GRADUATE TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT EXPERIENCES OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGISTS

We surveyed the graduate training and employment experiences of 177 current students and 152 recent graduates from 39 psychology programs. Of interest were differences among applied social, community and community-clinical programs. Results suggested that these training programs represented a continuum of research, community, and clinical interests. Applied social and community programs had a stronger community and research emphasis, whereas community-clinical programs had a stronger orientation toward clinical skills. Similarly, the job skills used by recent graduates suggested that persons from applied social programs went into administrative and organizational consulting jobs, graduates of community-clinical programs were employed in areas demanding more human services skills, and community graduates found jobs requiring the use of research skills.