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Objective: Attaining competence in assessment is a necessary step in graduate training and has been defined to include multiple domains of training relevant to this attainment. While important to ensure trainees meet these standards of training, it is critical to understand how and if competence shapes a trainees' professional identity, therein promoting lifelong competency. Methods: The current study assessed currently enrolled graduate trainees' knowledge and perception of their capabilities related to assessment to determine if self‐reported and performance‐based competence would incrementally predict their intention to use assessment in their future above basic training characteristics and intended career interests. Results: Self‐reported competence, but not performance‐based competence, played an incremental role in trainees' intention to use assessments in their careers. Multiple graduate training characteristics and practice experiences were insignificant predictors after accounting for other relative predictors (i.e., intended career settings, integrated reports). Conclusion: Findings are discussed about the critical importance of incorporating a hybrid competency‐capability assessment training framework to further emphasize the role of trainee self‐efficacy in hopes of promoting lifelong competence in their continued use of assessments. Significance Statement: This study examines health service psychology trainees' intention to engage in psychological assessment and the incremental role of self‐reported competence. Findings highlight the significance of self‐reported competence above performance‐based competence in assessment when predicting long‐term professional identity, which in turn promotes lifelong competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The predoctoral internshipAQ4 training year is the capstone training experience for health service doctoral students. Previous research has explored what applicant characteristics are desired by internship sites and has not thoroughly explored differences between types of sites or criteria importance at different stages of applicant consideration (interview vs. ranking). Aims: We evaluate current perceptions of doctoral student internship applications by training directors. Materials and Methods: Internship training directors of APA‐accredited sites report on the importance of different application materials during interview and ranking decisions. We also compare these rankings across site types. Results: Results indicate that internship sites were generally consistent in their criteria rankings; however, there were also some differences. Intern applicant "fit" continues to be the most important criteria by which applicants are judged at all stages of consideration. Qualitative analysis found that "fit" varied by site across themes of treatment, applicant, and site characteristics. Discussion: We discuss implications in their preparation of internship applications. In addition to the practical guidance for students, we discuss how program changes can increase applicant site competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This investigation surveyed students (n = 91) from 16 American Psychological Association accredited doctoral programs in clinical and counseling psychology about knowledge and training in personality assessment. We report self-perceived competency on specific instruments as well as training trends in coursework and instrument exposure in clinical settings. We also evaluate skill at interpretation on a popular personality instrument using two tasks, a narrative interpretation where trainees estimate an originating score profile using a standardized interpretive report and a symptom probability task where trainees predict the likelihood of symptoms based on a score profile. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) and Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) were the most frequently trained and utilized and had the highest self-perceived competence. When given interpretation tasks to evaluate assessment skills using the MMPI-2-RF, trainee performance was variable and discrepant from a comparison expert panel given the same tasks. Overall, our results suggest that there is a need for further, and more comprehensive, study on competence and training according to the experience of trainees. We note that there is variability across instruction on instrument use, exposure to instruments in practice, and practical skill level. We highlight our findings across four conceptual areas and discuss the implications for the observed trends: frequency of instrument exposure, trainee beliefs of competence, trainee interpretation skills, and reporting of testing interpretation. This pilot study provides the first evaluation of assessment training patterns as reported by health service psychology trainees. Results indicate that, in general, trainee instrument exposure and use mirror those of practicing psychologists; however, there is notable variability in how assessment results are reported and in trainee competency. Additional research evaluating health service psychology training should utilize student participants so that direct evaluations of competency and outcomes are possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]