Search

Team based learning (TBL) is a co-operative learning method, increasingly used online within our digitalised society. The aim of this study is to better understand the factors influencing student satisfaction and engagement with online TBL. The study measures student satisfaction, accountability and preference for online TBL across three compulsory psychology undergraduate modules; PY1604 (Clinical Psychology), PY1608 (Employability in Psychology) and PY1702 (Academic Skills in Psychology). Seventy-two psychology students enrolled at a UK university completed the TBL-SAI online survey, where they answered 33 statements relating to online TBL on a five-point Likert-type scale. It was found students were significantly more accountable in the TBL method for PY1608 and PY1604 and significantly less accountable for PY1702. It was also found that there was significantly higher satisfaction for PY1604 compared to both PY1702 and PY1608, as well as students attending significantly more PY1604 sessions than PY1702 and PY1608. Overall, there was no significant difference in preference for online TBL over online lectures when comparing the three modules. The findings support our hypothesis, that there would be differences across the three modules in terms of satisfaction, accountability and preference for online TBL.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to investigate the variables that may affect treatment continuation in children aged 6 to 12 years who were newly diagnosed with ADHD. Methods: A total of 132 children diagnosed with ADHD and their parents participated in the study. Sociodemographic and clinical risk factors affecting continuation of treatment were examined using logistic regression analysis. Results: Multiple model examination revealed that greater age increased the risk of treatment discontinuation 1.824 times (p = 0.003) while a lower total length of paternal education increased the risk of discontinuation (1/0.835) 1.198 times (p = 0.022). Other variables emerging as significant in the univariate model lost that significance in the multiple model. Conclusions: Understanding the variables associated with medication discontinuation in ADHD in different populations and taking these variables into account in the development of health policies, will be useful in improving the long-term devastating effects of the disorder.

Clinical reasoning is a complex process whereby psychologists review a large amount of data to generate diagnostic conclusions. Limited research has studied clinical reasoning specific to psychoeducational assessment. In this study, we used a think-aloud protocol to examine trainees' and licensed practitioners' clinical reasoning as they completed an unfolding case. Data were collected on efficiency (time spent on case, amount and order of diagnostic information requested), accuracy, and confidence, with the expectation that these areas would be more developed in experienced practitioners. Analyses found no effect of experience on clinical reasoning efficiency. However, trainees were less confident and accurate in their diagnostic conclusions and more likely to be influenced by contextual information that was less core to the diagnosis. These findings suggest that previous exposure to specific disorders is beneficial to clinical reasoning development and suggests a need for systemic training related to a broad range of disorders in graduate programs.

There is a need for increased collaboration between mental health providers who work with children and youth to increase continuity of care across settings. While schools can be an optimal location for mental health support, school psychologists often have to work with clinical providers given the increases in youth mental health needs and the shortage of school-based providers. This study used an online survey with a mixed-methods approach to understand the collaboration practices of school and clinical psychologists. A sample of 57 practitioners in the United States were asked to provide their perceptions of the roles of their interagency providers, their collaboration practices, and the benefits or barriers in the collaboration process. Findings indicated differences in providers' perceptions of the quality of assessments conducted and the importance of particular psychological practices to the roles of clinical and school psychologists. Content analysis of open-ended responses found that while providers acknowledge the benefits of collaboration there was distrust among providers. Implications for training programs and future research directions are discussed.

Learning Development is a field of practice concerned with supporting students to develop their study skills, including academic and assessment literacies. It is strongly rooted in values that are student-centred, collaborative and emancipatory rather than remedial or deficit. However, in the wider dominant culture of UK HE institutions, Learning Developers are often placed in an implicitly hierarchical relationship with students, "giving advice and guidance", at odds with these values. Without a clear model for practice to help them enact their values in a student-centred and dialogic way, Learning Developers may risk pathologizing the student, depriving them of agency and expertise, in an overly prescriptive and instrumental approach to skills development. This paper explores formulation, a core skill in Clinical Psychology, and its applicability in Learning Development. Formulation is a method of integrating theory and practice, clinical expertise with the client's own experience and insight, through its meaning to the client. With a focus on equality, person-centred practice and co-created meaning, it is well aligned to Learning Development values. This paper examines how formulation can be adapted for Learning Development one-to-one work and other forms of provision, and proposes a practical model, the Five Ps of LD, which integrates multiple perspectives with longitudinal, cross-sectional and socio-cultural factors into a holistic shared understanding of the Learning Development need.

