Training Models in Professional Psychology Doctoral Programs

Abstract

Since 1949, training models have defined doctoral training in professional psychology, serving to provide an identity for the field of professional psychology. This chapter reviews the development, central features (namely, emphases on science and practice), and implementation and evaluation of the scientist-practitioner model, scholar-practitioner model, and clinical-scientist models. The scientist-practitioner model is discussed as it integrates science and practice. The features of applied scholarship, practice, and science in the practitioner-scholar model are described, whereas the emphasis on evidence-based practice and training in scientific clinical psychology are characteristic of the clinical-scientist model. Training models provide an identity for graduate programs, but in some ways they have fractured the field of psychology with divisions by model. We suggest that professional psychology can continue to benefit from the advantages of models, but must also move beyond models as the primary basis for defining identity. We recommend that the profession work diligently toward integration to define itself to the public and address the profession’s challenges, while remaining focused on training science-based, competent professional psychologists.