Doctoral students' intention to use assessments in their career: The incremental role of self‐reported competence

Abstract

Objective Attaining competence in assessment is a necessary step in graduate training and has been defined to include multiple domains of training relevant to this attainment. While important to ensure trainees meet these standards of training, it is critical to understand how and if competence shapes a trainees' professional identity, therein promoting lifelong competency. Methods The current study assessed currently enrolled graduate trainees' knowledge and perception of their capabilities related to assessment to determine if self‐reported and performance‐based competence would incrementally predict their intention to use assessment in their future above basic training characteristics and intended career interests. Results Self‐reported competence, but not performance‐based competence, played an incremental role in trainees' intention to use assessments in their careers. Multiple graduate training characteristics and practice experiences were insignificant predictors after accounting for other relative predictors (i.e., intended career settings, integrated reports). Conclusion Findings are discussed about the critical importance of incorporating a hybrid competency‐capability assessment training framework to further emphasize the role of trainee self‐efficacy in hopes of promoting lifelong competence in their continued use of assessments.

Evaluating training needs in clinical psychology doctoral programs

“…Importantly, this study also assessed perceived competencies and related training needs. While perceived competency is an important and relevant metric, recent work has found that perceived competency is only weakly associated with performance‐based competency, suggesting a need for metrics which assess a scope of competency beyond self‐perceptions (Bergquist et al, 2023). Additionally, this study did not assess the quality of training strategies more broadly.…”