Post-training consultation support is linked to improvements in evidence-based treatment fidelity following initial training, but little is known about what makes it work, and how clinician-level factors may moderate its effects. This study examined the adherence and competence of N = 33 school-based clinicians trained to provide modular Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to youth, while receiving ongoing consultation. We examined two aspects of consultation as predictors of growth in adherence and competence, consultation dosage and use of session audio review. We also examined several clinician-level predictors of fidelity growth, including education, years of experience, burnout, and self-efficacy. Fidelity was rated by both independent observers and consultants, with differing findings. Independent observer ratings of adherence and competence did not change during consultation, and were not associated with any predictors. Consultant ratings of competence showed a trend toward growth during consultation. Greater clinician self-efficacy and years of experience were associated with lower initial consultant-rated competence, but more rapid growth over time. Higher consultation dosage and use of session audio review were negatively associated with growth in consultant-rated competence. These findings reinforce the need for further study of the active ingredients of consultation (i.e. consultation practices that help clinicians improve their treatment implementation), and the factors associated with perceptions of consultant fidelity raters.

Objectives: Inequalities in the clinical psychology profession extend to the uptake and recruitment of clinical psychologists from Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) backgrounds. Mentoring schemes can help facilitate mentee's personal and professional development. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of mentors who participated in the BAME mentor scheme at University of Bath. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with N = 29 mentors (both trainee and qualified clinical psychologists), who predominately identified as female and White British. The reflexive thematic analysis six-step process was employed to analyse the data. Results: Four major themes were generated; (1) Mentoring as a learning curve; (2) Mentoring in the context of BAME; (3) Why we mentor: The impact; and (4) Moving the scheme forward: What next? Conclusions: Overall, mentoring was a rewarding experience for mentors, and given the right support, could help strengthen the mentoring experience and aims of the scheme for the future. These findings offer insight and guidance for future mentoring programmes considering diversifying the clinical psychology profession.

Mentoring schemes for aspiring BAME clinical psychologists, are being introduced in universities across the UK. The aim of this study was to conduct a mixed-methods prospective evaluation of the 2021/2022 mentoring scheme. Mentees (n = 8) and mentors (n = 20) completed an online questionnaire at the beginning (T1) and end (T2) of the 2021/2022 mentoring scheme. Quantitative data was analysed descriptively and using a mixed ANOVA. Content analysis was conducted on qualitative contributions. Mentees reported having the confidence and knowledge necessary to apply for the clinical psychology doctorate and assessments of mentoring skills were high. Participants provided their goals and expectations for the scheme, as well as constructive feedback. The findings suggest an overall modest, positive impact of the mentoring scheme. Wider implications include ensuring mentoring pairs establish regular contact and providing additional support for mentors to mitigate self-doubt.

Background: College students have increasing mental health needs; however, there has not been a related increase in services available. Mental health apps offer an avenue to support access to student mental healthcare. Objective: This study incorporated an indirect service-learning project involving evaluating and recommending mental health apps to the college counseling center into an undergraduate clinical psychology course in order to (1) increase student self-efficacy and depth of learning, and (2) increase evidence-based mental health app usage on a college campus. Method: The project was implemented during an online, synchronous 3-week course and 15 students participated in the study. Student self-report of self-efficacy was measured pre- and post-course and quantitative and qualitative reflections on the project were gathered post-course. Results: Student self-efficacy increased from pre- to post-course. Additionally, students reported that the project met pedagogical objectives by engaging students, aligning with course content, and addressing APA learning goals. Conclusion: The project holds promise as a means to improve student self-efficacy and enhance clinical psychology learning, while simultaneously disseminating evidence-based digital mental tools on college campuses. Teaching Implications: App evaluation as indirect service-learning could be implemented in many applied psychology courses across multiple of course formats and lengths.

