Mobility for industrial-organizational and consulting psychologists.

This article addresses an important aspect of professional mobility: the need for industrial-organizational (I/O) and other psychologists who provide consultation to businesses and who are licensed in one jurisdiction to be able to practice for a short term in another. A growing number of these psychologists have national practices. Current laws and regulations, typically designed for clinicians providing direct mental health services, make such practice difficult. The article provides an analysis of state laws and regulations dealing with short-term cross-state practice and describes the challenges confronted by I/O and consulting psychologists in working across jurisdictional lines. Recommendations for rectifying this issue are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognizing concerns about how some licensing boards are treating psychologists.

This article posits that practitioners in some geographical jurisdictions may be at greater risk for losing their livelihood, savings, and health because of the practices of their licensing boards. Several examples of questionable actions by licensing boards are cited, and a rationale for greater compassion, support, and advocacy for colleagues is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional mobility for psychologists: Multiple choices, multiple opportunities.

This article details the roots of the mobility movement, including frequent difficulties psychologists encounter when applying for additional licenses and how these obstacles led credentialing organizations to encourage licensing boards to extend a mobility privilege to psychologists who meet certain national standards. The National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology advocates an inclusive approach to licensure mobility by encouraging psychological organizations and licensing boards to support and adopt multiple mobility mechanisms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Training psychologists for evidence-based practice.

Evidence-base practice (EBP) is now commonplace in many health care services and, in recent years, there has been a healthy debate about the role of EBP in psychology. In this article, I provide information on the nature of EBP and how it is consistent with professional training models and standards in psychology. In discussing some of the concerns that have been raised about the value of EBP in psychology, I present research findings on the relevance and potential impact of evidence-based assessment and treatment practices. Finally, after highlighting the promise of EBP, I offer some recommendations for how training efforts in professional psychology should be refocused in order to optimally prepare current and future psychologists to practice in an evidence-based manner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comparisons between psychologists and other professional groups.

It is estimated that as of 1953, there were 22,000 persons working as psychologists in the United States; 95,000 living persons have obtained bachelor's degrees with majors in psychology; 5,000 living persons have the Ph.D. degrees in psychology. About 12% of the students who have received a bachelor's degree in psychology have become professional psychologists; this accounts for approximately half of all the people in the country who are working as psychologists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Gender differences in practice patterns and income among psychologists in professional practice.

Income, an important facet of professional psychological practice, differs by gender. The potential sources of income differences among California clinical psychologists were investigated. Full-time female psychologists earned significantly less income on average than full-time male psychologists, despite similar patient demographics, caseloads, practice profiles, and payment sources. In separate regression models, professional experience increased income more for men than for women, whereas greater psychologist supply decreased income for both groups. According to the regression model, if female psychologists were paid like male psychologists, they would receive, on average, $16,440 more per year. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional Affairs Committee report on upcoming change in licensing regulations in California.

The Professional Affairs Committee has been discussing the issue of licensure for consulting psychologists. We have been supporting a change in the regulations and are happy to announce that the State of California will be doing so. The new part of the regulations reads: "Due to lack of training sites of qualified supervisors, typically in the areas of applied psychological research, industrial-organizational psychology and social-experimental psychology but not including those involving direct mental health delivery service, a plan for supervised experience may be submitted by the candidate to the board for approval on a case-by-case basis" (Amendment 3 of Regulation section 1387). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Certification, licensing, and the movement of psychologists from state to state.

"The licensing or certification of psychologists… exists to protect the consumer from dangerous or inferior commodities. As an alternative to legislation creating certifying and licensing laws, some states have established nonstatuatory certifying boards." Generally these boards are corporations. A table titled "Some Characteristics of Psychology Laws" lists 26 states and 4 Canadian provinces, the coverage of each law, education requirements, experience requirements, whether examinations are mandatory, whether there is reciprocity, and whether residence is required. A 2nd table titled "Some Characteristics of Nonstatuatory Psychology Provisions" incorporates information under the same major headings. "A study of the laws indicates that with few exceptions the doctorate is required after the initial grand fathering." 2 or more years of experience are required in the majority of states. "An overwhelming majority of statutes requires an examination. Most of the laws cover the use of the title 'Psychologist' and restrict the use of the title to those who hold themselves out to the public as psychologists and request a fee for their services." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Some observations on the ideology of professional psychologists.

