Predoctoral Internships

History

The American Psychological Association (APA) inaugurated internship training at the Boulder conference in 1949. Conference participants mandated that a 1-year, full-time internship experience would be required for the doctoral degree in applied psychology. Accreditation of predoctoral internship programs through the APA began in 1956, and by the end of 2006 there were 455 APA-accredited programs. The Canadian Psychological Association began accrediting programs in 1984. While the accreditation system has been modified over the years, it has been continuously supported by the profession. However, there have been and remain various perspectives regarding the value and structure of the accreditation process.

In 1968, the Association of Psychology Internship Centers (APIC) was formed as an informal cadre of psychologists invested in training predoctoral interns. In 1992, the organization expanded its mission to include postdoctoral training and was renamed the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers (APPIC). APPIC, which is committed to enhancing internship and postdoctoral training in professional psychology, establishes minimal standards for quality training programs, develops selection policies and procedures for matching applicants to internship programs, publishes a directory of programs, facilitates the placement of unmatched applicants, assists with the informal and formal resolution of problems related to internship and postdoctoral training, represents the views of internship and postdoctoral agencies at the North American level, and takes a leadership role in national and multinational psychology conferences. One such conference was the National Conference on Internship Training in Psychology held in Gainesville, Florida, in 1987, the only national meeting devoted exclusively to internship training. Delegates developed a policy statement on internship training and delineated core requirements for the internship experience.

From the 1972–1973 training year through the 1997–1998 year, APPIC coordinated a “uniform notification” system, a process by which internship offers were tendered and positions were accepted based on a specific set of rules. Given the multitude of problems associated with this system, APPIC in 1999 initiated a computer-based internship matching program (the APPIC Match) to facilitate the placement of applicants into available positions.

Psychology typically has emphasized 1-year, full-time internships, although many students with family, financial, or other obligations have great difficulty in completing a full-time training program. While the 2006–2007 APPIC Directory lists only 15 2-year, half-time funded internship positions (0.5%), 5% of applicants who responded to a 2005 APPIC survey reported that they would prefer a half-time internship experience. In 2005, a national conference identified the benefits of half-time internship training, obstacles to implementing such training, and potential solutions for overcoming these barriers. A compelling case is being built for developing and promulgating systematic and coherent half-time internship program designs and structures. There are a number of excellent examples of half-time internship models and efforts to ensure the quality of these programs.

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