Applicant characterization of the most desirable internship training program.

One month after Uniform Notification Day, 148 predoctoral internship applicants (49% return rate) were asked to rate their first-, intermediate-, and last-choice sites on 25 variables related to internship program characteristics. Results showed that 8 variables clearly differentiated all three types, and 11 variables differentiated first from last choices. These first-choice characteristics and their implications for program construction and applicant site comparisons are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategies for selecting and securing the predoctoral clinical internship of choice.

Discusses the goals that need to be considered in selecting a clinical internship site, procedures involved in applications and interviews, and the need for preparation in both the academic and personal realms. A carefully planned transition will likely result in a positive experience for both the intern and the site. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Selection criteria for American Psychological Association-accredited internship programs: A survey of training directors.

A representative sample of 115 training directors of American Psychological Association-accredited internship programs was surveyed. In a two-part survey, they ranked the criteria used in selecting interns for the 1994-1995 training year and elucidated characteristics of the selection process. Clinical experience, the interview, and letters of recommendation were identified as the top three selection criteria, whereas lack of assessment experience was rated as the most common deficit in applicant training. Interviews with prospective interns were conducted by 96% of the respondents and were valued as the means of determining the applicant's poise, personality, and likelihood of meshing with a given site. Results of this study provide prospective interns with common selection criteria used by internship programs, including significant components of the interviewing process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Political person perception: The asymmetrical influence of sentiment and choice on perceptions of presidential candidates.

Argues that voters construct images of political leaders that reinforce and support their own opinions about politics and that this can be understood in terms provided by cognitive consistency theories. Based on national survey data from 1,384 Ss, the effects of sentiment relations, choice, and unit relations on voters' perceptions of issue positions taken by presidential candidates in 1968 were analyzed. The major determinant of voters' perceptions was sentiment: Those who admired a candidate tended to see him as promoting policies they themselves favored (assimilation); those displeased with a candidate showed the opposite tendency (contrast), although less consistently and less powerfully. This asymmetrical pattern—greater assimilation than contrast—also characterized the more modt effect of choice. Finally, the unit relation had no direct effect on perception. Implications for balance theory, for the difference between positive and negative sentiment, and for the nature of the processes underlying political mispercpetion are discussed. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspectives on an internship: The passages of training directors during the internship year.

Proposes a model to explain the transitions experienced by training directors during an internship year. Six transitions are identified, including courting, bonding, rapprochement, mentoring, launching, and reunion, and the particular behaviors and events that signal each passage are described. These transitions are contrasted with those often experienced by interns. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demise of the 3rd-year internship: The changing role of the internship in graduate training.

Current training in PhD clinical psychology stems from the 1949 Boulder conference on graduate education in clinical psychology. Among the detailed recommendations made by that committee were specific guidelines and goals for a clinical internship that was deeply embedded within the graduate training experience. Since that time, the academic and practical training of PhD clinical psychologists has become increasingly separated, to the point at which the clinical internship year almost universally occurs after the completion of graduate training. In this article the development of the current-day internship and the probable factors involved in the demise of the original 3rd-year model are examined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Geography and internship match rates: Quantifying competitiveness and discussing implications for the internship imbalance.

In response to the internship supply/demand imbalance, the field of psychology recognized a crisis and proposed solutions. With each passing year, however, graduate students face the real possibility that they may not match. Using four years worth of site match rates, competitiveness is quantified and analyzed with respect to implications for the field, APPIC, internship sites, graduate programs, and prospective interns. Results suggest geographic differences in match rates are less meaningful for applicant strategies than monitoring competitiveness using site match rates and submitting 10 to 15 applications. Discussion includes implications for students and how they may use match rate data to improve their site selection strategies and chances for a successful match. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Association of psychology postdoctoral and internship centers' guidelines and the internship selection process: A survey of applicants and academic and internship training directors.

Although the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) established guidelines for internship offers and acceptances, the internship selection process has been viewed as stressful by many of its participants. The present study explored participants' experiences with the selection process to understand how certain behaviors may contribute to selection difficulties. Surveys were mailed to internship applicants, academic training directors, and internship training directors who participated in the 1994–1995 selection process. Results revealed some significant differences among these respondents with respect to their perceptions of potential internship selection behaviors. In addition, 40% of the internship applicants perceived that violations of the APPIC guidelines had occurred during the selection process. Recommendations for addressing internship selection issues are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two-component models of socially desirable responding.

J. Millham and L. I. Jacobson's (1978) 2-factor model of socially desirable responding based on denial and attribution components is reviewed and disputed. A 2nd model distinguishing self-deception and impression management components is reviewed and shown to be related to early factor-analytic work on desirability scales. Two studies, with 511 undergraduates, were conducted to test the model. A factor analysis of commonly used desirability scales (e.g., Lie scale of the MMPI, Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale) revealed that the 2 major factors were best interpreted as Self-Deception and Impression Management. A 2nd study employed confirmatory factor analysis to show that the attribution/denial model does not fit the data as well as the self-deception/impression management model. A 3rd study, with 100 Ss, compared scores on desirability scales under anonymous and public conditions. Results show that those scales that had loaded highest on the Impression Management factor showed the greatest mean increase from anonymous to public conditions. It is recommended that impression management, but not self-deception, be controlled in self-reports of personality. (54 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internship supply-demand imbalance: The APPIC perspective.

The internship has long been considered the capstone experience in the sequence of doctoral education in professional psychology. Since at least 1999, the number of available internship positions in the United States and Canada has been outstripped by the number of students seeking these positions. The resulting imbalance between supply and demand for internship positions has grown substantially since 2002 and now should be considered to have reached crisis proportions. Although no complete solution to this imbalance is imminently feasible, a comprehensive approach to addressing the crisis requires that both the supply of internships and the growth in demand be addressed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy supervision: A survey of internship training practices.

