Professional Psychology Training Programs Research Articles

The Psychometric Quality of Objective Structured Clinical Examinations Within Psychology Programs: A Systematic Review

Background: Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) are a simulation-based assessment tool used extensively in medical education for evaluating clinical competence. OSCEs are widely regarded as more valid, reliable, and valuable compared to traditional assessment measures, and are now emerging within professional psychology training programs. While there is a lack of findings related to the quality of OSCEs in published psychology literature, psychometric properties can be inferred by investigating implementation. Accordingly, the current review assessed implementation of OSCEs within psychology programs against a set of Quality Assurance Guidelines (QAGs). Methods: A systematic review was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) recommendations. Electronic databases including ProQuest Psychology, PsycArticles, Psychology and Behavioural Sciences Collection, PsycInfo and key indexing databases such as Scopus, ProQuest, and Web of Science were used to identify relevant articles. Twelve full-text articles met all inclusion criteria and were included in the review. Results: There was considerable heterogeneity in the quality of studies and reporting of OSCE data. Implementation of OSCEs against QAGs revealed overall adherence to be “Fair.” Conclusion: The current review consolidated what is known on psychometric quality of OSCEs within psychology programs. A further need for quantitative evidence on psychometric soundness of OSCEs within psychology training is highlighted. Furthermore, it is recommended that future training programs implement and report OSCEs in accordance with standardized guidelines.

Integrated primary care psychology training programs: Challenges and strategies.

Integrating behavioral health in primary care improves quality of care and outcomes for patients with comorbid conditions. Shortage of a trained behavioral health workforce limits adoption. Professional psychology training programs contribute to recruitment, retention, and development of skilled providers, who value and deliver behavioral health services in primary care. This study interviewed a cohort of established psychology training programs in real-world, state-wide clinical primary care settings and identified their strategies and challenges with teaching practices and program resources that impact the robust quality of training. Between December 2020 and March 2021, we conducted semistructured interviews with 12 licensed psychologists who oversaw nine integrated primary care psychology training programs at the internship and postdoctoral levels across Washington State. Data were analyzed using a thematic approach. Programs taught psychology trainees about integrated primary care via extensive onboarding, modeling and shadowing, structured learning environment, interprofessional education opportunities, flexible and cross-disciplinary supervision, and a psychologically safe space. Teaching challenges included balancing scheduled and curbside supervision, pivoting to telehealth, and aligning trainee expectations and program requirements. Training programs were funded through different and multiple sources, but most lacked a stable funding mechanism, compounded by barriers for psychology trainees to bill for services, a lack of control over organization's budgeting decisions, and instability in funding renewal. Synergistic support from program, organization, and system/policy levels are needed to align teaching activities with clinical practice environments and invest in the growth and sustainability of psychology training programs on integrated primary care. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Employing Multiple Mini Interviews in Selection Processes for Psychology Professional Training Programs: Ten Tips for Effective Implementation.

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. In Australia and internationally, entry into many professional psychology training programs is highly competitive, and as a duty of care to the public, training institutions must seek to offer places to those best-suited to training to become a psychologist. Typically, part of this selection process involves an interview. While panel interviews have been widely utilised, recently, in a range of health disciplines, these have been substituted for multiple mini interviews (MMIs) with evidence for their acceptability, validity and reliability. There is limited research on the use of MMIs in psychology professional training selection processes. We have used this approach for three years to select approximately 100 trainees for Clinical, Health and Organisational and Human Factors postgraduate psychology training programs. Based on our experience and feedback from applicants, we provide information that suggests this selection method is well-received by applicants. We also provide ten tips on how to effectively implement this approach to determine those most suitable for further training.

