Monday, June 4, 2018

The job market(s) for professional psychologists: history and current issues

Various parts of the psychology job market resolved problems of thickness, congestion and incentives by adopting centralized clearinghouses. For other parts of the job market, those issues persist. Here's a recent article, and some snippets from it regarding this history.

Recruitment and selection in health service psychology postdoctoral training: A review of the history and current issues. 
Bodin, Doug; Schmidt, Joel P.; Lemle, Russell B.; Roper, Brad L.; Goldberg, Robert W.; Hill, Kimberly R.; Perry-Parrish, Carisa; Williams, Sharon E.; Kuemmel, Angela; Siegel, Wayne.
Training and Education in Professional Psychology © 2017 American Psychological Association

2018, Vol. 12, No. 2, 74 – 81

"Pursuing a career in health service psychology involves navigating three broad stages of training: graduate school, doctoral internship, and postdoctoral training. Each stage involves distinct procedures for recruitment and selection. The purpose of this article is to review the history of and current issues involved in the recruitment and selection process for postdoctoral training in health service psychology. In this review, we will discuss the specialty of clinical neuropsychology separately as that specialty has a formal computerized match and therefore faces subsequent challenges that are distinct from, but in some ways mirror, the  faced broadly by health service psychology postdoctoral training programs.

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"The current computerized matching psychology internship selection process began in 1998–1999, 10 years after an earlier trial, rejection, and reintroduction (Keilin, 2000). Prior to the introduction of computerized matching, the internship selection process relied on the “uniform notification day” (UND) system for more than 25 years. This process of internship offers and acceptances shortened from an initial offer and acceptance period of 9 days to 4 hours (Keilin, 1998). In 1988–1989, there was a trial period to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based algorithm match process. Although the outcomes showed a significant improvement over the UND, there was a lack of full participation by internship sites that appeared to have a detrimental impact on the outcomes observed (Keilin, 1998). Recurrent discussion within the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC) reflected gradually shifting approval, from a vote of 55% to 45% to retain the UND in 1990, to 77% approval to move to a computer-based match system by May 1998 for immediate implementation for the 1998–1999 recruitment year.
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"There were wide-spread reports of both applicants and programs accepting less preferred choices due to the fear of not securing or filling a position within the UND window. APPIC responded by clarifying the rules with a prohibition against sites soliciting rank information (Constantine & Keilin, 1996). APPIC voted to proceed with a computer-based match process in 1998 using a match algorithm similar to the National Residency Match Program (Roth & Peranson, 1999). The computer-match system transcends difficulties on both sides by providing an equitable solution designed to provide the best possible match for all parties involved (Keilin, 1998). This solution reduces the pressure associated with short decision-making times and has the benefit of reducing the gridlock associated with UND (Roth & Xing, 1997).
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"The computerized match has been used every year since, and it is now widely considered the optimal process for doctoral internship selection.

"The recruitment and selection process at the postdoctoral level remains in an evolutionary stage at the present time. Coordination of the psychology postdoctoral selection market is complicated by the fact that it is actually made up of multiple submarkets. Psychology interns may consider several options for their next professional experience, including an entry-level job, a research fellowship, a general clinical psychology fellowship, or a postdoctoral fellowship in a specialty practice area (e.g., neuropsychology, health psychology, clinical child psychology, or forensic psychology). Several of these submarkets have different timelines. For example, entry-level jobs and research fellowships are dependent on idiosyncratic funding streams and employment needs and, as such, may not realistically be expected to adhere to a coordinated timeline. 

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"In 2003, there was renewed effort to establish more systemization to protect applicants from being forced into making decisions about early offers that did not reflect their true preferences. 
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"As part of a 2009 APPIC biennial conference presentation, Lemle proposed a modified selection process with an additional feature intended to make participation more attractive to programs. The additional feature would allow applicants who received an early offer from a nonparticipating site to contact a preferred program to pledge they would accept a “reciprocal offer” should one be extended. A UND with reciprocal offer option (UNDr) assured programs that their top applicants who also wished to come to their site would not be lost to competing offers.
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" Beginning in Fall, 2016, the APPIC postdoctoral workgroup took strides to address several proximal recommendations borne in the summit. First, the workgroup further refined the Postdoctoral Selection Guidelines (PSG) for positions starting in 2017–2018 as a step toward developing a clear and transparent system that would allow applicants sufficient time to consider offers (applicants were allowed 24 hr to consider offers) and allow programs the time needed to interview applicants. A primary aim of the PSG is to decrease the significant stress on both applicants and training directors. The PSG address multiple stages of the selection process impacting trainees including reasonable interview notification timing, consideration of remote interview formats, postponing offers until the UND, and proper use of the reciprocal offer option (UNDr).
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"The APPIC postdoctoral workgroup also followed the summit recommendation to spearhead the development of a centralized listing of postdoctoral positions, the Universal Psychology Postdoctoral Directory (UPPD), that is free for both APPIC and non-APPIC member programs. 
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"Clinical neuropsychology has a distinct history that is informative when considering the issues discussed in this article. Most notably, there is currently a formal computerized match for postdoctoral selection in clinical neuropsychology (Belanger et al., 2013; Bodin, Roper, O’Toole, & Haines, 2016). Prior to 1994, there was no organized process for recruitment and selection in clinical neuropsychology. 
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"In 2001, APPCN partnered with NMS to conduct a computerized match for postdoctoral selection in clinical neuropsychology that has continued to the present day. The APPCN match employs the same algorithm used for the psychology internship match, but dissimilarities across the two recruiting environments have contributed to differences in the success of the two systems over the years. Since its inception, the internship match has enjoyed virtually universal participation by programs. Importantly, the APPCN match was introduced without a clear understanding of the total universe of positions being offered by neuropsychology postdoctoral programs, and those outside of APPCN were not a part of an organized group interested in centralized recruitment. Years later, Belanger et al. (2013) estimated that roughly two thirds of available positions were offered in the APPCN match. Withdrawal rates for applicants initially registering for the APPCN match have ranged from 26% to 37% over the past 10 years and have been stable from 34 and 36% for the last five years. Although some applicants withdraw for personal reasons, the most common reason has been to accept offers from independent programs prior to the rank-order list (ROL) deadline for the APPCN match.

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