The U.S. psychology workforce is considerably less diverse than the population that it serves. While several recruitment and admission practices are effective for diversifying psychology training programs, upstream recruitment of underrepresented candidates is particularly promising. Aiming to diversify the clinical psychology graduate program applicant pool, the Student Training Equity Project (STEP) was developed to promote and evaluate upstream recruitment of undergraduate students of color interested in psychology graduate studies. This study used a mixed-method design to evaluate immediate outcomes for three STEP programmatic strategies. Survey results suggest that STEP networking events were associated with undergraduate research and mentorship opportunities. Findings suggest that STEP funding supported students in producing research products (e.g., manuscripts) that might bolster graduate application materials. STEP website engagement data showed over 1,000 views per year, and highlighted ways to improve outreach. More controlled evaluation is needed to determine whether STEP contributed to diversification of the applicant pool.

Understanding the types of intervention practices familiar to transdisciplinary autism spectrum disorder providers may be critical to characterize and optimize "usual care" for common clinical concerns (e.g. internalizing, externalizing, and social challenges) among school- and transition-age autistic youth. We assessed if there is an underlying factor structure to expert providers' familiarity with such practices, and if characteristics of experts (discipline, years' experience, and school setting) and/or their clients (age and intellectual disability) predicted these factors. Fifty-three expert providers rated their familiarity with 55 practices via an online Delphi poll. Exploratory structural equation modeling identified latent factors of familiarity, which were regressed onto provider and client variables to identify predictors. Four factors emerged: two approaches (cognitive and behavioral) and two strategies (engagement and accessibility). Cognitive approaches were associated with practicing outside school settings and treating clients without intellectual disability, behavioral approaches with practicing in schools and the disciplines of clinical psychology and behavior analysis, engagement strategies with practicing outside school settings, and accessibility strategies with more years in practice. Findings suggest expert transdisciplinary autism spectrum disorder providers are familiar with many of the same approaches and that differences in knowledge are predicted by their discipline, treatment setting, experience, and work with youth with intellectual disabilities. [This article was co-authored with the UCAS Consortium including: Amy Drahota, Latha Soorya, Allison Wainer, Matthew D. Lerner, Lauren J. Moskowitz, Elizabeth Cohn, and Connor M. Kerns.]

Building effective partnership with parents of young children with language delays has strong face value and is supported by multiple areas of research; however, building and maintaining partnerships to optimize child outcomes in practice can be difficult. This article provides a guide to teachers and speech-language pathologists who work with young children with language delays for how to collaborate toward building and maintaining effective parent partnerships. Building effective partnerships starts with, first, getting to know the family using responsive interview questions and communication rooted in clinical psychology practices; second, instructing parents to implement instructional approaches at home using effective adult learning strategies; third, maintaining partnerships through effective ongoing communication; and, finally, problem-solving with motivational interviewing. Taken together, this article presents a feasible and family-focused model for increasing implementation of language strategies across settings.

Time-honoured university policies, such as the credit-hour and academic freedom, present challenges for professional education programs tasked with operationalizing entry-to-practice competence frameworks for professional accreditation. A single embedded case study was used to explore how professional programs from one mid-sized Canadian university are approaching and perhaps problematizing the development and assessment of competence. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with educational leaders (faculty and staff, n=21) from a sample of nine programs. Following a grounded theory approach to qualitative analysis, the constant comparative method was used to inductively discern similarities and differences across programs, and to begin building theory about approaches to operationalization. While limited in scope given the use of a single university, our findings highlight: (a) diversity in approaches to operationalization across programs, (b) common attributes which can be used to classify the manner in which these programs operationalize competence, and (c) challenges with supporting faculty to buy in to competency-informed pedagogy and assessment. Given these findings, it is recommended that professional accrediting bodies and education programs spend time to consider the role university-based programs play in determining competence for entry-to-practice, as well their intents for implementing a competence framework, to ensure sufficiency in the approaches being used.

