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PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN
Abstract
The professional socialization of twenty-seven graduate students in clinical psychology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was studied using a cross-sectional design. Professional values were measured with a Q-set designed to capture attitudes about successful and unsuccessful clinical functioning held by the professional reference groups available to graduate students in UNL. The professors of clinical psychology at UNL sorted the Q-set to portray a prototypical good beginner and a good recent graduate of this training program. Students provided Q-sorted descriptions of these prototypes and of themselves. Students in their twenties were more concerned about professional commitment than older students. Older students were more concerned about self-confidence than students in their twenties. There was a nonsignificant trend for students in their twenties to form more mentor relationships with faculty than older students. Simpson's (1967) stage model of professional socialization was used to predict growing similarity of students' professional values to the faculty's. Nonsignificant trends did occur for students' descriptions of a good graduate to be more like the faculty's in the second stage of training. Students in the first stage of training described themselves more as beginners than as good graduates. They tended to be more like faculty and agreed better among themselves on what constituted a good beginner. The self-concepts of students in the second stage of training tended to be more professional. While a stage model of professional socialization was appropriate for this setting, the structure of attitudes was more complex than Simpson's model anticipated. Students and faculty agreed on the content of highly salient professional values. Moral character and mental health were paramount concensual concerns of all students and faculty in both prototypes. The socialization theme expressed in the faculty's shift from beginner prototype to graduate prototype was increased awareness of self and others. This theme was captured in advanced students' descriptions, but not in those of first stage students.
Subject Area
Psychotherapy|Higher education
Recommended Citation
KNOWLTON, E. KATHERINE, "PROFESSIONAL SOCIALIZATION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA LINCOLN" (1985). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI8521457.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI8521457