A survey of 151 American Psychological Association-approved predoctoral internship programs showed a ratio of 3 hrs of psychotherapy provided by interns to 1 hr supervision received by the intern. Interns received an average of 4.25 hrs/wk of supervision, and the supervisory staff provided an average of 3.76 hrs/wk of supervision. One-to-one supervision was the predominant supervisory modality. Supervision was considered part of the job, not something to be specifically rewarded. No specific and direct evaluation procedures to assess supervision quality were available. One-third of the facilities reported that they provided training in supervision for interns. Programs could be characterized as "open" (accepting other than graduate psychology interns) or "closed" and more or less intensive in providing supervision. The dimensions of openness and intensity were related to the types and amounts of supervision provided. (6 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Passages of psychologists: Career stages of internship directors.

90 predoctoral internship training directors (mean age 43.3 yrs) completed a survey assessing their career stages. Five stages are identified, including entry, identity, doubt, reimmersion, and exit, and the content and time frames associated with each stage are discussed. (12 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The internship match: Understanding the problem-seeking solutions.

When 25% (842) of the 3,430 students participating in the 2007 APPIC Match were not placed, the Editorial Team of Training and Education in Professional Psychology (TEPP) expressed considerable concern about the significant barrier that exists for a sizable number of students seeking internships. The numbers of unplaced applicants has increased significantly during the last few APPIC Matches (Keilin et al., this issue). Unfortunately, the TEPP Board does not anticipate that this anxiety-provoking trend will reverse or end. We believe that the profession of psychology should be more than concerned. We believe that they should take action. This internship "supply and demand" problem has existed for at least 10 years and is increasing in severity. The profession must come to an agreement about the components of the problem and then address each one. There are no easy solutions but the TEPP editorial staff believes that there are many creative, thoughtful, collaborative solutions proposed in this special issue. We hope that this special issue will help the profession understand the varied views of this problem. We believe that the profession must come to a consensus about the problem and develop creative, pragmatic steps to provide a streamlined, effective sequence of training and education in professional psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Helping construct desirable identities: A self-presentational view of psychotherapy.

The author reviews the research demonstrating not only that clients withhold personal information and reactions from their therapists but also that such discretion is associated with positive therapy process ratings and outcomes. These results run counter to traditional approaches to psychotherapy, which demand a high degree of openness from clients. These puzzling findings can be explained by conceptualizing psychotherapy as a self-presentational process, wherein clients come to benefit from therapy by perceiving that their therapists have favorable views of them. Creating these favorable impressions can involve clients' hiding some undesirable aspects of themselves from their therapists. The author offers findings from the psychotherapy and social-psychology literatures in support of this view and makes suggestions concerning what clients and therapists might optimally reveal in therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Diet choice by dairy cows. 2. Selection for metabolizable protein or for ruminally degradable protein?

Diet choice, expressed as grams of high protein feed selected per kilogram of intake, was measured for lactating cows with ad libitum access to two feeds. First, cows were given a choice between a low protein feed and a high protein feed for 9 wk while feeds were alternated between feeders. The proportion of feed chosen from a feeder depended on the feed it contained, which showed that cows selected for feed characteristics. Diet choice was then measured over six periods during which cows had access to either a low protein feed and a high protein feed or to these feeds plus added urea. Diet choice was lower when urea was added, suggesting a substantial effect of the content of ruminally degradable protein (RDP) in feeds on diet selection. All feeds had equal RDP contents in Experiment 3 when early and late lactating cows had access first to two feeds with a low and high yield of metabolizable protein and then to two feeds with a low and medium yield of metabolizable protein. Diet choice did not differ from what was considered to be random and was not affected by milk yield or stage of lactation. No evidence suggests that cows selected for metabolizable protein when both feeds contained adequate RDP.     

The quest for an internship: Four students' perspective.

What are students' experiences in applying for internships? Although the preponderance of recent internship literature addresses marketplace issues and competitive strategies, narratives of the applicants' experiences have been largely absent. Using an interpretive approach, 4 recent internship applicants reflect on the process of applying for internships as it contributes to the development of becoming a psychologist. The authors highlight 3 values of professional practice—community, respect, and authenticity—that can inform the dialogue of internship reform and suggest practical implications for student applicants, internship training directors, directors of clinical training, and the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparing for internship: Tips for the prospective applicant.

This article's major objective is to effectively prepare the graduate student in psychology for the internship application process by providing critical and relevant information. Preparation begins early on in one's graduate career and usually involves the following steps: (a) establishing mentoring relationships, (b) preparing an application portfolio, (c) collecting information, (d) applying, (e) interviewing, (f ) ranking the selected agencies, and (g) responding on selection day. Information is also provided on how to use the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral Internship Centers (APPIC) Clearinghouse. Finally, a brief section is devoted to the process of choosing a non-APPIC site. Advance preparation can make this entire process easier and increase a student's chance of finding a suitable predoctoral internship in psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluative comparison of PsyD and PhD students by clinical internship supervisors.

Internship supervisors evaluated the preinternship preparation of 67 PsyD students and 228 PhD students in regard to several core clinical skills and general dimensions of professional competence. In contrast with previous studies that suggested serious dissatisfaction among supervisors with the general quality of preinternship training, most interns evaluated individually in this study were considered at least adequately prepared for most kinds of clinical work. Except for slight superiority of PsyD students in "sensitivity" and of PhD students in "scientific attitude," there were no reliable differences between interns from practitioner programs and those from scientist-practitioner programs. For future evaluation research, the need to move beyond ratings to performance-based measures of competence is imperative. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)