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As a profession we are committed to maintaining and enhancing our competence as psychologists in order to most effectively serve the public throughout our careers. While this is a widely shared commitment among psychologists, there is considerably less consensus regarding how best to accomplish this goal. This dilemma is examined from the ethical, educational and legal perspectives. The American Psychological Association (APA) Ethics Code clearly articulates that competence is an ethical duty, although there is little guidance provided in the code as to how to meet this standard. As a profession we have tended to focus on the construct of life-long learning and we have incorporated this principle into our education and training standards. In fact, APA accreditation requires that doctoral programs inculcate this value into our foundational training. The majority of Psychology Licensing Boards have addressed this issue through the endorsement of mandatory continuing education requirements that primarily focus on hours and the content or structure of approved programs. Potential limitations to our ability to effectively self-assess our professional training needs are discussed and several innovative models are ERICA H. WISE received her PhD in clinical psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and completed her internship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a clinical associate professor and directs the training clinic in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a former chair of the APA Ethics Committee and the North Carolina Psychology Board. Her professional interests include ethical and legal issues in professional practice and clinical training. CYNTHIA A. STURM received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Montana. She maintains a private practice in Portland, Oregon, treating adults and couples. Her areas of professional interest include ethics, continuing professional education, and the development and implementation of APA practice guidelines. ROBERTA L. NUTT received her PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland. She is the director of training of the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Houston. Her areas of professional interest and scholarship include training issues, gender issues, feminist practice, ethics, family psychology, and licensure and credentialing. EMIL RODOLFA received his PhD from Texas A&M University. He is the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of California, Davis. Currently he serves as the Past-President of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) and is a member of the State of California Board of Psychology. His interests include legal and ethical practice and supervision and training. JACK B. SCHAFFER received his PhD from the University of North Dakota in 1977. He has a diplomate from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in clinical psycholog...

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of two short-term individual therapy interventions for sexually abused girls and their nonoffending female caretakers. Thirty-two girls, ages 8 to 13, and their caretakers from primarily low-income, African-American families were randomly assigned to a theoretically based, structured experimental treatment program or to a relatively unstructured comparison intervention. Measures of child outcome were completed before and after the treatment program by each parent and child, and by a clinician blind to treatment condition. Pre- and postmeasures of maternal outcome were completed by the caretaker and a clinician not involved in the treatment. Both treatment programs yielded decreases in children's posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and traumagenic beliefs reflecting self-blame and powerlessness, and increases in children's overall psychosocial functioning. The experimental intervention was more effective than the comparison program in increasing abuse-related caretaker support of the child and in decreasing caretaker self-blame and expectations of undue negative impact of the abuse on the child. Clinical implications of these findings include the development of interventions targeting sexually abused children's traumagenic beliefs and nonoffending parents' support of their victimized children.

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This paper provides a summary of the data released by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards describing the performance of 7,402 doctoral candidates for licensure who took the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) from April 2008 through July 2010. The data provide a snapshot of the factors (gender, type of degree, program accreditation status, program specialty, program size, time since graduation, study method, amount of time spent studying) that were related to performance on the EPPP. Implications of these performance factors are discussed and suggestions are provided.

Previous studies of sexual abuse prevention programs conducted in schools have not compared the effectiveness of teachers versus outside consultants in implementing these programs. The current study contrasted three treatment conditions: (1) 15 regular teachers with their own classes (237 children); (2) eight lead teachers with unfamiliar classes (114 children); and (3) expert consultants with unfamiliar classes (201 children). All trainers used an adaptation of the Feeling Yes, Feeling No prevention curriculum, and both lead teachers and classroom teachers went through extensive training before implementing the program. No significant differences were found in the relative efficacy of using teachers versus expert consultants to present the program, with children demonstrating equivalent knowledge gains and equivalent skill scores on a videotape vignettes measure. Children in each condition made equivalent numbers of disclosures and had similar positive reactions to the programs.

Psychology in the United States has struggled with defining and specifying competencies for the practice of psychology since the Boulder Conference of 1949 outlined the first training model for graduate programs in psychology. Competency was largely defined by types of experiences and "seat time" until 1986, when the first major competency model in professional psychology in the United States was proposed. By 2000, discussions about the competencies had begun in earnest, and since that time, psychology's focus on competencies has intensified, resulting in a shift away from a model of training that involved tracking the number of hours spent learning specific knowledge or skills to a "culture of competence" that emphasizes outcome, that is, the acquisition of the essential knowledge and skills. In order to develop this culture, competence must first be defined and described. A number of efforts to do so have been completed, initially resulting in a confusing array of different models or perspectives. Over time, however, the models have become more refined and similar in their structure and framework. This article provides an overview of these efforts and discusses the next steps in the implementation of a competency model that is comprehensive enough to be useful, but simple enough to be used. The implications of the competency development process for training, practice, and regulation are discussed.