Competencies in Professional Psychology

Kaslow, Nadine J.

¹Emory University School of Medicine

²Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Nadine J. Kaslow, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Grady Health System, Atlanta, GA 30303. E-mail: [email protected]

Editor's Note Nadine J. Kaslow received the Award for Distinguished Contributions to Education and Training in Psychology. Award winners are invited to deliver an award address at the APA's annual convention. A version of the award address was delivered at the 112th annual meeting, held July 28–August 1, 2004, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Articles based on award addresses are reviewed, but they differ from unsolicited articles in that they are expressions of the winners' reflections on their work and their views of the field.

American Psychologist 59(8):p 774-781, November 2004.

There has been a burgeoning interest in competency-based education and credentialing in professional psychology. This movement gained momentum at the Competencies Conference: Future Directions in Education and Credentialing in Professional Psychology. After defining professional competence, the author focuses on the identification and delineation of foundation, core, and specialty competencies within professional psychology. Attention is then paid to developmentally informed and innovative approaches to training in these competencies. Finally, consideration is given to state-of-the-art approaches to the assessment of these competencies for educational and credentialing purposes.