Professional Practice In Psychology Research Articles

Preferred strategies for learning ethics in the practice of a discipline.

Abstract There are very few formal evaluations of the impact of instructional practices on the effectiveness of strategies for learning professional ethics. The assessment of ethical knowledge and skills is important in current discussions of professional mobility across North American jurisdictions. The present study investigated adult learners' perceived level of helpfulness of seven strategies when learning seven different ethical content areas. Adult learners rated interactive strategies as more helpful for learning compared to traditional didactic methods. Adult learners rated the helpfulness of various strategies differently for different content areas, indicating that several strategies may be useful. We conclude by making recommendations for further investigation of the effectiveness of various learning strategies in terms of knowledge gained and subsequent behaviour. The increasing emphasis on ethical issues in the science and practice of psychology requires psychologists to carry out more empirical studies on the effectiveness of learning strategies. There are very few published evaluations of the effectiveness of instructional practices or outcomes in the teaching of ethics in psychology. Faculty, thus, are relying on the good-hearted assumptions that current ethics courses have been appropriately designed (Welfel, 1992). The literature relating to ethics and professional accountability in psychology was almost nonexistent until after World War II, but it has increased significantly since the 1970s (Sinclair, 1993). The impetus for addressing ethics may have come from two precipitating factors. One was the postwar disclosure of atrocities conducted in Nazi Germany in the name of science. The other was the rapid postwar professionalization of applied psychology (Sinclair, 1993; Sinclair, Simon, & Pettifor, 1996). The first formal regulation of psychological practice in North America began in Connecticut in 1945. Since then American states and the Canadian provinces have all adopted regulatory legislation. Regulation requires the definition of standards for competent and ethical practice. Ethics questions are included on the Examination for Professional Practice of Psychology and on oral examinations that are required by most regulatory jurisdictions (Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards, ASPPB, 1999). The accreditation of professional training programs in Canada and the United States requires the teaching of ethics (American Psychological Association, 1996; Canadian Psychological Association, 1991b). Professions develop codes of ethics to guide the behaviour of their members in the practice of their discipline. Aspirational codes of ethics articulate the fundamental moral values on which behavioural standards are based. Professional disciplines avoid intruding on the personal values and behaviours of members as long as they do not bring discredit to the profession (Pettifor, 1996). Nevertheless, the underlying values of codes of ethics reflect the cultural values and mores of the society in which they are formulated, and therefore significant conflict between personal and professional values normally would not occur. Professions may also develop codes of conduct to define specific behaviours that are expected of members and for which violations may incur disciplinary sanctions (Association of Provincial and State Psychology Boards, 1991). All professional codes of ethics and codes of conduct address in one way or another the issues of respect, rights, confidentiality, informed consent, diversity, well-being of consumers, competency, professional boundaries, conflict of interest, honesty, and, sometimes, responsibility to society. Psychologists require knowledge of the profession's requirements for ethical standards and they require skill in recognizing and resolving ethical dilemmas. Strategies for developing knowledge may differ from strategies for developing skills. …

The Interplay of Psychology and Societal Transformation

This special issue of the International Journal of Group Tensions examines the contribution of psychology to societal transformation worldwide and the impact of societal transformation on psychology. In this introduction, I review the aims and scope of the journal and the focus of the special issue. Second, I identify several key consequences of societal transformation that are not bounded by culture, nationality, or politics, underscoring the psychosocial outcomes. Third, I articulate the role of psychology in societal transformation, highlighting the conceptual, methodological, and practical tools available to describe, study, and effect change. I also address psychosocial explanations of resistance to societal transformation. Fourth, I discuss the impact of societal transformation on psychology as a discipline and profession, noting how such transformation has influenced academic training and professional practice in psychology. I also note how societal transformation has altered public opinion about psychology. I conclude by providing an overview of the articles that comprise the special issue, underscoring their shared themes.

Gender differences in practice patterns and income among psychologists in professional practice.

