Competency Initiatives in Professional Psychology

Promoting excellence in professional psychology education and training through best practices in defining and measuring competence.

• A Practical Guidebook for the Competency Benchmarks (July 2012)
  New guidebook that provides practical information on implementing a competency-based approach to education and training

• Final Report of the APA Task Force on the Assessment of Competence in Professional Psychology, October 2006

• Revised Competency Benchmarks for Professional Psychology (June 2011) (DOC, 239KB)

• Introduction (PDF, 29KB)

• Assessment Method Fact Sheets (PDF, 256KB)

• Toolkit Assessment Measures, Foundation and Functional Competencies (PDF, 238KB)

• Usefulness Ratings of Toolkit Assessment Methods (PDF, 243KB)

• Resources Related to Trainees with Problems of Professional Competence
• Competency Remediation Plan Template (DOC, 50KB)

• Association of Psychology Training Clinics (APTC) (PDF, 72KB) and Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) initiative on defining practicum competencies

• Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative involving various doctoral level health professions (i.e., Medicine, Psychology, Nursing) that focus on compiling key research, defining terms, and developing initiatives to meet the challenge of assessing and measuring competencies within professions

Past initiatives that focused on assessing student learning outcomes related to competencies and inform current efforts include:

1. Initiatives by the National Council of Schools and Programs in Professional Psychology (NCSPP)

2. 2002 APPIC Competencies Conference

3. Psychology undergraduate community
   
   - Guidelines for the Undergraduate Psychology Major (PDF, 165KB)
   
   - The Assessment Cyberguide for Learning Goals and Outcomes