Undergraduate student mental health and wellbeing is becoming an increasingly important topic. In particular, students from backgrounds that have been traditionally underrepresented in higher education may have increased difficulties during the transition to university. Therefore, 'Mind Your Mind', a pilot, three-part programme of workshops facilitated by doctoral clinical psychology students to support first year undergraduate psychology students was developed. The workshops were formulation-based and explored 'social media', 'anxiety' and 'belonging'. Students generally found the workshops useful and easy to understand, and felt that attending the workshops increased their wellbeing. The programme also provided an opportunity for the clinical psychology students to develop their skills and give something back. Reflections on the development, facilitation and sustainability of the programme are discussed.

The use of fictional literature as "case studies" in psychology education has a potential to support students' learning in various ways. To further the understanding of such applications of fiction, we investigated how clinical psychology students perceived reading fiction as a learning activity. The participants saw benefits for their clinical training, theoretical understanding, and self-awareness. They also saw use of fiction in their education as predominantly beneficial for their learning environment. How the present findings support our understanding of fiction as an educational device is discussed in light of previous studies about the potential of fiction in higher education.

Finding valid and reliable ways to assess complex clinical skills within psychology is a challenge. Recently, there have been some examples of applying Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs) in psychology for making such assessments. The aim of this study was to examine students' and examiners' perceptions of a digital OSCE in psychology regarding quality and students' feelings about the OSCE. Participants were 51 students enrolled in the Programme for Master of Science in Clinical Psychology during two semesters and nine examiners assessing each OSCE occasion, at Umeå University, Sweden. Web-based questionnaires were used for data collection. Psychometric analyses indicated that the subscales in the student questionnaire had adequate or close to adequate levels of item and scale reliability. Both students and examiners felt that the digital OSCE was realistic, valid and well-aligned with professional practice. Although students perceived the digital OSCE as stressful, the results showed that they were focused and concentrated and found the OSCE to be a positive learning experience, implying that the stress did not affect performance to any significant extent. Based on the examiners' experiences, it can be concluded that there are both advantages and disadvantages which need to be considered when planning future digital OSCEs.

The pedagogy underpinning clinical psychology training is often reliant upon the acquisition and transmission of knowledge and the practice of skills. The dominant paradigm in the training of clinical psychologists emphasises competence-based training drawing upon a scientist practitioner model of practice, often underpinned by knowledge of evidence-based interventions. Little has changed over the past 40 years. Training is predicated upon the assumption that effective therapy is attributed to the therapist's skills to implement specific therapeutic processes and her or his capacity to form an effective working alliance with the client or patient. We provide an argument for an alternative paradigm in which ecological principles are privileged with a view to enhancing clinical training of psychologists in health settings responsive to the trainee as well as the broader societal context in which they practice, by adopting a pedagogy which prioritizes the relationship between the person and the environment. The proposed approach brings an ecological set of assumptions to the learning experience in clinical contexts. Key principles, drawn from an ecological perspective includes: affordances, the emergence of self-organisation in clinical learning, constraints and rate limiters. The approach is supported by examples applied to clinical learning contexts. Implications for clinical training are discussed. The ways in which an ecological approach may contribute to more effective learning outcomes through the use of representative learning contexts may inform learning design, how learning is actioned in clinical psychology as well as future research on the pedagogy of clinical training.

In a clinical psychology training context, there is a need to examine students' theoretical knowledge as well as their professional competence. One promising method to assess students' professional competence is the Objective and Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE). In this report, we describe and discuss the implementation of OSCE on a clinical psychology programme at a university in Sweden, including lesson learned regarding the structure and content for this examination. We also report on preliminary results, in which we explored students' perceived competence and worries, and their supervisors' reports regarding their clinical practicum, in relation to a new curriculum that includes more simulation-based elements (including the OSCE) than the old curriculum. Results showed that students on the new curriculum reported lower levels of perceived competence before the clinical practicum, but increased significantly more over time in comparison to students on the old curriculum. These results are discussed in relation to the potential role of OSCE in clinical psychology students' development of professional competence. Due to methodological limitations, these results should be interpreted with caution and should be viewed as exploratory. All in all, this report can be viewed as a guideline for implementation of OSCE on similar programmes in psychology.

Cognitive-behavioral theories offer a long-standing theoretical approach in clinical psychology that has wide-ranging implications for management education. We designed a cognitive-behavioral-based learning transfer tool for executives to enhance their application of leadership skills from professional development programs. We summarize the primary research-based principles underlying this transfer tool for leadership development, provide a template, describe how the tool is used, and offer evidence of executives' reactions to the tool at the beginning and end of a 9-month program.

