Applied sport psychology in professional sports: The team psychologist.

Professional sports has become a significant worldwide business in which highly paid athletes are considered substantial assets to be carefully selected, developed, and protected. Psychologists have become increasingly involved with professional sport organizations, providing a wide range of psychological services, such as performance enhancement consultation, clinical or counseling interventions, and psychological testing. As increasing numbers of psychologists enter the sport domain, the specific roles and responsibilities of practice, unique ethical considerations, and psychological services and professional demands most often placed upon the team psychologist in professional sports must be clarified and articulated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The professional psychologist in Europe.

Describes the main features of professional psychology in Europe, focusing on its professional associations, legal status and definitions, training, forms of employment, and roles and methods. As a reflection of the political, economic, cultural, and social diversity of Europe, significant differences have developed in professional psychology as practiced in the various countries. However, recent factors encouraging closer cooperation include the need for mutual support, political influences, and the programs of the World Health Organization. To assist communication and cooperation, the European Federation of Professional Psychologists Associations has recently been founded, with which 19 national associations are currently affiliated. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Future and nontraditional issues for professional psychology: Brief perspectives.

Professional psychologists have proven their worth, competence, and professional relevance in dealing with disorders at the individual, group, and organizational levels. The time has come to expand that relevance to other functions and areas. Future and nontraditional areas in which psychologists have, or should create, a place include government programs, educational systems, technology, industry and organizations, family, military, aging, and the integration of health and psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Becoming a first-rate professional psychologist despite graduate education.

Professional psychology is exciting, creative work. Graduate schools often discourage, bore, and wear down the student. Research is made painful; research training all too often does not lead to doing research as a professional. The system punishes faculty for taking the time to acquire adequate clinical training or experience. Inadequate faculty are pessimistic about therapy, diagnosis, consultation, and private practice. Experimental psychologists often keep students from being exposed to clinical psychology, for fear that it will interest them. One should publish when one has something important (data or theory) to share. If one can understand the irrational parts of the system, one can surmount them and enjoy contributing to the field as a therapist, researcher, and/or teacher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal reflections on a career in correctional psychology.

Kathleen M. Hawk's training as a psychologist provided excellent preparation for each of her assignments as a career employee of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, from staff psychologist, to warden, to her current position as director. The mission of the prison-based psychologist—to assist in the rehabilitation of offenders and in their reintegration into society—is central to the mission of corrections. Moreover, by helping to promote a healthy prison environment, psychologists can enhance safety for staff and inmates alike. Prison-based psychologists also may be involved in numerous consultative and research activities. There is high demand for psychologists in the nation's prison systems, and they can exercise considerable influence over corrections policies. More psychologists should consider corrections as a career. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The professional psychologist as evaluator in a community agency setting.

Describes a process evaluation of an industrial work unit for persons with disabilities and comments on the role of the psychologist as evaluator in an agency of this type. The relationship of process evaluation to other aspects of evaluation is discussed, and reasons are offered for establishing aims before embarking on an outcome evaluation. Suggestions are offered for ways of using ranked aims in every phase of the evaluation, and steps to facilitate the implementation of evaluation results are outlined. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Therapists' perspectives of couple problems and treatment issues in couple therapy.

Randomly selected samples of practicing couple therapists who were members of the American Psychological Association's Division 43 or the Association for Marriage and Family Therapy completed a survey of couple problem areas and therapeutic issues encountered in couple therapy. Therapists rated problem areas in terms of occurrence, treatment difficulty, and damaging impact. A composite of these 3 dimensions suggested that the most important problems were lack of loving feelings, power struggles, communication, extramarital affairs, and unrealistic expectations. Comparison of the findings with therapist ratings obtained by S. K Geiss and K. D. O'Leary (1981) suggests considerable stability in presenting problems in couple therapy over the past 15 years. Therapist-generated characteristics associated with negative outcome were also identified, the most common being partners' inability or unwillingness to change and lack of commitment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The integration of psychology into primary care: Personal perspectives and lessons learned.

