Graduate training for community clinical psychology.

"In this paper we will review some of the basic principles which seem to underlie the training of psychologists for professional careers in the field of mental health, examine these principles in relation to the developments that have occurred in this field since World War II, explore the implications of these factors for graduate training in psychology in general and clinical psychology in particular, and describe a training program in which we are attempting to apply these principles." The program at the University of Nebraska "has developed over the last 13 years." In it there has been a shift from "teaching psychological tests to teaching the use of psychologist tests as an aid to understanding people's problems." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Up close and personal: An inside look at university training programs in school psychology.

In each issue, "Up Close and Personal: An Inside Look at University Training Programs in School Psychology" will highlight a different, nationally known graduate training program in school psychology. The purpose of this regularly appearing feature is to help professionals in the field as well as potential students gain insight into the particular education programs that currently prepare school psychologists. Our goal is to take a focused look at various programs through the eyes of the educators who have guided their direction. Hopefully, over time, we will draw a unique picture of the issues that underlie professional preparation in our field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training of Psychologists.

Suggests that psychologists concerned about the training of psychologists generate some testable hypotheses about the effects of different kinds of training, match or otherwise control variation in graduate departments at student and staff levels, and start treating each graduate school as the experimental group it should be in the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conference on the professional preparation of clinical psychologists: A progress report.

Preconference planning has been carried out by a Division 12 Conference Committee and its associates; the Committee is issuing a preconference report for wide distribution and discussion. The report "includes a statement on the nature of the profession, a historical survey and review of previous conferences on graduate education in psychology, and a section on manpower." The report includes 22 invited position papers reflecting different points of view in the general area of training as well as on specific issues. Titles of the papers are listed. The Executive Committee of Division 12 has made a final selection of 60 participants; observers will be limited to official representatives from organizations such as NIMH, the VA, the E&T Board, etc. "Much of the work of the Conference will be carried out in small discussion group meetings interspersed with plenary sessions. It will begin in the afternoon on August 26 or 27 and run for 5? consecutive days." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training Ethical Psychologists: An Acculturation Model.

This article presents an approach to graduate (and professional) training that views becoming an ethical psychologist as an acculturation process. J. W. Berry's (1980, 2003) model of acculturation strategies is used as a framework for understanding ethical acculturation, a developmental process during which students can use several types of adaptation strategies. Students enter training with their own moral value traditions and concepts but are confronted with new ethical principles and rules, some of which may be inconsistent with their ethics of origin. The article explores several applications of the framework to ethics courses, practicum supervision, and other areas of training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologist and Society.

Comments on the original article by F. B. Tyler and J. C. Speisman (see record 1968-00071-001), which discussed the expanding and increasingly complex role of the psychologist. Here, the current author notes the construction of a short questionnaire, designed for precollege students, to investigate the way the psychologist's role is seen. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The APA study of psychologists.

A preliminary report of the research procedures, findings, and additional questions to be investigated in a study whose major purpose is "the collection of data which may lead to (a) the better understanding of personal and environmental factors that influence the research productivity or the professional contribution of the individual psychologists, (b) increased appreciation of society's demands for and use of psychological services, and (c) an understanding of the influence of various programs of education and training in psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Length of graduate training for experimental and clinical psychologists.

Tabulations of data on Division 3 (experimental) and Division 12 (clinical) members listed in the 1959 "American Psychological Association Directory" are reported. It "takes the average experimental psychologist slightly over 2 years to receive the MA after he receives the BA, but over 3.25 years are spent by the average clinical psychologist… . It also takes the average clinical psychologist much longer to progress from the MA to the PhD degree"—about 3.5 years for the experimental psychologist and over 6 years for the clinical psychologist. From Psyc Abstracts 36:02:2AM78V. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical psychology in Britain: A laboratory for the American psychologist.

"The present status of the clinical psychologist in Britain may permit perspectives on problems relating to standards and curricula of graduate training in university departments and the question of legal, and therefore public, status for the practicing psychologist—chiefly the clinician." In Britain: "Conditions of appointment, standards of training, and promotion for clinical psychologists have been outlined in a series of official memoranda dating from 1951." A number of problems for the psychologist in Britain are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anticipations of developments during the next decade which will influence psychology.

"The Education and Training Board is committed to the assumption that educational policy should be forward looking." It is anticipated that within the next decade there will be an increased social demand for psychologists and psychological services. Factors which will bring about this demand include: (1) increased productivity resulting from automation; (2) effects of scientific and technological developments; and (3) the effects of population growth. Among problems anticipated are: (1) the pressure for professional training and orientation; and (2) pressures toward team and program research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Departments of Psychology in Canada--1967.

Presents information on departments of psychology in Canadian universities, as well as those offering graduate training. Also provided are data on the number of professorial staff in each department in the session 1966-67. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Undergraduate training for psychologists.

