Professionalism in Psychology
Charles DeLeeuw, PhD
Psychology Resident, 2011-2012
Allison Aosved, PhD
Director, Psychology Training
VA Pacific Islands Health Care System
Objectives
• Develop a working definition of professionalism
in psychology
• Identify at least five key areas in professionalism
in psychology
• Increase personal awareness of strengths and
weaknesses related to professionalism in
psychology
Objective 1
Why is professionalism important?
Why is professionalism important?
• Credibility
▫ Public
▫ Professional communities
▫ Psychology
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Halo Effect
Reliable
Effective
Enhance quality of service
Why do we struggle?
• What gets in the way of professionalism?
Why do we struggle?
• Lack of awareness
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Attitude
Ego
Fear
Seniority
Confusion
Poor impulse control
• Transition points
• Lack of effort/commitment
Definition of professionalism
• How do you define it?
Definition of professionalism
• “Professional values and ethics as evidenced in
behavior and comportment that reflects the
values and ethics of psychology, integrity, and
responsibility.” (Fouad et al., 2009).
Notice your reactions…
• Even if you do not say your initial reactions…
notice where your mind goes and pay attention
to your internal dialogue
• Understand how you can improve your sense of
professionalism and training this year
Rules or Context?
• You may have learned about professionalism as
a set of rules
• You may have learned that professionalism is
contingent on contextual factors
• Appropriate professional behavior is
▫ Attuned to client needs
▫ Context contingent
▫ Flexible
Objective 2
Integrity
• Honesty, personal responsibility and adherence to
professional values
• Practicum Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Understands professional values; honest,
responsible
▫ Demonstrates honesty, even in difficult situations
▫ Takes responsibility for own actions
▫ Displays basic understanding of core professional
values
▫ Demonstrates ethical behavior & basic knowledge of
APA Ethical Principles & Code of Conduct
Integrity
• Honesty, personal responsibility and adherence to
professional values
• Internship Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Adherence to professional values & infuses
values into work as psychologist-in-training
▫ Demonstrates knowledge of professional values
▫ Demonstrates adherence to professional values
▫ Identifies situations that challenge professional values,
and seeks faculty/supervisor guidance as needed.
▫ Demonstrates ability to share, discuss and address
failures and lapses in adherence to professional values
with supervisors/faculty as appropriate
Integrity
• Honesty, personal responsibility and adherence
to professional values
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Monitors and independently resolves
situations that challenge professional
values and integrity
▫ Articulates professional values
▫ Takes independent action to correct situations
that are in conflict with professional values
Vignettes
• You are asked to provide feedback to a supervisor
who has not shown for supervision 3 times in the
past quarter. Historically, the supervisor has become
defensive and angry when given minor feedback.
What do you do? Why?
• You are supervising a practicum student who
repeatedly makes the same mistakes in his/her
documentation, after constructive feedback. His/her
evaluation is due to the grad program’s practicum
coordinator. What do you do? Why?
Where are you with regard to integrity?
Deportment
• Personal Conduct
• Practicum Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Understands how to conduct oneself in
a professional manner
▫ Demonstrates appropriate personal hygiene
and attire
▫ Distinguishes between appropriate and
inappropriate language and demeanor in
professional contexts
Deportment
• Personal Conduct
• Internship Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Communication and physical conduct
(including attire) is professionally
appropriate, across different settings
▫ Demonstrates awareness of the impact behavior has
on client, public and profession
▫ Utilizes appropriate language and demeanor in
professional communications
▫ Demonstrates appropriate physical conduct, including
attire, consistent with context
Deportment
• Personal Conduct
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Conducts self in a professional manner
across settings and situations
▫ Verbal and nonverbal communications are
appropriate to the professional context including
in challenging interactions
▫ Consistently conducts self in a professional
manner across and settings and situations
Vignettes
• Your male peer comes in on Friday morning. He
looks tired, unkempt (has not trimmed his beard
or cut his hair), and looks possibly hung over.
What do you do? Why?
• You overheard some veterans discussing the new
female intern and her cleavage. What do you do?
Why?
Where are you with regard to deportment? Reactions to
directed readings?
Accountability
• Accountable and Reliable
• Practicum Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Accountable and reliable
▫ Turns in assignments in accordance with
established deadlines
▫ Demonstrates personal organization skills
▫ Plans and organizes own workload
▫ Aware of and follows policies and procedures
of institution
Accountability
• Accountable and Reliable
• Internship Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Consistently reliable; consistently accepts
responsibility for own actions
▫ Completes required case documentation promptly and
accurately
▫ Accepts responsibility for meeting deadlines
▫ Available when “on-call”
▫ Acknowledges errors
▫ Utilizes supervision to strengthen effectiveness of
practice
Accountability
• Accountable and Reliable
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Independently accepts personal
responsibility across settings and contexts
▫ Works to fulfill client-provider contract
▫ Enhances productivity
▫ Holds self accountable for and submits to external
review of quality service provision
Vignette
• You are tired and your day has been packed. You
were recently sick and still recovering. You have
several hours of notes to complete and you feel
pressured to get them done. What do you do? Why?
• You are supervising a practicum student who you
have assigned a project to (i.e., prepare materials for
a psychoeducation group session) and as the two of
you sit down to lead group it is apparent that the
practicum student did not prepare the materials for
the session. What do you do in the moment in
group? Why? What do you do after group? Why?
Where are you related to accountability? Give examples of
where you think you are in this process?