The purpose of this article is to discuss the integration of psychology into a Veterans Affairs Medical Center Primary Care clinic, as experienced by the authors. There has been an evolving need for psychology's presence in primary care, due in part to the increasing number of primary care patients who present with complex physical and psychological issues, as well as institutional procedures for first-line treatment of more common mental health concerns (e.g., depression). Concurrent with the expansion of Medical Center services and patient population, an increasing demand has been placed upon psychology in primary care. To better accommodate the workload, a consultation-oriented model of treatment has been implemented. Within this integrated model, primary care providers and psychologists collaborate to provide multidisciplinary care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Minority candidacy in professional psychology.

Describes the program at the Institute of Advanced Psychological Studies of Adelphi University that is designed to increase the number of minority students in postgraduate degree programs in applied psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The experimental psychologist in a depressed academic market: Learning about applied psychology.

In an increasingly difficult academic job market, graduates of traditional experimental psychology programs must begin to consider careers in nonacademic settings. Since many of these postgraduates have little information about career possibilities in applied fields and have had few opportunities for contact with successful applied psychologists, the prospect of a nonacademic job is frequently viewed with frustration or apprehension. An approach to this problem is described that has informed experimental psychology students about specific jobs in applied psychology and provided a significant means of communication among academic-based psychologists, students, and psychologists employed in nonacademic settings. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Need for the doctor of psychology degree in professional psychology.

The Vail Conference on professional training in psychology recommended development of explicitly professional programs and use of the PsyD degree to certify competence in professional psychology. Policies governing use of the degree, however, as well as the concepts of professional function which degree titles should symbolize, continue to be controversial. Opponents of the Vail Conference recommendations have argued that professional psychologists are most appropriately regarded as scholar-professionals, and have urged award of the PhD degree upon completion of graduate training in such fields as clinical psychology. As counterargument, a multiple definition of the term scholar-professional is stated, and the surplus meanings implied by scholarship are shown to be either false, misleading, or redundant. The difficulties that arise from using the PhD degree as a credential of professional competence are then discussed, and the advantages of employing the PsyD degree both affirmatively, as a certificate of professional competence in psychology, and restrictively, to exclude inadequately trained people from the practice of professional psychology, are asserted. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Personal and practical consideration in selecting a psychology internship.

Although the internship literature contains many contributions regarding ways to approach the internship application, interview, and selection processes to satisfy professional goals, few contributions address personal and practical considerations of applicants. This article addresses personal and practical issues, such as benefits, financial costs of relocating and living, family responsibilities, partner relocation, and training and personal responsibilities outside of internship. For all issues discussed, concrete recommendations are provided for helping applicants evaluate internships according to their concerns. A paired-comparison ranking technique for comparing sites along multiple criteria is proposed. The need for updated professional developmental models that incorporate personal and practical variables is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The foundations of professional psychology.

Three problems that constitute significant impediments to the growth and development of professional psychology are outlined: the lack of (1) a single definition of the profession and its scope, (2) a uniform general education process for new professionals, and (3) a single, unambiguous professional credential. Possible solutions are proposed for each of these problems. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A role for the professional psychologist in campus environmental change.

Environmental assessment (mapping) impact data were reported during each of 8 mo by 72 student paraprofessionals in a university counseling center. Ss were trained to assess the impact on student life of 34 environmental conditions distributed among 4 categories: academic climate, academic format, social climate, and physical climate. Quantitative data corresponding to the academic format category are presented to illustrate 5 role components of the professional psychologist in environmental change: assessor, linker, consultant, change facilitator, and change advocate. (5 ref) (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)     

The dynamics of specialization in professional psychology.

Practicing psychologists face numerous questions regarding specialization, reflecting the dramatic changes occurring in the last half of the 20th century. Is the specialization trend in professional psychology practice and training out of step with marketplace realities? Should specialty training and practice be guided and controlled, and if so, by whom? In response to the interplay of various forces and in a spontaneous and unguarded fashion, specialization has evolved in the form of a two-tiered model, consisting of general practice specialties and delimited specialties. The model better reflects existing distinctions in roles, methods, and settings for education and training than does the systematic differentiation of specialist functions or practice competencies. Were the discipline to implement an orderly sequence of steps to develop a coherent system for specialization in psychology, it would facilitate its future growth and development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)