Social Media Guidelines Within University-Based Professional Psychology Training Programs: Ethical Challenges and Professional Considerations With Graduate Students

Social media is regularly used by a growing number of graduate students and licensed psychologists. This expands opportunities for professional growth and development for many, though it also brings forward a growing number of ethical challenges as personal and professional lives transform, blur, and merge online. This study examined social media policies of 46 American Psychological Association-accredited university-based professional psychology doctoral programs in clinical psychology to better understand the ethical challenges and protections that doctoral programs can implement to protect graduate students, faculty, and the public. Findings indicated that many university-based doctoral programs in clinical psychology do not have clear social media policies. Results and implications of the findings and how they relate to doctoral education will be discussed during this article.

Social media policy for graduate students: Challenges and opportunities for professional psychology training programs.

The use of social media has undoubtedly proliferated in the past 20 years and has become a common way that people communicate and connect with one another (Williams, Johnson, & Patterson, 2013). Social media is a broad term that is defined as websites that use collaborative virtual applications that enable the creation, exchange, and broadcasting of online user generated (Pham, 2014) and includes social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, MySpace), content sharing (e.g., YouTube, Flickr, Instagram), web chat/discussion (e.g., Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype), microblogging (e.g., Twitter, Tumblr), and livestreaming (e.g., Lifestream). Social media use is particularly common amongst college/university students, with 85-90% of students reporting regular social media use (Caruso & Salaway, 2007; Dahlstrom, de Boor, Grunwald, & Vockley, 2011) and 81-91% of psychology graduate students reporting personal profiles on social networking sites (Lehavot, Barnett, & Powers, 2010; Taylor, McMinn, Bufford, & Chang, 2010). As Canadians have the highest social media network penetration in the world (with 82% of the population using a social network compared to only 75% of Americans; Mckinnon, 2014), it is reasonable to assume that a large majority of Canadian psychology graduate students are using social media.For psychologists-in-training, social media offers a number of advantages such as the dissemination of information, opportunities for professional development, advertising, and a forum for advocacy (Myers, Endres, Ruddy, & Zelikovsky, 2012), and a new ease with which to communicate with colleagues, network with others, and share information (Lehavot et al., 2010). Despite these numerous advantages, this online medium also poses a number of ethical dilemmas such as concerns about privacy and confidentiality, issues with credibility of information, unintended self-disclosure, and unacknowledged dual relationships. Additional ethical or potentially legal complications can arise associated with safety issues, confidentiality, and a duty to report dangerous activities related to the potential harm of self or others (Myers et al., 2012).The popularity of social media use amongst psychology graduate students, coupled with its ethical and professional complexities, make social media an important training and policy issue for Canadian professional psychology programs. The purpose of this article is to (a) highlight the need for social media policy in professional psychology training programs; (b) examine the content and nature of existing social media policies in Canadian training programs; and (c) summarize the policy-related challenges and opportunities relevant to social media use by psychologistsin-training.A Need for Social Media PolicyAlthough this is a developing area of research, there is evidence to suggest that social media misuse is common amongst health professional trainees, including psychology graduate students. This misuse at minimum suggests there is a significant training need regarding the ethical and professional issues surrounding social media use; however cohort differences between trainees and supervisors and a lack of procedural guidelines in this area suggest that formalized social media policy would be beneficial to trainees, supervisors, and training programs. For example, a survey of medical schools in the United States found that 60% of deans admitted to experiencing incidents of students posting unprofessional content online such as violation of confidentiality, sexually suggestive content, discriminatory language, profanity, and depictions of intoxication (Chretien, Greysen, Chretien, & Kind, 2009). Forty percent of marriage and family counselling programs in Canada and the United States had experienced a problem with student's inappropriate use of social media (Williams et al., 2013). A salient issue is that of unintentional personal disclosure, which involves the risk that personal information will be viewed by unintended recipients (Zur, Williams, Lehavot, & Knapp, 2009). …

Conceptualization and Pilot Testing of a Core Competency-Based Training Workshop in Suicide Risk Assessment and Management: Notes From the Field.

