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This article provides an overview of issues related to the development and evaluation of competency in psychological assessment. Specifically, we delineate the goals, ideas, and directions identified by the psychological assessment work group in the Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology. This is one of a series of articles published in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychology. Several other articles that resulted from the Competencies Conference will appear in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice and The Counseling Psychologist. The psychological assessment group was charged with the tasks of: (a). identifying the core components of psychological assessment competency; (b). determining the central educational and training experiences that will aid competency development; (c). explicating strategies for evaluating competence; and (d). establishing future directions for furthering the identification, training, and evaluation of competence in psychological assessment. We present a set of eight core competencies that we deemed important for achieving psychological assessment competency and discuss four guidelines for training in the domain of psychological assessment. A variety of methods for evaluating competencies in this domain are suggested, with emphasis on using a collaborative model of evaluation. Recommendations for future directions include strengthening the academic prerequisites for graduate school training; increasing training in culturally sensitive measures; incorporating innovative assessment-related technologies into training; and addressing discontinuities between academic training, internship, and practice environments.

We review literature on effectiveness of CE in enhancing quality of services in health professions. We conclude that if CE is properly implemented, health care can be positively impacted. Two examples of effective CE programs are described. We also review current status of MCE in health fields, especially psychology. Most MCE systems do not meet criteria of good CE systems. The profession of psychology is encouraged to shift to more effective systems of MCE.Most professions support the concept of continuing education (CE) for their members (Brown, Leichtman, Blass, & Fleisher, 1982;Mullen, Holcomb, & Passer, 1988). Whether participation in CE programs should be mandatory for licensure renewal for professionals, however, is a more controversial issue. In the 1970s, many legislatures and regulatory boards across many professions stipulated CE as a requirement for licensure renewal with the goal of improving the quality of services offered to the public. Mandatory CE (MCE) is almost universal now either through statute or as a requirement for malpractice insurance for physicians, optometrists, and pharmacists.MCE for licensed psychologists has, however, lagged behind requirements of other health professions. Currently, psychology licensing laws in 27 states permit licensing boards to require CE for licensure renewal. As of 1988, however, only 18 of these states actually required CE. The other state boards either had not yet promulgated the regulations or had decided against implementing them. California is unique among the states because its board does not require CE for licensure renewal, but the California legislature has twice mandated specific courses before psychologists could renew their licenses.The concept of MCE has its detractors who question whether MCE is necessary, whether it can be structured in a manner that will actually improve the quality of services provided by licensed psychologists (McNamara, 1977), or whether it can be implemented fairly (Brown et al., 1982).

Through a national survey of municipal police departments, this study identifies current selection and psychological assessment practices for police officers. Of the 355 police agencies invited to participate in the survey, 155 returned completed questionnaires (43%). Analyses of the extent and nature of assessment procedures revealed that the majority of police departments perform a background investigation, medical exam, interview with applicant, drug test, physical fitness exam, and polygraph test. Furthermore, more than 90% of responding agencies require a psychological evaluation of applicants, which shows a significant increase from prior surveys. Results from this study shed light on the changes and trends that have occurred in police selection in the past decade. Overall, the majority of police departments that responded used extensive and sophisticated selection measures, especially those departments serving larger cities. However, many agencies are not following public policy guidelines and psychological assessment recommendations, suggesting the need for further refinements.

We review guidelines for providing supervision for trainees and employees, an expected part of the job for many psychologists, many of whom carry out their supervisory duties with only a cursory awareness of the ethical and legal pitfalls that may accrue. The guidelines are drawn from ethical principles, other documents promulgated by various sectors of professional psychology, and relevant legal cases. Specific suggestions are given for supervisors and training institutions to ensure appropriate supervision. The incorporation of training in supervision in all doctoral programs in professional psychology is recommended.Clinical supervision has become an area of intense interest in recent years. This interest has been reflected in reviews of ideal supervisor characteristics (Carifio & Hess, 1987), empirical studies of psychotherapy supervision (Lambert & Arnold, 1987), development of models of supervision (e.g., Stoltenberg & Delworth, 1987;Worthington, 1987), and evaluations of supervisees' perceptions of supervisory practices (Allen, Szollos, & Williams, 1986). These and similar articles have focused primarily on the process and content of supervision.Supervisors also need to be familiar with ethical and legal aspects of supervision that transcend their theoretical orientations and teaching skills (Bent & Cannon, 1987). The ethical issues include supervisor qualifications, duties and responsibilities of supervisors, dual relationships, client consent, and thirdparty payments. The legal liability of supervisors extends into such areas as direct and vicarious liability, confidentiality and the duty to protect, and standard of care.In this article we discuss the ethical and legal aspects of the supervision of trainees in psychology, such as what occurs in practica, internships, and postdoctoral work before licensure. We provide a generic coverage of the ethical and legal issues as they apply to all theories or models of supervision. We do not detail how these principles may be played out in unique ways in specific theoretical approaches to training (e.g., supervision in analysis), in supervision for ongoing enhancement of skills by

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This article summarizes the major changes that were made to the 2002 Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct of the American Psychological Association. The 2002 Ethics Code retains the general format of the 1992 Ethics Code and does not radically alter the obligations of psychologists. One goal of the Ethics Committee Task Force was to reduce the potential of the Ethics Code to be used to unnecessarily punish psychologists. In addition, the revised Ethics Code expresses greater sensitivity to the needs of cultural and linguistic minorities and students. Shortcomings of the 2002 Ethics Code are discussed.