Music is an experience that can cross personal and professional domains alongside cultural, gender, age and generational boundaries; it can also enhance the learning process through emotional processing and connection. This paper focuses on the learning experience of qualified clinical psychologists (CPs) working in the United Kingdom. This group of CPs had experience of undertaking experiential learning and reflective writing during their professional training. It considers the potential to continue a learning process, 3 years post qualification, through long distance methods using vignette-based material. Empathising with, and understanding, the position of others from differing backgrounds is an important competency within the therapeutic work of CPs and this comes alongside acknowledging and understanding ones? own experiences, both past and present. CPs work with difficult life experiences and complex issues; connecting constantly can be exhausting and, perhaps, unrealistic. Yet, to truly empathise one must connect with, and understand, the lived experiences of others. We will consider what helps and hinders this process, and how music and other creative mediums can be effectively used in learning even via long distance methods. We will further consider how CPs may be well placed to enhance the learning about, and processing of, difficult emotional experiences for themselves, other clinicians and the people they might work with.

Training clinical psychologists to be able to work with those who will use their services in ways that are not 'othering' or stigmatising and that facilitate a safe, compassionate and accepting place from where psychological therapy can be undertaken, is an essential task for trainers. Although simulation training is widely used in some healthcare professions, it is a relatively new method in clinical psychology training. In this article we describe a simulation training exercise as one effective way to achieve the goals described above.

Psychological assessment plays a large part in the practice of psychology. Over the years, steps have been taken towards ensuring ethical and culturally sensitive psychological assessment for underserved populations, but little is known about the current state of the field of assessment of deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) individuals. An exploratory survey of school and clinical psychologists who work with DHH clients (n = 30) was conducted to obtain a snapshot of the state of the field. The current article focuses on sociodemographic characteristics, clinical training, clinical experiences, and language abilities of clinical psychologists who work with DHH clients. Participants averaged 15 years of assessment experience and almost all participants had some type of specialized training in assessing DHH clients. More than half of participants reported their ability to use multiple languages and communication approaches as either excellent or good. Current findings were compared with a similar survey from nearly 50 years ago (Levine, E. S. (1974). Psychological tests and practices with the deaf: A survey of the state of the art. "Volta Review," 76, 298-319), and significant differences were found in participants' self-reported experience with DHH clients, training, and methods of communication.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are a particularly vulnerable group, at an increased risk of mortality from COVID-19 and of poor mental health. Psychologists providing mental health support to people with intellectual disabilities report poorer mental wellbeing and higher occupational stress. Moreover, they raise concerns about the ability of people with intellectual disabilities to engage with digital technologies for mental health support in the context of reduced face-to-face psychological provision. Aims: The study aimed to understand psychologists' experiences of working with people with intellectual disabilities during the pandemic. Materials & Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 psychologists from community intellectual disabilities services. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: Two superordinate themes emerged. Survive or Thrive highlighted the challenges and successes clinical psychologists experienced while working during the pandemic. 'Left to Their Own Devices' described psychologists' experiences of their clients as forgotten within society. Conclusion: The current study demonstrates psychologists' ability to adapt to extremely challenging circumstances, exposes the vulnerabilities of people with intellectual disabilities and highlights the gaps in service provision.

Sanah Ahsan is an award-winning poet and a qualified clinical psychologist. Ahsan has a growing profile in the public conversation about mental health. She is currently building anti-racism as a core competence into clinical psychology training. Her work has been featured by the BBC, Channel 4, Shakespeare's Globe and Southbank's WoW festival. She presented the 'Dispatches' documentary 'Young, British and Depressed'. She has also fronted campaigns for the charity Childline on 'coming out to religious parents' and the therapeutic practice of poetry. Emma Williams spoke to Sanah Ahsan about matters of race, education, the arts, and how she draws on the interconnection between these areas in her own practice and research on mental health.