"Analysis of the value position of psychologists starts with an examination of certain of the intellectual postulates and biases of modern psychology. These contribute to what I call the ideology of professional psychologists… . Modern psychology derives its particular orientations in good measure from the social context of American life. The ideology of professional psychology, I shall argue, is linked to the antiphilosophical, antihistorical, narrowly means-oriented and optimistic character of much American thought and culture." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Facilitating mobility for psychologists: Comparisons with and lessons from other health care professions.

Psychology and other health care professions are giving increasing attention to facilitating the movement of practitioners across jurisdictions. One of the greatest deterrents to mobility is the variability in licensing requirements among states and provinces. We review the status of mobility systems for licensed members of the professions of psychology, optometry, dentistry, medicine, nursing, and pharmacy. Each profession has, at a minimum, addressed the issue of mobility and licensure. With the exception of medicine, each profession currently has in place a version of licensure by endorsement and/or by reciprocity, although the professions differ in breadth of use and user-friendliness. Implications for enhancing mobility for psychologists are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A training curriculum for professional psychologists in primary care.

Primary care psychology is a growing field that requires specific training opportunities for successful practice. The knowledge and skills that practitioners need for work in this setting are outlined here in detail. This curriculum integrates literature and experience in family psychology, health psychology, and pediatric psychology; considers multiple levels of education and training; and provides illustrative examples. It is a first attempt in an evolving process of integrating historical and cutting edge literature from many areas of psychology and other disciplines to contribute to comprehensive primary care psychology training. It can be used by programs and individual practitioners alike in designing education and training experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An introduction to psychologists treating medically ill patients: Competent practice and seeking credentials in organized health care settings for routine or incidental practice.

Psychology has been recognized as a health care science and profession, and psychologists have been working clinically with medically ill patients and within organized health care settings and hospitals for decades. The potentially daunting environment of organized health care should be seen by psychology as an opportunity to further develop and expand its scope of practice. With knowledge of that environment's rules, regulations, ethics, bylaws, and traditions, the clinically competent psychologist who is first seeking to practice in hospitals should succeed alongside psychologists with busy practices who are already exclusively or occasionally within an organized health care setting or medical facility. This article reviews issues of competency, credentialing, privileges, bylaws, and practice expansion to guide psychologists toward a successful hospital practice with medically ill patients. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graduate education of Negro psychologists.

The "Council on Psychological Resources in the South was impressed with the dearth of psychologists in the South, particularly Negro psychologists" and appointed a committee "… to study the facts in this regard and to make recommendations for pertinent action." Fifty-six (98.2%) of fifty-seven graduate departments of psychology surveyed answered questionnaires concerning Negro psychologists receiving graduate degrees and the undergraduate origin of these students. "Negro personnel in psychology come in considerable proportion (one-third) from Negro undergraduate schools in the South." "In the process of bridging the gap between inadequate undergraduate training and high level graduate work, Howard University is making an exceptional contribution toward training in scientific and professional psychology." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Responses of psychologists to complaints filed against them with a state licensing board.

Psychologists are well aware of the possibility of complaints to licensing boards by clients, interns, employees, and others. As many as 11% of psychologists may have to respond to a complaint during their careers. Data collected by a licensing board from psychologists who had complaints filed against them were analyzed. Those who were found to have committed a violation were compared with those who were found to have committed no violation. The violation group (a) reported many more sequelae, including the expenditure of more time and money and the occurrence of more medical and psychological problems and (b) perceived the process and outcome as less fair. These findings suggest that review and modification of the complaint process are needed and that psychological and professional services may be helpful during and after complaint adjudication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Licensing and Professional Function.

It is shocking to summarize the ongoing debates on licensing of psychologists and on the relations between psychologists and psychiatrists. We psychologists seem chiefly to place the blame on the psychiatrists for the slow progress in gaining recognition of the professional function of psychologists. I offer a dissent which declares that a restrictive block must be removed from the thinking of psychologists before we are going to get anywhere on the problems of licensing and recognition of professional function. The block is manifested by the efforts of psychologists to imitate psychiatrists and beat them at their own game. This game is the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders, illnesses, aberrations, etc. Such diagnosis and treatment involves a mechanistic and concretistic thinking which is proving itself powerless to deal with the behavioral functioning of human individuals in interactive contexts. I am tempted to say "has proven," but there is a sad lack of experimental evidence, for which psychologists must shoulder their share of the blame. For my part, I don't blame psychiatrists for opposing the licensing of psychologists to treat "mental and emotional illnesses." Without realizing it, the psychiatrists are doing us a big favor in warning us away from this fruitless endeavor in which they are themselves experiencing so much heartbreak. We are wasting our time in seeking to crowd with them into a theoretical structure which will not support intense scientific effort. No psychologist should discuss with any citizen the relief of symptoms which are now manifest in the citizen's organic functioning. The psychologist's function should be to teach his interested fellow human beings how to perceive an interpersonal world and interact within that social realm on a more efficient and harmonious basis. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Special Licensing in Psychology.