Income, an important facet of professional psychological practice, differs by gender. The potential sources of income differences among California clinical psychologists were investigated. Full-time female psychologists earned significantly less income on average than full-time male psychologists, despite similar patient demographics, caseloads, practice profiles, and payment sources. In separate regression models, professional experience increased income more for men than for women, whereas greater psychologist supply decreased income for both groups. According to the regression model, if female psychologists were paid like male psychologists, they would receive, on average, $16,440 more per year.

Practicing professional psychology.

The practice of professional psychology generally has consisted of assessment and intervention. This article describes the functioning of one practitioner's activities. For assessment, the model described emphasizes point predictions and actuarial approaches whenever those are available. The discussion includes descriptions of specialization and expansion of practice areas, as well as the need for involvement in advocacy activities and professional associations.

Editorial: Research informing practice in Professional Psychology.

Editorial: Research informing practice in Professional Psychology.

Book Review: The Scientific Practice of Professional Psychology, by Steven J. Trierweiler and George Stricker. New York: Plenum, 1998, 312 pp.

Book Review: The Scientific Practice of Professional Psychology, by Steven J. Trierweiler and George Stricker. New York: Plenum, 1998, 312 pp.

Psicología, Ética y Proceso de Globalización en América Latina

La presente comunicación tiene la intención de contribuir a la realización del sueño de una psicología latinoamericana, estructurada a través de la palabra y a lo mejor de la poesía, porque ambas contienen los postulados centrales de una ética de liberación que permite valorar el proceso de desarrollo del capitalismo moderno que se expande por el mundo como una historia irreversible, por locual, resulta imprescindible para la práctica psicológica profesional, comprender el papel que la psicología debe jugar y en particular la función colectiva en el plano de la realidad concreta.

Reflecting, and leading, Progress in professional practice in psychology.

Reflecting, and leading, Progress in professional practice in psychology.

Comparison of Counseling and Clinical Psychology Graduates on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology

Doctoral recipients in clinical psychology scored higher than doctoral recipients in counseling psychology on the national licensing exam, the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology. The largest discrepancies between the 2 groups were on Subtest I (diagnosis), Subtest II (intervention), and Subtest III (research). The differences were less large for Subtest IV (professional/ethical/legal issues) and for Subtest V (social application). The authors recommend that both counseling and clinical psychology graduate students take more course work in the department of the other discipline.

FORUM In Response to the 1998 APA Division 40 Presidential Address: So Where's the Beef?

During the 1998 Division 40 presidential address by Linas Bieliauskas in San Francisco, several assertions were made contending that professional schools of psychology (PSP) had a deleterious effect on clinical neuropsychology by lowering professional standards, removing science from the curriculum, and producing mediocre clinicians. Bieliauskas reported to the author that he had based his opinion, in part, on data indicating that Boulder model graduates attained superior mean scores on the Examination for the Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) as compared to their Vail model counterparts. In order to determine whether significant differences existed between the two groups, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted using the 1997 EPPP scores reported by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB, 1997). The author also provides a response to Bieliauskas' (1998) assertions.

Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology Subtest Scores of Professional and Traditional Clinical Psychology Program Graduates

Professional school clinical psychology graduates not only exhibit inferior performance on the research subtest of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP; D. I. Templer & M. E. Tomeo, 1998), but they also perform less well on the four more professionally oriented subtests: diagnosis, intervention, professional/ethical/legal issues, and application to social systems. Graduates of free-standing professional schools exhibited performances inferior to those of graduates of non-free-standing professional schools on the diagnosis, intervention, and professional/ethical/legal subtests.

The Kubie "solution": an idea before its time?

Interpreted in historical context, Kubie's 1948 proposal to move the professional aspects of clinical psychology training and the awarding of the doctorate into the medical-school environment was an attempt to remedy a critical shortage of psychotherapists while maintaining medical control over the professional practice of psychology. The proposal failed, in part, because medicine had no legitimate claim to either training or regulating clinical psychologists. A parallel was drawn between that post-war situation and the current one in which many psychological practitioners are pressing for prescribing privileges in regard to psychoactive drugs, and similarities and important differences are noted between the two conditions. The requirement that medicine be involved importantly in the psychopharmacologic training of psychologists poses an acute problem concerning the maintenance of professional independence.

Reflecting, and leading: Progress in professional practice in psychology.