Anxiety is today increasingly talked about as if it were a condition or illness from which one suffers. This obscures the sense in which it may be said to have a meaning, that meaning being that the self is currently ill-equipped to handle its predicaments. It also obscures the sense in which anxiety's apt 'prevention' and 'treatment' most often come from education rather than from psychological medicine, in particular from those disciplines we style the humanities. This short reflection-prompting piece unpacks the above claims from the perspective of the author's two professions: philosophy and clinical psychology.

This paper describes how training school and clinical psychology graduate students in early childhood mental health consultation (ECMHC) has the potential to fill gaps in the ECMHC workforce, enhance the capacity of early care and education (ECE) providers to effectively support the mental health needs of children and families, and help ECE programs provide equitable services to children and families. We first present the need for explicit ECMHC training in school and clinical psychology doctoral programs, and how didactic coursework and practica could align with national competencies for high-quality ECMHC. We then illustrate how graduate programs might aspire to greater impact by (1) shifting to promotion and prevention, systems- and organizational-based practice orientations, and equity and cultural competence principles; and (2) leveraging ECE programming to infuse ECMHC practice. We conclude with a call to action for graduate programs to address this need for mental health professionals with specialized ECMHC competencies.

Mental health professionals can help patients understand exceptional and paranormal experiences, integrate them into day-to-day life, and cope with confusion and anxiety that sometimes accompany them. However, a broader clinical perspective and specialized training in clinical parapsychology is needed. In the first part of the paper I argue that psychiatry as currently practiced is limited because it embraces a strictly materialist paradigm, emphasizes treatment over prevention, and relies principally on pharmaceuticals that are often ineffective and/or unsafe. A paradigm shift in psychiatry is taking place that will soon lead to novel concepts of energy and innovations in therapeutic approaches. In the second part of the paper I review the ongoing debate over consciousness, implications of novel understandings of energy for psychiatry, and research findings in physics, neuroscience and parapsychology that are contributing to a postmaterialist paradigm in psychiatry. I comment on an important problem in the philosophy of science called Hempel's dilemma and argue that future scientific theories of consciousness will probably encounter similar conceptual limits to those faced by current theories. Following Beauregard, Trent and Schwartz (2018) I argue that different categories of theories may be needed to adequately explain the variety of human experiences and I propose an integral paradigm that acknowledges the validity of both conventional scientific explanations and postmaterialist theories of consciousness. Finally, I discuss implications of postmaterialism for research, education and training in psychiatry.

Despite efforts to boost mental health treatment-seeking behaviors by combat veterans, rates have improved relatively little since 2004. Previous work suggests that trust and confidence in the mental health community may be a significant factor. This study explored how professional titles may impact trust and confidence among active-duty U.S. Army soldiers (n = 32). Consistent with previous research, eight vignettes were used to solicit ordinal (ranked) trust and confidence scores for mental health professionals. Highest confidence and trust were seen in clinical psychologists and licensed professional counselors, followed by psychiatrists, licensed clinical social workers, and marriage and family therapists; however, deviations were seen for each individual vignette and the manifested symptoms depicted. Scores for trust and confidence were strongly correlated and both appear to impact soldiers' treatment-seeking decisions.

Background/Objective: Competency in health professions education when separated from culture is a 'detached mastery' of a discreet skill; there are no values considered, no human behind the understanding. This can result in an uneven understanding, proficiency, and commitment concerning individuals' cultural differences. To increase cultural competency and improve care delivery to veterans, health professional students, participated in an interprofessional education immersion with clinical practicum at a Veteran's Administration primary care clinic. Methods: Fifty-four graduate students from nursing, clinical psychology, pharmacy and social work participated in an interprofessional education course on military culture. Students' knowledge and attitudes concerning veterans were evaluated at the start and end of the 8-week immersion course. Results: In both the Knowledge Assessment, a 10-item survey covering the core aspects of the course content, and Health Professionals' Attitudes Toward Veterans Scale, student knowledge and attitudes improved relating to veterans care. Conclusions: Veterans seeking care in veterans' and civilian facilities require a culturally competent health professional workforce. Interprofessional education coursework specifically focused on veterans and military culture has shown promise in increasing knowledge and compassion in health professional students working with veteran patients.

