Score on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology as a Function of Attributes of Clinical Psychology Graduate Programs

Abstract

Graduate programs' correlates with doctoral recipients' scores on the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) were determined Higher EPPP score was associated with larger faculty-to-student ratios, smaller clinical programs traditional as opposed to professional program orientation, and Ph D rather than Psy D awarded Programs approved by the American Psychological Association and those that scored favorably on a number of objective indices also produced graduates with high EPPP scores Among the more frequently used admissions requirements median Quantitative score on the Graduate Record Examination correlated most highly with EPPP score

Predictors of doctoral student success in professional psychology: characteristics of students, programs, and universities

“…Coupled with concerns about lower admission standards, this has been taken by some as evidence that the net effect of PsyD programs is to flood the field of psychology with lower quality (by traditional academic standards) psychologists. For example, when EPPP scores rank programs, the number of graduates from the lowest quartile (comprised primarily of PsyD programs) outnumbers those from the highest quartile (comprised primarily of clinical PhD programs) by over three to one (Yu et al, 1997). Maher (1999) found that the largest increase in the percentage of doctorates granted has been from the programs ranked in the lowest quartile of faculty scholarly quality.…”

“…EPPP scores have been correlated with factors that are unrelated to the practice of professional psychology, such as motivation and anxiety, and one's belief in the validity of the test (Ryan & Chan, 1999). EPPP scores are also highly correlated with admissions selection criteria, such as grade point average (GPA) and scores on the Graduate Records Examination (GRE; Peterson, 2003;Yu et al, 1997). Because students who do well on the GRE also do well on the EPPP, the EPPP's utility as an outcome measure may be compromised.…”

“…Using average scores means that individuals who fail and retake the test are counted more than once; the more an individual fails and retakes the test, the more they are contributing to the program's average score (Peterson, 2003;Yu et al, 1997). As a result, failures to pass the EPPP are weighted more heavily in the program's EPPP average than those who pass the EPPP the first time.…”

Reputation strength as a determinant of faculty employment: A test of the step-down thesis among clinical psychology doctoral programs

“…Using a different approach, the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI; Thomson ISI, Philadelphia, PA) identified the most-cited articles in psychology literature and produced a ranking of university departments of psychology (Top Universities, 1995). In the field of clinical psychology, Yu et al (1997) ranked programs using the mean scores on the national licensing examination aggregated from graduates of each program, with implications of quality attached. Analyses have also been conducted on training programs' proficiency in placing graduates in faculty positions (Ilardi, Rodriguez-Hanley, Roberts, & Seigel, 2000), as well as trends in doctoral training (Maher, 1999).…”

Research productivity and academic lineage in clinical psychology: Who is training the faculty to do research?

“…Maher (1999) used the data from the 1995 NRC evaluation to compare research-oriented and professional-applied oriented doctoral programs. In another secondary analysis, Yu et al (1997) ranked training programs based on the scores of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) taken by graduates of each program. These types of analyses help define parts of a picture of graduate outcomes.…”