Reflecting, and leading: Progress in professional practice in psychology.

Adoption in Clinical Psychology: A Review of the Absence, Ramifications, and Recommendations for Change

Practicing clinical psychologists reported that 5 to 10% oftheir patients are adoptiontriad members (Sass & Henderson, 1999) andyet recent studies concluded that the majority of psychologists are not being taught about adoption-related issues in their preservice training (Post, 1999; Sass & Henderson, 1999). This article discusses the needfor training on adoption in the context ofthe APA Guidelines and Principles for Accreditation of Programs in Professional Psychology; Domain D, which states that programs must “provide students with relative knowledge and experiences about the role ofcultural andindividual diversity in psychologicalphenomenon as they relate to the science and practice of professional psychology“ (1996, p. 15), the omission ofadoption from curricula, and potential ramifications of this absence.

Moving towards inclusion: Implications for professional psychological services

It is current government policy to promote inclusive education, but effective inclusion will involve greater changes than are currently recognised. Many of the education and other initiatives introduced by the Government can support inclusion, but others actually jeopardise it. Educational psychologists (EPs) can play a crucial role in furthering inclusion through their influence on systems, their support of primary care agents, and in their individual work with children and young people and their families. However, the multifarious demands on EP services raise questions about how these are best constituted to achieve effectiveness. In this paper I will look at some of the current moves towards inclusive education for children and young people with special educational needs, and then explore some implications for professional psychological practice.

Mean score stability over time of programs on the clinical psychology examination for professional practice in psychology.

A correlation of .80 was obtained between mean national licensing examination score in 1988-1995 of graduates of clinical programs and mean score of these programs in 1997. It was maintained that this stability over time strengthens the inference that this mean score is a good index of program quality.

Empirically supported psychological treatments: A natural extension of the scientist–practitioner paradigm.

This paper by Hunsley, Dobson, Johnston, and Mikail (1999) presents an excellent summary of a recent initiative from Division 12 (Clinical) of the American Psychological Association (APA) to identify and disseminate psychosocial treatments with adequate empirical support (Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, 1995). After presenting a historical overview of this initiative and a summary of the main concerns it has raised thus far, potential implications of this movement for Canadian professional psychology are discussed in relation to training, credentialing, practice, and research. Overall, this is an excellent working document providing a balanced coverage of the main arguments in favour of and against this initiative. Also, the recommendations made for the Canadian scene are reasonable. As I am generally in favour of any effort to develop and promote evidence-based practice in professional psychology, I have very few issues of disagreements with this paper. The comments that follow will focus primarily on why such initiative is necessary, what is (or should be) an empirically supported treatment (EST) and, what is the potential impact of this emerging trend.Why is this initiative inevitable and necessary?In this time of cost-containment and rationalization of health services, EST and evidence-based practice in general are both inevitable and necessary. We can no longer afford to use whatever seems to work; we must rely on psychological interventions that have some empirical support, even though they provide no guarantee to be effective with all patients and under all circumstances. We have an obligation to inform both the consumers and providers (students, trainees, clinicians) of psychological services about treatment modalities that have been evaluated in outcome research. Because of the growing number of alternative and sometimes esoteric interventions, it is particularly important to develop mechanisms to protect the public against inappropriate or premature usage of interventions lacking adequate empirical support.The EST initiative is also critical to ensure that psychological treatments become part of the mainstream of the health care delivery system (Barlow, 1996). There is a growing trend to medicalize mental health problems (e.g., depression) and to promote pharmacological treatments, sometimes to the detriment of equally or more effective psychological treatments. This is often done on the basis of the apparent greater cost-effectiveness ratio of drug therapy. With the EST initiative, our profession could be in a better position to advocate a stronger place for psychological treatments in health care reforms and in clinical practice guidelines. Behavioural medicine is another area that would benefit from this initiative because several health-related problems (e.g., pain, insomnia) are treated predominantly, and sometimes exclusively with traditional medical treatments, even though significant advances have been made in the behavioural management of those conditions (Morin, 1996; National Institutes of Health, 1995).An important concern raised against the identification of EST is that it may be too restrictive, and that a very limited number of therapies for very specific psychiatric disorders are on the official list. The potential implication is that this information could be misused by insurance or government agencies to deny reimbursement and access to psychological care for treatment modalities that are not yet on this official list. Although this is a valid concern, suggesting that we must proceed cautiously, an equally important question is whether the advantages outweigh those risks. I would argue that a greater danger would be to ignore such information on EST and that patients be treated with clinical methods that are not validated.What is (should be) an empirically supported treatment?Although it is difficult to argue against the merits of promoting evidence-based practice, several issues can be raised about the criteria used by the APA Task Force to define an EST. …

