What we know about predoctoral internship training: A 10-year update.

Ten years ago (Stedman, 1997), I published a review of the extensive body of work related to all facets of the internship enterprise. The current review highlights many positive accomplishments of the last 10 years, including establishing the match, the uniform internship application format, the quantification of selection variables, and a deeper understanding of the training pathway. However, serious problems have surfaced, including the shortfall of internship slots and the impact of economic forces leading some to question the continuing relevance of internship as it currently exists. These issues call for deliberation and decision making by the profession, guided by research, both current and yet to be conducted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Forests, grazing areas, water supplies, and the internship imbalance problem: Redefining the paradigm to implement effective change.

We are frustrated with the internship imbalance. Twenty years ago, those of us involved in academic training programs prepared students in our doctoral programs for the internship application process by meeting with them for an hour and giving them a few pointers. Now, the focus on securing an internship seems to pervade all aspects of doctoral education. We listen to students worry that they don’t have sufficient hours, assessment experience, or diverse practicum placements. As the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) Match approaches, we meet with students more frequently, helping them to prepare their applications and carefully construct their list of internship sites. We devote time helping students to complete the APPIC Application for Psychology Internship (AAPI), prepare for interviews, and rank sites. Those of us who are involved in internship training programs spend extensive hours reviewing hundreds of applications in Phase I and Phase II of the APPIC Match. We respond to applicant concerns, questions, and anxiety. And all of us try to provide support and consolation, as well as some understanding about “what went wrong” to those students who aren’t matched. When we have a moment, we look beyond the students in front of us and worry about the future of our profession. How is it possible that we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess? Hatcher’s (this issue, pp. 126 –140) article (a manifesto, if you will) has the potential to point us in a new direction. Our hope is that each of you, like us, will view Hatcher’s article as the beginning of a paradigm shift in terms of how we characterize this problem and its potential solutions. His innovative and bold view of how the professional training community can work collaboratively to reorganize has the potential to effectively impact the internship imbalance and the quality of the profession as a whole. By likening the internship imbalance to a resource management issue similar to what has been encountered in regard to other resources such as crops and forests, Hatcher provides us with an opportunity to rise above our own positions to draw upon existing, evidence-based approaches to cooperative solutions that can benefit all involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supplement to listing of APA-approved doctoral and internship training programs.

Announces changes in the list of APA-Approved Doctoral Programs in Professional (Clinical, Counseling, and School) Psychology and Predoctoral Internship Programs in Psychology. These changes update the listings published in the December 1980 American Psychologist (pp. 1111- 1118). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internship supply as a common-pool resource: A pathway to managing the imbalance problem.

The shortfall in internship positions available through the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers' matching process has left doctoral students in professional psychology in a painful bind: take an internship outside the match, or fail to graduate. The quality of education suffers, as does the quality of the profession as a whole. This crisis has worsened as the years go by, and no effective remedy has been found. A widely celebrated literature on the management of scarce but renewable resources has developed over the past 25 years, and it offers a path toward understanding and solving this problem. This literature points to the need, and helps conceptualize the methods, for the educational community in professional psychology to take greater responsibility for the quality of the internship in particular, and for the quality of our graduates' education and competence more generally. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2001.

The official 2001 listing of internship and postdoctoral residency programs accredited by the American Psychological Association. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internship crisis: An uncommon urgency to build a common solution.

The internship imbalance is a problem of grave individual and professional concern. As the imbalance continues and deepens, many concerted efforts have been directed toward mitigating the imbalance by addressing factors associated with increased demand and insufficient supply of internship positions. These efforts have required the collaboration of groups and organizations that in the past pursued different aims and agendas. Hatcher (this issue, pp. 126–140) moves these efforts forward greatly, by conceptualizing the internship imbalance as a specific example of a scarce resource shared by a large community (a Common Pool Resource) and by providing a framework for development of a governance structure to manage this common resource. This commentary expands on Hatcher (this issue) by highlighting important structural and attitudinal issues underlying the imbalance problem that are evoked by attempts to address the imbalance, and which must be considered when formulating a comprehensive and integrated solution, particularly one that includes an additional governance structure dependent on interorganizational collaboration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2007.

Provides the official listing of accredited internship and postdoctoral residency programs. This list reflects all committee decisions through July 22, 2007. The Committee on Accreditation has accredited the doctoral internship and postdoctoral residency training programs in psychology offered by the agencies listed. Also listed for each program is the date of the next regularly scheduled site visit. The accreditation status listed for each program reflects that program's current accredited status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2009.

Presents the official listing of accredited internship and postdoctoral residency programs. It reflects all Commission on Accreditation decisions through July 19, 2009. This list also is provided by electronic means (http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/intern.html), but that listing is for informational purposes only and should not be used for official credential review. The original date of accreditation, listed for each program, is the day on which the program’s accredited status became effective. Also listed for each program is the date of the next regularly scheduled site visit. The accreditation status listed for each program reflects that program’s current status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Applying for the predoctoral internship: Training program strategies to help students prepare.

The predoctoral internship signifies the culmination of applied training in professional psychology. With the increasing supply and demand gap, securing an internship has become competitive and has resulted in many students employing a wide variety of steps in an attempt to ensure a successful internship application. However, little is known about how academic training programs assist students in applying for an internship. The purpose of this study was to describe what activities training programs engage in to prepare their students for the internship application process, and to better understand students' perception of their preparedness to apply as well as to understand their experience applying. The results suggested that training programs prepared students well for general aspects of the process but did not adequately prepare them for the more specific tasks related to the application process. Results also suggested that while the students didn't find the application process confusing or difficult they found it stressful and anxiety provoking. Suggestions for programs to inform and assist their students in preparing for applying are presented as well as recommendations for future research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical and counseling psychology doctoral trainnees: How students perceive internships.

