Traumatic stress, disaster psychology, and graduate education: Reflections on the special section and recommendations for professional psychology training.

The articles appearing in this special section highlight disaster psychology as a typically neglected aspect of the clinical curriculum, the challenges of operationalizing efficacy measures for program evaluation, and the personal and professional impact of disaster exposure. The authors review literature suggesting the importance of training in disaster psychology. The authors also offer a framework for promoting competency among future psychologists who may serve and conduct research in disaster-affected communities and describe the clinical/disaster psychology specialization within the University of South Dakota's doctoral clinical psychology program as an example of how disaster-related curriculums, research, and practicums may be integrated into existing predoctoral training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopharmacology training in psychology internships: A brief curriculum.

How might basic training in psychopharmacology be integrated into psychology internships? The present article describes a brief psychopharmacology curriculum, developed by a prescribing psychologist and a director of training for an internship program accredited by the American Psychological Association, designed to specifically address training needs of predoctoral interns. The authors maintain that focused training in differential medical diagnosis and psychopharmacology is essential to the professional development of the psychology intern. Implementation by a psychologist with advanced knowledge of psychopharmacology may enhance the intern's integration of this material with psychological principles and facilitate active involvement in primary care and remote settings in future practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychology doctoral training in work and health.

Psychology as a profession has an opportunity and obligation to advocate for and develop healthy work environments. This will require the design and conduct of doctoral-level training in occupational health psychology. A model for training might well be based on the assumptions that there is a viable role for occupational health psychologists trained at the doctoral level for both academic and applied work settings, and that doctoral training would be based on the integration of health psychology and public health. Issues remaining to be addressed in the development of doctoral training programs include appropriate predoctoral training, academic standards, the interdisciplinary nature of faculties, and appropriate settings for training. Future directions in establishing doctoral training in occupational health psychology will best be taken in dialogue with several other professions and institutions that share a common interest in reducing leading work-related disease and injuries and promoting public health in the workplace. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Education and training in health psychology: Boulder or Bolder.

Reviews previous conferences on graduate education and training in health psychology (HP) as background for a 1983 conference on career and training issues in the field. Criteria characterizing professions are presented. Expected topics at the conference include societal need for orderly development of HP, work functions and roles of health psychologists, predoctoral specialty training, appropriateness of specializing in HP, official sanctioning, education and training settings, model doctoral programs emphasizing HP within a clinical psychology track, apprenticeship, and pre- vs postdoctoral training in HP. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A framework for half-time internship training in psychology.

In the past 50 years, psychology has so heavily emphasized the full-time internship as the preeminent training model that it has often overlooked the benefits of half-time internships for educators, students, the profession, and the populations that psychologists serve. This article makes a case for the nearly forgotten half-time predoctoral internship. The history and context of the half-time internship, culminating in a recent national conference, is presented. The benefits to students, doctoral programs, and the community are described, as well as obstacles and solutions for their implementation. Implications for developing more half-time internships for psychology stakeholders are also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A closer look at the role of spirituality in psychology training programs.

Should psychology training programs take steps to incorporate content related to spiritual and religious diversity in their curriculum? This article provides a critical discussion of research demonstrating minimal integration of spiritual and religious issues in psychology training, supervision, and course work. Unique aspects of training related to spiritual diversity and interventions across various subdisciplines in psychology are highlighted. Suggestions for integrating spiritual and religious diversity into psychology training are presented. For the benefit of students, clients, and their communities, psychologists are encouraged to obtain specialized training to enhance their spiritual and religious competency. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training in religion/spirituality within APA-accredited psychology predoctoral internships.

With the vast majority of the U.S. population reporting allegiance to a particular faith tradition, it is important that psychologists have the experience and training to work with clients from a wide variety of religious/spiritual perspectives. In order to assess the current level of training in religion/spirituality for predoctoral interns, 139 American Psychological Association (APA)-accredited predoctoral internship sites completed a Web-based survey. Religion/spirituality is most often addressed in internship training when clients bring it up, and religion/spirituality is processed further in the context of supervision. Relatively few internship sites provide more formal training in religion/spirituality. (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)     

Attitudes toward the teaching of chronic pain management in doctoral clinical psychology programs.

A questionnaire was sent to 114 graduate schools with doctoral programs in clinical psychology to gain some measure of the perceived need and importance of pain as an area of training for psychologists and to assess current educational efforts in this area. Of the 59 programs responding to the questionnaire, 13 offered a course in pain management and 46 did not offer such a course. Although 71% of all respondents agreed that a course devoted to the diagnosis of pain was needed in the curriculum, only 22% of all respondents offered such a course. Approximately three quarters of those schools without a pain course felt that material concerning pain management is not adequately covered in existing courses in the curriculum. Only 30% of all respondents agreed that pain is one of the most frequent complaints presented by patients to practicing psychologists. The implications of these findings for the place of professional psychology in the health care system are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Basic science training in psychopharmacology: How much is enough?