Problem-Based learning (PBL) is a widely used teaching method in UK Clinical Psychology training. This study considers the experience of using PBL as part of the University of Bath's Doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Questionnaire and focus group analyses suggest PBL was predominantly experienced as useful by trainees when completed during the first year of clinical training, especially in terms of skill development around leadership and team working; which was maintained at two-year follow-up when the same cohort of trainees completed an adapted version of the questionnaire during their third year of training. Trainees suggested some difficulties with PBL (e.g. anxieties concerning the lack of a teacher) and suggested improvements (e.g. to timetabling and the case vignette), which have helped sculpt new PBL teaching for subsequent trainees. This study has its limitations, and future research is recommended to further evaluate the use of PBL within clinical psychology training courses nationally.

Clinical and counseling psychology doctoral programs are popular avenues for graduate education. However, little is known about the mental health and financial stress of students across the differing types of programs. We conducted as online survey of current doctoral students in APA-accredited psychology doctoral programs (n = 114 Clinical PhD, n = 80 Counseling PhD, n = 123 PsyD). We also utilized a control (n = 5,401 undergraduate psychology/social science majors). Results indicated that students in all doctoral programs had lower depression scores compared to undergraduates. Clinical PhD students demonstrated the best outcomes, though not significantly better from other doctoral programs. Undergraduates demonstrated significantly less financial stress compared to counseling PhD and PsyD students, but not clinical PhD students. Large differences were observed regarding anticipated debt-at-graduation, with PsyD students reporting the highest anticipated debt. Areas for further research, limitations, and policy implications are discussed.

Background: Many students report negative attitudes toward research methods and statistics (RMS), and these attitudes are associated with impaired performance. Student interest in clinical psychology suggests that clinical courses may provide a promising venue for integrating RMS instruction. This approach may be particularly valuable for students from underrepresented groups in psychology. Objective: We evaluated whether integrating core RMS concepts into undergraduate clinical psychology courses using a blended learning intervention improved students' quantitative knowledge and attitudes. Exploratory analyses assessed whether the intervention had differential efficacy for students from underrepresented groups. Method: Students completed pre- and post-course assessments of content knowledge, perceived RMS competence, implicit theories of quantitative skills, and statistics anxiety. We compared changes in student outcomes before (n = 101) and after (n = 91) implementing the blended learning intervention. Results: Overall, the intervention did not result in greater improvements in content knowledge, perceived RMS competence, or statistics anxiety. However, exploratory analyses suggested that the intervention was more effective for first-generation and racial/ethnic minority students. Change in endorsement of a growth-oriented mindset for quantitative skills was marginally stronger among students in courses implementing the blended learning intervention. Conclusion: These findings suggest that integrating RMS content in clinical psychology courses may confer modest benefits for students' knowledge and attitudes toward quantitative skills, especially among students from underrepresented groups.

Background: This study looked to investigate the sometimes conscious and sometimes intuitive decision-making processes of Intensive Interaction practitioners. More specifically, this study set out to develop a rich description of how practitioners make judgements when developing a dynamic repertoire of Intensive Interaction strategies with people with severe or profound learning difficulties and/or autism, how this decision-making process is enacted in practice and what issues inform such decisions. Materials and Methods: This research followed a "Template Analysis" qualitative methodology, informed by semi-structured interviews with 13 experienced Intensive Interaction Practitioners (who had completed the Intensive Interaction Coordinators course as administered by the Intensive Interaction Institute). The participants included the following: speech and language therapists, parents, teachers, residential care staff and managers, and a clinical psychologist. Results: The findings of this study indicate why and how certain decisions are made by experienced practitioners before, during and after engagement in Intensive Interaction. Such decision-making is indicated as sometimes being intuitive in nature, sometimes more conscious, sometimes moving between the two cognitive states as differing issues arise. Practitioner decision-making was focused on a number of issues, including specific learning or care "agendas"; practitioner confidence and knowledge; environmental considerations; individual learner characteristics and behaviour; learner attention, "attunement" and arousal levels; building a shared "repertoire"; and issues of available time. Conclusions: The issue of how novice Intensive Interaction practitioners may best be supported to more quickly and confidently develop improved Intensive Interaction practices is discussed, proposing the development of a cyclical process of experiential learning and supported reflection.