Licensure is primarily designed to protect the public from unfit practitioners. However, most licensing laws in psychology are generic. Generic licensure assumes that there is a core of knowledge that all professional psychologists should possess and be able to document. In 1977 the New York State Board of Regents, which has jurisdiction over the licensed professions, addressed the issue of identification of specialties in the health professions. The current rules (Licensing of Psychologists in New York State, 1978) state that it is unprofessional conduct to make "claims of professional superiority which cannot be substantiated by the licensee" (p. 17). In effect, since there are no standards, psychologists can list any specialty they wish. Specialty licensing becomes important as advertising among professionals becomes a reality. The public has the right to know which psychologists are telling the truth when they list themselves as having a given specialty. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The question of psychologists' maltreatment by state licensing boards: Overcoming denial and seeking remedies.

The state and provincial boards that regulate the practice of psychology may regularly engage in a variety of investigative and enforcement practices that fail to provide due-process protection for accused psychologists. Because psychology regulatory boards operate under administrative law, rather than under civil or criminal law, familiar due-process protections may be considered unnecessary, or they may be perceived to be antithetical to the mandate of these boards to protect the public. Examples of board practices that bypass due-process protection are provided. An agenda is offered to state psychological associations to monitor the actions of their state psychology boards, to independently investigate complaints by members of unfair board practices, to offer support to members facing licensing complaints, and to propose appropriate legislative remedies for unfair board practices in their respective states and provinces. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preparing psychologists for evidence-based school practice: Lessons learned and challenges ahead.

The evidence-based practice (EBP) movement has the potential to significantly advance the quality of psychological and educational services provided by psychologists working in schools. Training psychologists in EBP has challenged the profession and caused faculty in graduate programs to reevaluate and retool professional training curricula and instructional practices. Four domains of challenges in graduate training are identified: (a) integrating the EBP knowledge base into the curriculum, (b) expanding models of research training, (c) expanding training in prevention science, and (d) expanding training in problem-solving consultation and school contextual issues. For each of these, the author discusses the range and scope of the challenge and possible solutions for advancing graduate training in psychology relevant to school practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Professional mobility for psychologists is rapidly becoming a reality.

Professional mobility for psychologists has been a problem since states first passed psychology licensing laws because of relatively small but crucial variations in licensing requirements. Although the profession of psychology and the association of psychology regulatory bodies in the United States and Canada (i.e., the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards [ASPPB]) have recognized this problem for decades, little progress was made in resolving it. Recently, the ASPPB launched two different approaches to facilitating professional mobility: one to forge agreements between regulatory bodies to accept each other's licensees, and another to certify or endorse individual psychologists who meet ASPPB standards for licensure and therefore can be recommended to licensing boards for relicensure. The specific requirements of each of these programs and their success in addressing the professional mobility problem are described. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Meeting current challenges in higher education: The need for more psychologists.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 12(1) of Review of General Psychology (see record 2008-02668-007). On page 389, right column, last paragraph, the second to last sentence should read "The goal now, however, will be to improve students' success, faculty's scholarship, and the future of their communities". On page 386, right column, third paragraph, line six, "psychologist-administrators" should appear as "psychologist administrators". On page 390, right column, the Logue 2006 reference should read "[Survey of fields of Middle States Commission accredited New York State institutions of higher education chief academic officers and presidents]".] Higher education is currently facing many serious challenges. These challenges derive from the effects of globalization, massification (the wide availability of higher education), competition, expanding technology, regulation, litigation, and tuition increases that are outpacing student aid. Many psychologists possess the skills to overcome these challenges: to facilitate the learning, creativity, and performance of each student, faculty member, and staff member; foster productive group relations; analyze human behavior qualitatively, quantitatively, and experimentally; and generate and steward funds for their institutions. Psychologists are well prepared to lead institutions of higher education through and beyond their 21st-century challenges. Relatively few higher education leaders are psychologists, however. Psychologists should be encouraged to choose administrative career paths and thus greatly benefit our colleges and universities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)