"The chairmen of the psychology departments of the 167 institutions listed in the December 1956 issue of the American Psychologist as offering graduate work in psychology were surveyed as to their opinions regarding an ideal undergraduate curriculum for prospective graduate students. One hundred and forty-nine (89%) of the questionnaires were returned… . A large majority of the chairmen (85%) agreed that the best undergraduate major would be psychology." Biological science and mathematics were listed most frequently as the best minor. Tables are presented of the preferred undergraduate nonpsychology courses for graduate training applicants and preferred undergraduate psychology courses for graduate training applicants. The preferred nonpsychology courses listed by at least 70% of all the chairmen were algebra, anthropology, physics, physiology, and sociology. Preferred psychology courses were beginning statistics and experimental psychology (indicated by 96% and 95% of the chairmen, respectively). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional ethics for graduate students in psychology.

Results of 2 independent questionnaires concerning the availability of courses on ethics for graduate students in psychology sent to various schools offering graduate work in psychology are combined. "Very few departments offer a course solely on professional ethics in psychology though several expressed plans for one in the future." "Ethics is handled best on a graduate level, in a seminar or colloquium, preferably on a required basis for all students, and definitely so for clinical students." "The APA code of professional ethics and journals are preferred sources of reference." "Professional training in ethics is a recent phenomenon coinciding with the APA research in this area and with the rise of clinical psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of experience in judging children's photographs.

3 groups of Ss—undergraduates, parents, professional psychologists—ranked photographs of 10 children on intelligence, sociability, activity, sensitivity, and mental health. In comparison with a child psychologist who had observed the children over a 2-year period, Ss, as groups, made consistent judgments of intelligence, sociability, and health; but, as individuals, their judgments were of low validity. Judgments of children's photographs are not related to practical experience or to professional training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conference on the professional preparation of clinical psychologists: A summary.

Presents a summary of the conference on the professional preparation of clinical psychologists. Without countenancing the lowering of standards as such, the conferees have sought for a responsible position in the face of the dilemma presented by the foregoing combination of circumstances. Brought together for the purpose were not only clinical psychologists and their colleagues in applied areas, but experimental and social psychologists as well, together with representatives of such other disciplines as psychiatry and social work, a group including both suppliers of clinical psychologists and consumers. Topics discussed at the conference include: professional preparation; clinical training; research training; curricula; alternative models of doctoral training; and so forth. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training issues.

This interesting set of articles, taken as a group, suggests that we have come a long way toward the integration of family therapy into the training of psychologists. The question is no longer "Should psychologists be trained in family therapy?" but "How can such training best be accomplished, in what settings, with what approaches, and how related to other elements of the graduate or postdoctoral program?" The articles by Ribordy (see record 1989-13401-001) and by Lebow (see record 1989-13365-001) address the central issues in training from different vantages (the family institute versus the academic program) but converge on many points. I will comment mainly on these two articles, but first I want to take note of some of the ideas raised by Berger and Jurkovic (see record 1989-12730-001). They describe and persuasively illustrate a contextual approach to family work that emphasizes the varying settings in which therapy may occur. Thus they are concerned with a "supersystem" that incorporates these extra therapeutic systems as well as clinicians and family. It will be no great surprise to the readers of this Journal that many of these same points emerge from Ribordy's and Lebow's more general discussions of training issues. They explore the separate territories of the academic graduate program and the family institute as settings for training and ably outline the advantages and disadvantages of each. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On context and training.

Our initial reaction to this collection of articles was to exclude the Berger and Jurkovic (see record 1989-12730-001) offering on the grounds that it dealt with clinical practice rather than training psychologists in family systems approaches. However, we did realize a unifying theme in all these articles: that family therapists must consider the importance of context in accomplishing their goals, whether their context is a clinical or training setting. The authors showed an expertise in adapting their methods and concepts to different contexts, modifying goals as appropriate, and gaining in perspective, knowledge, and effectiveness through their openness to a synergistic process. Using case studies, Berger and Jurkovic illustrated the need to analyze and manage the institutional context of therapy in clinical practice. They demonstrated good, if somewhat routine, agency policies, joining with the other agency by using its language or concepts. In reading Lebow's and Ribordy's articles, we reflected on the need to train family psychologists to recognize and intervene on these different contextual levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional Development: Training for Professionalism as a Foundation for Competent Practice in Psychology.

Professional development (PD) is a broad, albeit vaguely defined, construct that underlies psychologists' education and training and is intrinsic to professional functioning, or professionalism, throughout psychologists' careers. This article resulted from the deliberations of a working group at the November 2002 Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology. The authors propose a definition of PD and consider professionalism to be its outcome. They then focus on 2 elements of professionalism--interpersonal functioning and thinking like a psychologist--and address related development and assessment implications for training and practice. Recommendations and implications for professional psychology organizations and for training and lifelong practices of psychologists emerged for further consideration. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Notes and News.

Presents a listing of Diplomates who served as members of oral examination committees for the American Board of Examiners in Professional Psychology, Inc. in spring of 1965. In addition, the activities of numerous psychologists are highlighted, as are numerous meetings and initiatives taking place within the field of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)