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Description:
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An important aspect of graduate education in counseling and clinical psychology is clinical training , specifically practica and internships . There is a clear directive from the American Psychological Association (APA ) to conduct evaluations of clinical training , and an implicit directive from psychologists' responsibility to their clients . State licensure laws and thirdparty payment agents also demand certain levels of competence and accountability . It is clear that the effectiveness of clinical training should be evaluated . The literature reports that clinical training evaluation is done , but that it lacks specificity and quality . There are many difficulties inherent in such evaluation . For one , there are no standardized criteria against which to judge successful therapist training outcome . In addition , therapist trainees enter training with different skills , paces , and methods of learning . Third , assessment instruments are not well developed . It is therefore important to utilize the best evaluation methodology and instrumentation available .
This dissertation study evaluated the clinical training programs of the Texas Tech University Counseling Center (TTUCC ) , which offers both practica and an APA -accredited predoctoral internship . There were two major foci for improving the TTUCC evaluation process . One was to make the evaluation more broad -based and comprehensive , and the second was to make the evaluation more quantitative or performance -based . The major problems with this study involved low return rates and poorly developed instrumentation , producing few statistically significant results . |