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By Christy Denckla, M.A.

Derner graduates are early career psychologists who enter the job market with a rich background in psychological and personality assessment. This is an area of expertise that the APA has recently acknowledged as a specialty, which exceeds general training in assessment because it formally recognized personality assessment as a proficiency in 2010. This means that personality assessment is now identified as a professional specialty defined by a core set of psychological knowledge and skills, much like neuropsychological or forensic assessment.

As students, we can be aware that the path to proficiency begins in our graduate training with our formal coursework and practicum experiences. We continue to develop the skills that will leave us eligible to apply for proficiency during internship and postdoctoraltraining. Among the core skills expected to demonstrateÌýproficiency include the ability to integrate assessment dataÌýfrom three different domains (self-report, clinicalÌýinterview, and performance-based data).

The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA)Ìýhas taken a leadership role in developing the applicationÌýprocess and standards for proficiency. According to Dr.ÌýMark Blais, Chair of the Proficiency Committee at SPA,Ìýthe most important thing that students should knowÌýabout the proficiency process is that we should track allÌýtesting hours acquired during our graduate training toÌýinclude our coursework, tests administered, the type ofÌýtest, client characteristics, and who our supervisor was.ÌýFor those students interested in ultimately applying forÌýproficiency in personality assessment, the path beginsÌýright now! If you would like to learn more, please refer to Dr. Blais’s column in the , SPA’s biannual newsletter.ÌýAlso, the Graduate Student Association of SPA (SPAGS)Ìýwill be an ongoing resource for students.