Competency Initiatives in Professional Psychology

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

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

• The Assessment CyberGuide for Learning Goals and Outcomes

• Association of Directors of Psychology Training Clinics (ADPTC) and Council of Chairs of Training Councils (CCTC) initiative on defining practicum competencies

• American Physical Therapy Association Interprofessional collaborative effects involving various doctoring professionals (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

• Recommendations on models for the assessment of competence (PDF 408kb) in professional education and training produced by APA Task Force in 2004

• Competencies at different levels of education and training developed by the Competency Benchmarks Work Group (DOC 484kb) and overview of the Benchmarks Work Group: Introduction to the Benchmarks (DOC 52kb)

• Education Leadership Conference presentations on assessment of competencies in 2003, including the presentation by I. Leon Smith, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of the Professional Examination Service (PES)

• Introduction (PDF 29kb)

• Assessment Method Fact Sheets (PDF 256kb)

• Grid (PDF 97kb)

• Remediation Plan Template (PDF 16kb)