The authors examined applicants' perceptions of internship site types by specialty affiliation (clinical and counseling psychology). Multidimensional scaling analyses suggest that clinical psychology students focus their attention on internship site prestige, future job opportunities, opportunities for research, degree of client psychopathology and physical illness, and their overall comfort in working with the client population associated with the site type. Counseling students focus on fewer attributes, including site prestige, quality of supervision, degree of client physical illness, and comfort in working with the client population. Specialty affiliation also accounted for systematic differences in internship site preferences. Results are discussed with regard to internship supply-and-demand issues, and implications are offered for student applicants, academic training directors, and internship training directors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supplement to listing of APA-approved doctoral and internship training programs.

This article provides a supplement to the listing of APA-approved doctoral and internship training programs. A number of changes in the list of APA-Approved Doctoral Programs in Professional (Clinical, Counseling, and School) Psychology and in the list of APA-Approved Internship Programs in Professional Psychology are announced by the Committee on Accreditation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2008.

This article provides an official listing of accredited internship and postdoctoral residency programs. It reflects all Commission on Accreditation decisions through July 20, 2008. The Commission on Accreditation has accredited the predoctoral internship and postdoctoral residency training programs in psychology offered by the agencies listed. The accreditation status listed for each program reflects that program's current status. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supplement to listing of APA-accredited doctoral and predoctoral internship training programs in psychology.

The Committee on Accreditation announces the changes presented here to the list of APA-Accredited Doctoral Programs in Professional (Clinical, Counseling, School) Psychology and Predoctoral Internship Programs in Professional Psychology. The original date of accreditation, listed for each program, is the day on which the program's accredited status became effective. Please note that there is an additional "captive" internship training program at the end of this list. These changes update the listing published in the December 1985 American Psychologist (pp. 1380-1398). Complete lists are available on request from the APA Accreditation Office. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2006.

Presents the official listing of accredited internship and postdoctoral residency programs. It reflects all committee decisions through July 16, 2006. The Committee on Accreditation has accredited the doctoral internship and postdoctoral residency training programs in psychology offered by the agencies listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Accredited internship and postdoctoral programs for training in psychology: 2010.

This is the official listing of accredited internship and postdoctoral residency programs. It reflects all Commission on Accreditation decisions through July 18, 2010. The Commission on Accreditation has accredited the predoctoral internship and postdoctoral residency training programs in psychology offered by the agencies listed. The original date of accreditation, listed for each program, is the day on which the program’s accredited status became effective. The original date of accreditation, listed for each program, is the day on which the program’s accredited status became effective. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internship supply and demand issue: Graduate student's perspective.

The increasing gap between the number of internship applicants and the number of students applying for internship is of great concern for psychology graduate students and the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS). APAGS sees this concern as multifaceted and has been involved in a variety of efforts to address this imbalance since the early 1990s. This article outlines in greater detail APAGS' view of the internship supply and demand concern, how this problem affects students, and how APAGS has worked to address the issue. It also presents APAGS recommendations for advancing psychology's collective efforts to address this concern. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Faculty and students in departments with graduate programs in psychology.

An analysis of data from a questionnaire sent to institutions offering graduate training in psychology in terms of the number and status of faculty members and students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On Professionalization in Psychology.

This column comments on an article by Drevdahl in the January, 1956 issue of the "American Psychologist". In his article, Drevdahl offers an analysis of ABEPP in its relationship to graduate training programs in clinical psychology. His basic point seems to be that if ABEPP claims for itself the ability to judge what is "good" and "competent" in psychological practice then it ought to use this knowledge to improve professional training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Supplement to listing of accredited doctoral, internship, and postdoctoral training programs in professional psychology.

The Commission on Accreditation announces the status changes presented here for accredited doctoral (clinical, counseling, school, developed practice area, and combined professional-scientific), internship, and postdoctoral residency programs in professional psychology. These changes update the listing provided in the December 2008 issue of the American Psychologist. Except for newly accredited programs, updates for year of next review will not appear in this listing but will be updated annually in December. Complete listings are available on request from the APA Office of Program Consultation and Accreditation. The complete listings are also provided via electronic means (http://www.apa.org/ed/accreditation/), but those listings are for informational purposes only and should not be used for official credential review. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The graduate student viewpoint on internship preparedness: A 2008 council of university directors of clinical psychology student survey.

To better understand the graduate student viewpoint on quality of preparation provided by graduate programs in terms of the internship application process, the current study surveyed students enrolled in member programs of the Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP). Six hundred seventy-four students completed a questionnaire designed to assess perceptions regarding preparation for the internship application process, relative prioritization of individual application components, and faculty behaviors that contribute to student anxiety related to the application process. Results demonstrated that student subgroups based on internship status (i.e., those who have not yet applied, current applicants, and current interns) significantly differed on many issues related to internship preparation. The findings suggest that graduate programs are not placing enough emphasis on the conveying of internship-related information early in a student's training. Furthermore, the findings highlight training techniques and faculty behaviors that can be adopted by programs to increase preparedness and reduce anxiety among applicants. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)