As professional psychology training programs and continuing education have moved toward competency based approaches, it has become equally important to develop uniform, evidence-based approaches for suicide risk assessment and management. The present article presents a workshop curriculum based on established core competencies in suicide risk assessment and management. Drawing on theories suicide risk formation, the workshop features an integration of didactic, process, and experiential components. We present pilot data from 2 small group workshops (n = 17): 1 from a clinical psychology doctoral program and 1 from a university counseling center. Workshop participation yielded increases in (a) the ability to recognize appropriate clinician responses to suicidal client statements, (b) self-perceptions of general capacity to interface with suicidal patients and mastery of the 10 core competencies, (c) factual knowledge concerning suicide risk assessment and management, and (d) the self-rated ability to assess and manage a suicidal patient. We discuss statistical and generalizability limitations as well as implications for future modification, implementation, and provision of this training method.

Outnumbered, but meaningful: The experience of male doctoral students in professional psychology training programs.

Outnumbered, but meaningful: The experience of male doctoral students in professional psychology training programs.

Supplemental Material for Outnumbered, but Meaningful: The Experience of Male Doctoral Students in Professional Psychology Training Programs

Supplemental Material for Outnumbered, but Meaningful: The Experience of Male Doctoral Students in Professional Psychology Training Programs

Are professional psychology training programs willing the future to economic illiterates?: a clarion call for pedagogical action

Background: The behavioral health care environment in the United States is changing and many experts expect seismic shifts in access, accountability and reimbursement policies. Students in professional psychology training programs will be called upon to administer, manage, supervise and deliver clinically sound as well as cost effective services. While in general, traditional professional psychology training curricula prepare students well for clinical challenges, most students enter the profession naïve to the economic, financial and business enterprise crucibles in the behavioral health care marketplace.Aims: This article examines the problem of such naiveté and offers several recommendations for improving graduate students’ economic literacy. Moreover, the article argues that increased business and economic acumen may serve to close the research-practice gap in professional psychology.Methods: The article reviews literature pertinent to training psychologists and highlights pedagogical gaps.Results: Several recommendations for curricular development are offered. Specifically, adding courses in health care economics and basic business principles is suggested. Integrating cost-effectiveness analyses across all course content is proposed. The article also emphasizes both didactic and experiential learning opportunities.Conclusion: Course work should be augmented with training opportunities at the practicum, internship, and post-doctoral fellowship level.

A Preliminary Assessment of Ecopsychology Education in Counseling Psychology Doctoral Training Programs

Abstract The purpose of this study was to provide a preliminary assessment of the current state of ecopsychology in counseling psychology doctoral training. Eighteen training directors participated in a survey of programs' inclusion of ecopsychology training, perceived interest in ecopsychology and social justice, attitudes about the importance of ecopsychology, and familiarity with ecopsychology. Results suggested a lack of formalized inclusion of ecopsychology training despite some familiarity with ecopsychology. In addition, participants reported less faculty and student interest in ecopsychology as compared to social justice interest. Based on the findings, the inclusion of ecopsychology is recommended to extend counseling psychology's social justice agenda. Additional research to support the inclusion of ecopsychology training in professional psychology training programs is recommended. Key Words: Ecopsychology—Professional psychology—Training—Social justice—Counseling psychology.

Preparing trainees for lifelong competence: Creating a communitarian training culture.

Professional psychology training programs exert a powerful influence on the ways in which trainees come to appreciate and respond to the ethical mandate to ensure their own professional competence. If training psychologists overemphasize individualistic conceptions of lifelong competence, then trainees may be at risk for professional isolation if and when they experience problems of professional competence. In this article, we describe the virtues of communitarianism as an important shift from individual to community conceptions of competence obligations. We introduce the Communitarian Training Culture (CTC), a training ethos that embraces and supports the evolving culture of competence in psychology while infusing it with a distinctly interdependent and communal character. We describe the contours of an effective CTC and provide specific recommendations for psychology training leaders interested in enhancing the communitarian character of their program.

Competency-based education for professional psychology: Moving from concept to practice.