Training psychologists to administer psychotropic medication will require acquisition of a unique knowledge base and set of skills that are generally not components of graduate education in psychology. Nevertheless, the current level of basic science training in graduate education in psychology is substantial and should, with minor modification, allow adequate preparation for students to enter into specialized training to prescribe. The direct provision of psychopharmacology requires psychologists to demonstrate competencies in addition to those required in the general provision of psychological services. Such competencies are perhaps best taught at the postdoctoral level. The authors argue that all curricula training professional psychologists should be able to train psychologists capable of practicing as independent, full-fledged health care providers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Admission to Graduate Work in Psychology.

The author comments on the fact that doctoral training departments in psychology are proclaiming their intention to reduce the numbers of students admitted to graduate work because of a supposed "glut of PhDs." There is a widely shared consensus that it would be socially irresponsible to increase the numbers of psychologists on the job market. The author takes issues with this, noting that there is no shortage of human problems on which bright, well-trained psychologists might work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A survey of group psychotherapy training during predoctoral psychology internship.

Do psychologists receive sufficient training in group psychotherapy? Existing literature indicates that comprehensive training standards have not been universally or rigorously followed within the field of psychology. Results of this study indicate that, much like graduate school programs, predoctoral clinical psychology internships also do not routinely provide adequate group therapy training. This deficit in training undermines the proficiency and competency of psychologists who will increasingly be called upon to lead psychotherapy groups in clinical practice. Specific recommendations are provided to training directors who are interested in expanding their group therapy training opportunities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Predoctoral Field Placement in Primary Care: Keeping It Simple.

The supply of psychologists with clinical experience in primary care settings has not kept pace with the growing demand. Pre- and postdoctoral training opportunities in primary care are rare, in part, because of the administrative, cultural, and educational complexities associated with interdisciplinary training endeavors. The authors describe the development of a modest, half-day primary care placement that is offered as part of a predoctoral internship in child clinical psychology. They provide a model and recommendations for exposing trainees and other interested practitioners to the themes, culture, and clinical opportunities of primary care, while avoiding many of the logistical problems that can encumber such efforts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy integration in internships and counseling psychology doctoral programs.

Training directors from APA-accredited internships and counseling psychology doctoral programs reported on the status of doctoral training in psychotherapy integration. A mail survey was used to assess several areas related to psychotherapy integration, such as didactic and clinical training, faculty/staff theoretical orientation and hiring practices, student competency and evaluation, directors' beliefs about integrative/eclectic training, and internship admissions. Overall results show a positive attitude toward psychotherapy integration in predoctoral training and suggest that the foundations for further student development in psychotherapy integration exist. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

National study of the experience of psychologists with psychotropic medication and psychotherapy.

Psychologists have been involved in psychopharmacological research and practice since the 1950s, although this seems not to have been remembered. Biodyne data on 1.6 million mental episodes from 1988 to 1992 document psychologists' involvement in monitoring and managing psychopharmacological medications. A large percentage of patients presenting for mental treatment were already taking psychotropic drugs. Medication usage decreased dramatically as psychologists diagnosed their individual conditions and initiated psychotherapy in addition to monitoring and managing medication usage. Relevant training in psychopharmacology should be an integral part of training of psychologists providing health care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

American psychology's struggles with its curriculum: Should a thousand flowers bloom?

Although discussions of a core curriculum in doctoral training in psychology can be heard in contemporary psychology, there is no such common core, nor has one ever existed in American psychology's history. Advocates of a core curriculum argue that it ensures breadth of training, an outcome made even more important by growing specialization in psychology, and that it provides psychologists with a needed common identity as members of a recognized professional discipline. Opponents argue that a core curriculum places unwanted constraints on a program of study, prohibiting the kind of diversity needed to keep abreast of changes in psychology and related fields of study. The author reviews the history of this struggle within American psychology and discusses its implications for the science and practice of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

APA-approved predoctoral internships for doctoral training in clinical and counseling psychology: 1978.

The American Psychological Association Committee on Accreditation has approved for doctoral training in professional psychology the predoctoral internships offered by the agencies listed below. The criteria for evaluating these programs can be obtained from the Accreditation Office. The current criteria for accreditation of predoctoral internship training programs no longer make the distinction between clinical and counseling internship programs; therefore, the separate listing of approved programs by professional specialty has been dropped. Readers desiring information on training goals offered at specific agencies are encouraged to write directly to the agencies. Each of the agencies listed has met the same qualitative standards with respect to adequacy of training. The enclosed list is alphabetical by agencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)