Concern for the welfare of others
• Acts to Protect Others
• Practicum Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Demonstrates awareness of the need to
uphold and protect the welfare of others
▫ Displays initiative to help others
▫ Articulates importance of concepts of
confidentiality, privacy, informed consent
▫ Demonstrates compassion
Concern for the welfare of others
• Acts to Protect Others
• Internship Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Consistently acts to understand and
safeguard the welfare of others
▫ Regularly demonstrates compassion
▫ Displays respect in interpersonal interactions with
others including those from divergent perspectives
or backgrounds
▫ Determines when response to client needs takes
precedence over personal needs
Concern for the welfare of others
• Independently acts to safeguard the welfare of
others
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Independently acts to safeguard the welfare of
others
▫ Communications and actions convey sensitivity to
individual experience and needs while retaining
professional demeanor and deportment
▫ Respectful of the beliefs and values of colleagues even
when inconsistent with personal beliefs and values
▫ Acts to benefit the welfare of others, especially those in
need
Vignette
• A supervisor has repeatedly said demeaning
comments regarding a patient. What do you do?
Why?
• An early career psychology colleague who is closer in
age to the psychology trainees appears to be
socializing with current trainees, but you have no
evidence. Then, one of your trainees speaks to you
during supervising about his/her concerns that the
intern being supervised by the early career colleague
has an unfair advantage in training due to the social
relationship between the intern and the supervisor.
How do you handle this? Why?
Where are you with regard to your concern for the welfare of
others? Give examples of where you think you are in this
process?
Professional Identity
• Identity as a Professional Psychologist
• Practicum Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Beginning understanding of self as
professional, “thinking like a psychologist”
▫ Has membership in professional organizations
▫ Demonstrates knowledge of the program and
profession (training model, core competencies)
▫ Demonstrates knowledge about practicing within one’s
competence
▫ Understands that knowledge goes beyond formal
training
Professional Identity
• Identity as a Professional Psychologist
• Internship Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Emerging professional identity as
psychologist; uses resources (e.g.,
supervision, literature) for professional
development
▫ Attends colloquia, workshops, conferences
▫ Consults literature relevant to client care
Professional Identity
• Identity as a Professional Psychologist
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Consolidation of professional identity as a
psychologist; knowledgeable about issues
central to the field; evidence of integration of
science and practice
▫ Keeps up with advances in profession
▫ Contributes to the development & advancement of the
profession and colleagues
▫ Demonstrates integration of science in professional
practice
Vignette
• You were trained in WAIS-III and never trained in
WAIS-IV. You are not required to administer WAIS-IV
during your training year but realize that this is a “puka”
in your training. What do you do? Why?
• You are asked to represent the discipline of psychology
at an interprofessional (e.g., medicine, nursing, SW, etc.)
case conference on a patient who is a high utilizer of
mental health and primary care services. At the meeting,
you find it difficult to speak up and wonder if you have
anything valuable to add to the discussion. However, you
suspect the veteran in question has BPD and you are
familiar with DBT as an intervention that could help.
What do you do in the moment? Why? What do you do
afterward? Why?
Where are you with your professional identity development?
Reactions to directed readings?
Self-Care
• Attention to personal health and well-being to
assure effective professional functioning
• Practicum Behavioral Anchors:
▫ Understanding of the importance of selfcare in effective practice; knowledge of
self-care methods; attention to self-care
▫ Demonstrates basic awareness and attention to
self-care
Self-Care
• Attention to personal health and well-being to
assure effective professional functioning
• Internship Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Monitoring of issues related to self-care
with supervisor; understanding of the
central role of self-care to effective practice
▫ Works with supervisor to monitor issues related to
self-care
▫ Takes action recommended by supervisor for selfcare to ensure effective training
Self-Care
• Attention to personal health and well-being to
assure effective professional functioning
• Professional Practice Behavioral Anchor:
▫ Self-monitoring of issues related to selfcare and prompt interventions when
disruptions occur
▫ Anticipates and self-identifies disruptions in
functioning and intervenes at an early stage/with
minimal support from supervisors
▫ Models self-care
Vignette
• You develop a terrible flu that takes several
weeks to recover. What do you do? Why?
• Your colleague stops by to ask you a question
and says “I hate to bother you, it always seems to
irritate you when I have a question, but…” this is
a person that you like and respect. What do you
do? Why?
Where are you with your self-care right now? Give examples of
where you think you are in this process? Quick self-assessment?
References
• APA (2011). Revised competency benchmarks. Retrieved from:
http://www.apa.org/ed/graduate/competency.aspx
• Elman, N. S., Illfelder-Kaye, J., Robiner, W. N. (2005). Professional development:
Training for professionalism as a foundation for competent practice in psychology.
Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 36(4), 367-375.
• Fouad, N.A., Grus, C.L., Hatcher, R.L., Kaslow, N.J. Hutchings, P.S., Madson, M.,
Collins, F.L., Jr. & Crossman, R.E. (2009). Competency benchmarks: A
developmental model for understanding and measuring competence in professional
psychology. Training and Education in Professional Psychology. 3(4), S5-S26.
• Kaslow, N., McCarthy, S., Roger, J., & Summerville, M. (1992). Psychology
postdoctoral training: A developmental perspective. Professional Psychology:
Research and Practice, 23, 369-375.
• Kaslow, N., & Rice, D. (1985). The developmental stresses of psychology internship
training: What training staff can do to help. Professional Psychology: Research and
Practice, 16, 253-261.
• Sachs Hills, L. (2008). Polishing your professional image: Eight rules for medical
practice employees. Journal of Medical Practice Management, May/June 2008,
358-362.