Competency-based education (CBE) is a model that guides the educational process toward acquisition of the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed for effective professional practice in service of the public. Increasingly adopted by medicine and other professions, the CBE model involves establishing competency goals, developing curricula and other experiences designed to help students reach these goals, integrating instruction in the full range of competencies throughout the educational sequence, guiding and evaluating student learning through ongoing assessment of competence, and revising courses and activities in light of student competence outcomes. Included in a full CBE model are attention to unintended learning outcomes (the “hidden curriculum”) and to areas not covered (the “null curriculum”), and efforts to promote education based on individual student learning trajectories as opposed to set courses or number of hours. Within professional psychology, we suggest that APA accreditation is aligned with a version of the CBE model; and significant progress has been made in identifying and measuring professional competencies. However, these are merely tools that can help training programs implement a broader CBE educational model that we contend has not been widely realized in professional psychology. This article reviews CBE and its application in medicine, discusses the benefits and criticisms of CBE, and considers what a fuller realization of CBE would look like in professional psychology training programs, including graduate programs, practicum, internships, and postdoctoral settings.

Behavioral contingencies involved in common pool resource management.

Scientific psychology has much to contribute to understanding the human behaviors that underlie problems associated with common pool resource allocation, including those at the root of the internship imbalance. By examining the financial contingencies through which professional psychology training programs are supported, the less-than-finite nature of internship resources, and the tendency for humans (and the programs they comprise) to discount the value of delayed contingencies, behavioral theory predicts persistence (and perhaps worsening) of the internship imbalance. Although it is important to understand the nature of our common internship pool resource problem, as illustrated in 2011 by Hatcher, and the behavioral contingencies that cause and maintain it, behavior change will require all shareholders in professional psychology to make a commitment to reducing enrollments into doctoral training programs.

Canadian counselling psychology coming of age: An overview of the special section.

This paper provides a brief overview of each of the papers published in this special section on Canadian Counselling Psychology and details how the special section articles further the development of the discipline by highlighting Canadian authored scholarship, mapping out the history and current state of the discipline, and considering how the unique Canadian context shaped the literature reviewed. Specifically, this introduction outlines how the articles to follow cover the following topics: (a) the history of Canadian counselling psychology; (b) professional issues and identity; (c) counselling, training, and supervision; (d) research and scientific issues; and (e) counselling psychologists' contribution to applied psychology. Keywords: Canadian counselling psychology, professional issues, research, practice, multiculturalism, health, career In just 25 short years, Canadian counselling psychology has grown from a grassroots initiative of a few dedicated individuals to the Canadian Psychological Association's (CPA) Section for Counselling Psychology, with 358 members in 2010 (Hurley, 2010). Historically, Canadian counselling psychology has often been misunderstood when compared with other disciplines such as clinical psychology. As well, counselling psychology has been a relatively unknown specialization within applied and professional psychology in Canada. As a distinct entity, Canadian counselling psychology has its early roots in the United States, where the discipline was established well before it developed in Canada. Nonetheless, Canadian counselling psychology is a byproduct of Canada's unique cultural context, thereby distinguishing it from its U.S. counterpart, while simultaneously allowing it to benefit from the well-known American counselling psychology identity and infrastructure. Yet, there are very few Canadian-accredited doctoral counselling psychology programs and predoctoral internships for counselling psychology trainees, rendering it difficult to develop a doctoral candidate's Canadian counselling psychology identity. Likewise, there is a dearth of peer-reviewed publication outlets for counselling psychologists in Canada, leading individuals to publish in the United States or internationally. These realities often obscure the profile and visibility of Canadian counselling psychology. One strategy that Canadian counselling psychology leadership has utilized to address these professional identity issues is to participate in the CPA accreditation process for professional psychology training programs and internships. However, as a result of the generalist nature of accreditation criteria, there is an everpresent challenge to ensure that Canadian counselling psychology values are embedded in the few existing accredited doctoral training programs. Another step forward in further solidifying a Canadian counselling psychology identity was the development of an official definition for the field (see, Beatch et al., 2009) that differentiates Canadian counselling psychology from other likeminded psychology professions, informs the requisite professional competencies for the field and clarifies the limits of professional practice. Clearly, Canadian counselling psychology's participation in the CPA accreditation process and establishment of the official CPA Canadian psychology definition solidifies the foundation of the discipline as we know it today. With the accreditation process and official definition in place, I believe an important process had begun, and should be continued. As such, in November of 2010, 1 chaired The Inaugural Canadian Counselling Psychology Conference (ICCPC) in Montreal. This conference gathered the leading counselling psychologists, counselling professionals, and students from across Canada to document the history of the discipline, identify current issues, and conceptualise future directions for the field. Thus, for the first time in the history of Canadian counselling psychology, the ICCPC catalyzed a pan-Canadian dialogue with regard to the discipline, its identity, and its future. …

