Academic Affiliation and Career Satisfaction Among Private Practitioners

Abstract

Little is known about academic affiliation of or desire for enhanced association with universities by private ractitioners. A brief survey was sent to a sample of American Psychological Association Division 42 members regarding these topics. This survey also included indices of career satisfaction, personal assessment of maintaining knowledge of ongoing advances in psychotherapy and psychology, and a measure of desire for enhanced contact with students. Approximately one-half of private practitioners maintained an academic affiliation, although a large portion of this group had little or no contact with psychology students. Results further indicated that higher student contact was associated with greater career satisfaction, feelings of mastery of present psychotherapy and other literature, and in other positive sentiments relevant to private practice. Both high and low contact private practitioners desired increased student contact and felt they could offer unique opportunities to graduate students. Weak...