The Internship Imbalance in Professional Psychology: Current Status and Future Prospects

Abstract

The internship is an essential part of doctoral training in professional psychology. Most students access internships through the annual match sponsored by the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). For two decades the match has seen an increasing shortfall of internship positions relative to applicants, exceeding 650 unmatched clinical students as of 2013. Efforts to solve this problem have not met appreciable success. This review discusses the structure of the internship placement process, including and beyond the APPIC match, and identifies the reasons for the failed efforts, which lie principally in the varied standards for an acceptable internship among doctoral programs. Efforts to establish a common standard and the need for a governance structure to enforce whatever standard is agreed upon are discussed. Projections for the future of the placement process and the imbalance are sketched, and links to other issues in the field are briefly reviewed.