Graduate school mentoring in clinical, counselling, and experimental academic training programs: an exploratory study

This study focused on graduate student mentoring within clinical, counselling and experimental psychology programs. A nationwide survey of 336 psychology graduate students indicated that counselling students reported higher levels of socioemotional support in their mentoring relationships, as well as higher overall levels of satisfaction, compared with clinical and experimental students. Clinical and experimental students, however, reported higher levels of selected outcome variables, such as research productivity. The relationships between mentoring qualities and several outcome variables were noted and discussed. This study adds to the developing literature concerning graduate student mentoring within professional psychology training programs.

Increasing advocacy awareness within professional psychology training programs: The 2005 National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology Self-Study.

Increasing advocacy awareness within professional psychology training programs: The 2005 National Council of Schools and Programs of Professional Psychology Self-Study.

First impressions count: Ethnic/racial and lesbian/gay/bisexual content of professional psychology application materials.

This article will help you learn about using application materials as one way to attract incoming ethnic/racial and lesbian/gay/bisexual (LGB) minority graduate students. Such materials are often an applicant's first exposure to psychology programs and are typically overlooked as tools to be used to communicate multicultural information. The authors demonstrate that professional psychology training programs approved by the American Psychological Association that have application packets with more ethnic/racial and LGB content have significantly higher numbers of ethnic/racial minority students. The data from this study also indicate that programs are making small gains in using application packages to communicate ethnic/racial minority concerns and almost never mention LGB-related issues. Recommendations are offered to help professional psychology programs make better use of application materials to attract greater numbers of ethnic/racial and LGB minority students.

Integrating qualitative research requirements into professional psychology training programs in North America: rationale and curriculum model

At present, there is a paucity of required qualitative research training in graduate-level psychology programs throughout North America. This article presents a rationale and model for integrating qualitative research training in professional psychology. The current status of research training vis-à-vis quantitative and qualitative methods is reviewed, a multilevel rationale for enhanced qualitative training is presented, and specific guidelines for integrating qualitative methods competence into training programs are outlined. The article closes with a sample master's degree and doctoral degree curriculum model for research training in professional psychology.

First impressions count: Ethnic/racial and lesbian/gay/bisexual content of professional psychology application materials.

This article will help you learn about using application materials as one way to attract incoming ethnic/racial and lesbian/gay/bisexual (LGB) minority graduate students. Such materials are often an applicant's first exposure to psychology programs and are typically overlooked as tools to be used to communicate multicultural information. The authors demonstrate that professional psychology training programs approved by the American Psychological Association that have application packets with more ethnic/racial and LGB content have significantly higher numbers of ethnic/racial minority students. The data from this study also indicate that programs are making small gains in using application packages to communicate ethnic/racial minority concerns and almost never mention LGB-related issues. Recommendations are offered to help professional psychology programs make better use of application materials to attract greater numbers of ethnic/racial and LGB minority students.

Historical understanding and teaching in professional psychology.

The teaching of the history of psychology in professional psychology training programs presents to students and teachers any number of opportunities and challenges. The increasing number of professional psychologists teaching the history of psychology coupled with advances in historical scholarship point to an ongoing evolution in the teaching of the history of psychology. In this introduction to the articles that follow, issues of content and context in teaching the history of psychology in professional psychology are discussed and affirmations offered.