association, Public Health Agency of Canada, Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canadian Society for Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Science, Association for State and Provincial Psychology Boards, Canadian Council of Professional Psychology Programs, Department of National Defence, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada); and a paid advertisement on Facebook.ResultsRespondent DemographicsA total of 4,812 respondents completed the full survey; additionally, 1,060 started but did not complete the survey. After removing respondents identified as students, a total of 4,502 usable surveys were analyzed for the purposes of the present article. Table 1 presents an overview of the survey respondents. Notably, respondents represented a typical gender division within psychology (Canadian Institute for Health Information, 2013). While the bulk of respondents were between the ages of 30 and 49, we were nonetheless able to obtain responses from individuals at all career stages. As well, respondents included a large proportion of individuals who work in French. Lastly, the current findings represent the experiences and opinions of a mix of CPA members and nonmembers, as well as provincial/territorial/state psychology association members and nonmembers. …