Professional psychology Organizations - Term Paper Example

Professional psychology organizations al Affiliation Professional psychology organizations Having knowledge on psychological procedure is essential to a graduate level student otherwise referred to as a student affiliate member # 32037152. The student should thus not only be equipped with minimal knowledge at best but also ought to portray advanced knowledge in order to make a competent psychologist. The standards for professional psychologists have been expressly defined in the American Psychological Association (APA) ethics and code of conduct which specifies the minimum requirements for a professional psychologist.

The psychologists are then issued with licenses under the Professional Psychologists Licensing Act. This issuance does guarantee an individual’s practice as it is mandatory that they do not continue with education after being issued with the license. Minimal requirements are, therefore, essential in setting standards for competence since licensed psychologists often have to deal with diverse ethical dilemmas. The work of a psychologist is attached to value addition to the human element. These values are infused when an individual majors in psychology.

As an affiliate member of APA, students are taught the ethical code as specified in the Act. Its main function is to instill the learners with a value system as well as clearly articulated behavioral and decisional rules. Although the students are taught new values, for them to be adapted to the job market and meet the international requirements set by APA for its affiliate member students, personality is often an added advantage. Personality is a key determinant when it comes to advanced knowledge and practicality of performance based on competence evaluation.

Personality defines personal values that are not accounted for or defined in the Professional Psychologists Licensing Act yet it is essential in practical work practice. The Ethics Code as crafted in 2002, contains a detailed procedure of minimal requirements with which affiliate students undertaking psychology ought to know. The procedure consists of the introduction, general principles, applicability section, enforceable standards and preamble sections. The enforceable standards section is specific in addressing issues to do with the competence of student affiliate members.

Among the competencies required of its members is that they should only perform that is teach, provide services or conduct research within their areas of jurisdiction as dictated by their level of competence. This is based on parameters such as education, supervised experience, training, study, consultation and professional experience (Kaslow & Grus, 2009, p 29). Unless faced with an emergence, psychologists need to obtain proper training in the handling scientific or clinical knowledge in the specified psychological disciplines such as sexual orientation, socio-economic status, national origin and gender identity etc.

It is critical for professional psychologists to be involved with “The Society for Military Psychology (Division 19). This Society is fundamental in correcting anomalies that are caused by preconceived personality profiling. The Military Society shapes professional psychologists into getting over preconceived notions that they have in their minds. Such notions will prevent an individual from practicing what they believe is right in addition to aiding in the process that hinders them from seizing opportunities to attain professionalism in their career development.

For instance, research identified that coaches teaching students during remedial classes often have a preconceived personality bias associated with teaching dumb children. In cases where the teacher was not aware or was duped into believing that he or she is teaching the best class yet they are not performing well, then the teacher will not justify her being good at teaching and blame it on the children undertaking their remedial lessons. On the other hand if the teachers are made to know that they are teaching remedial students they will misconceive them to be dumb and work on the assumption that the students are too thick to learn.

The above example is a good case of preconceived personality profiling, which can be a hindrance to developing the professionalism of psychology organizations. In order to correct this defect among employees, an organization needs to incorporate the Society for Military Psychology into the psychological fabric of its staff (Madson, 2009, p 55). Additionally, the management of the psychology organization needs to define expected experience, skills and job duties so as to employ the best employees for the duties at hand.

In so doing, pertinent issues such as preconceived personality profiling among employees will be reduced thus facilitate development of professionals. Moreover, the need for professionalism can be observed during recruiting process, whereby the manager in charge needs to include aspects of profiling found in the application forms, personal interview and resume. After doing this, the manager will then be better placed to match the right employees with right jobs based on their competences hence reducing the attrition rates, increasing profitability and output (Roysircar, 2004, p 51).

The bureaucracy involved in becoming a psychologist in the State of Alabama acts as a major impediment to the profession. The process has been complicated by the authorities as they have set the bar really high for anyone interested in becoming a professional psychologist. These two factors combined leads to many people to spending a lot of time as clinicians before being issued with licenses much later in their careers. The time spent as a clinician is tailored-made to make the psychologists into apply the knowledge acquired within the four walls to the field.

In Alabama, the whole process of bureaucracy has not achieved much since there are still some bottlenecks such as logical errors, personal beliefs and popular myths which have been associated with professional psychologists based in Alabama. The job of being a counselor in itself is not easy because one has to support and help people going through difficult situations. This makes it extremely expensive and time consuming for an individual to gain substantial experience in the field to enable him to be deemed as an ultimate professional.

References Grus, C. & Kaslow, N. (2009). Competency assessment toolkit for professional psychology. New York: Walden Library. Madson, M. (2009). Competency benchmarks: a model of understanding and measuring competence in professional psychology across training levels. New York: Walden Library. Roysircar, G. (2004). Cultural self-awareness assessment: Practice examples from psychology training. Michigan: Research and Practice.