Early Career Psychologists

Abstract

The findings from the Smith et al. (2012) survey of early career psychologists (ECPs) who are members of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs for ECPs in the SCP as well as recommendations about how the SCP can better meet the professional needs of ECPs. Ideally, the implementation of these recommendations will result in more ECPs joining the SCP and finding their membership to be a beneficial part of their professional lives. Capturing the interest and involvement of ECPs into the SCP needs to be an ongoing priority requiring focused attention and effort by SCP leadership. Who are the next generation of counseling psychologists? How are they fundamentally different from prior generations of counseling psychologists? And how have cohort and external environmental changes helped or hindered ECPs’ involvement in professional organizations? Finding the answers to these questions is necessary to guarantee that the Society changes in ways that make it professionally relevant for future generations of counseling psychologists.