Empirically supported treatments in psychology: Implications for Canadian professional psychology.

AbstractIn this article we examine several interconnected efforts to develop evidence-based practice in professional psychology. We first review the American Psychological Association's Division 12 Task Forces' development of criteria and listings for empirically supported psychological treatments. Next, we present related efforts to develop procedures to identify treatments that have established efficacy and to develop practice guidelines. The possible impact of these initiatives on Canadian professional psychology in the domains of training, credentialing, practice, and research are then examined. Finally, we present recommendations for steps that should be taken by Canadian psychology organizations to respond to these initiatives in order to ensure that psychological practice in Canada is optimally supported by scientific evidence.In 1993, growing concerns with the future of psychological services in the context of managed health care, an increasing emphasis on accountability and cost containment, and a desire to emphasize the scientific basis of psychological treatments led Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) of the American Psychological Association (APA) to strike a Task Force on the Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures. The Task Force developed criteria for empirically evaluating psychological treatments and made recommendations as to the methods for educating psychologists, the public, and mental health service payers about these treatments.The work by Division 12 of APA is only one of a number of recent efforts to promote the use of scientific data in determining optimal services for patients or clients. The generic term for this increasing trend among health care professions is evidence-based practice. As we describe in this article, although the formats used to promote increased accountability through the use of scientific findings may vary, all have in common the goal of ensuring that people seeking treatment receive services that are informed by research findings.In this article, we (i) review the role this and subsequent Division 12 task forces have had on defining what constitutes an empirically supported psychological treatment and (ii) present information on several related initiatives which attempt to further evidence-based practice by formulating best practices or practice guidelines. Based upon our review, we then discuss the implications such initiatives will have for Canadian professional psychology. We conclude the article with a number of recommendations for professional psychology training, credentialing, practice, and research in Canada.The APA Division 12 Task ForcesTo serve the widest possible interests, membership on the initial APA Division 12 Task Force was selected to represent a breadth of theoretical orientations (e.g., cognitive-behavioural, psychodynamic, interpersonal) and a range of occupational settings (e.g., academic psychology departments, medical schools, private practice). Rather than evaluating treatments without reference to particular disorders, or evaluating treatments as they applied across various disorders, the Task Force opted for a strategy of evaluating treatments according to their application to specific mental health disorders (e.g., exposure/guided mastery for specific phobia, brief psychodynamic therapy for depression). The Task Force also chose to set the boundaries of what would define a treatment according to the availability of a treatment manual. Recognizing the arbitrary and subjective nature of any set of criteria for evaluating treatments, the Task Force opted for two categories of support: treatments classed as well established and those that are probably efficacious. These criteria have changed only slightly since the initial report, and the current version (Chambless et al., 1998) is presented in Table 1.(f.1)TABLE 1 Criteria for Empirically Supported Treatments Well-established Treatments I. …

Review of The scientific practice of professional psychology.

Review of The scientific practice of professional psychology.

The scientific practice of professional psychology

The History of Scientific Research Training and the Local Clinical Scientist: The Problem of Integrating Science and Practice. The Local Clinical Scientist. Extrapolations to Local Science from Traditional Science and Scholarship: Issues in the Philosophy of Science. Issues in Research Design. Issues in Quantitative Analysis: Foundations. Linking Theory and Data in the Scientific Study of Constructs and Individual Measurements. Extrapolations to Local Science from Nontraditional Science and Scholarship: Issues in Qualitative Analysis. Logic, Critical Thinking, and the Local Clinical Scientist. Frameworks for Reflective Practice. Conclusion. Index.