Who, what, how, and where the typical psychologist is … the profession of psychology scale - Statistical Data Included

Journal of Instructional Psychology, Dec, 2001 by Gary T. Rosenthal, Richard R. McKnight, A.W. Price

Analysis of these data is problematic, while 95% of PPS respondents listed "private practice" as a place psychologists work, this may not however, indicate that respondents believed 95% of all psychologists engage in private practice. A revision of the PPS scale will eliminate this ambiguity in the future. For now, we chose the more conservative percentage of 56% of PPS respondents who listed private practice as their first choice for where psychologists work. In actuality 39% of psychologists are classified as "for profit and self-employed" (American Psychological Association, 1999c). Once again, a TSP test indicates that a significant difference between students' perception and reality (z = 2.92, p < .01).

Conclusions

Our data indicate a wide discrepancy between student perceptions of the profession of psychology and reality. This divergence occurs in all areas, including who psychologists are, what they do, how they are trained, and where they are employed. Of particular concern are the overestimates of minority representation and percentage of psychologists who are health care providers, and students' lack of recognition of the doctorate as the standard level of training for psychologists. There is a pressing need for further research in this area. The PPS is being revised and expanded, (we are currently collecting additional data concerning students' perceptions of sub-specialties). Like Gallucci (1997), Nauta (2000) and Wood, Jones and Benjamin, (1986), we urge our colleagues to examine these profession misconceptions as a first step towards providing students of psychology as well as the general public with a more faithful representation of psychology.

Author Notes

A summary of the results of this study was presented at the 46th Annual Southeastern Psychological Association conference, New Orleans LA, March 2000.

If you would like to help with the standardization of the Revised Profession of Psychology Scale (a shorter, multiple-choice, fill-in the blank instrument) please contact Gary T. Rosenthal.

References

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American Psychological Association. (1999c). Data on Education and Employment - Doctoral, Employed Psychology PhDs by Setting: 1997 [On-line]. Available: http:// research.apa.org/doc10.html

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