Disability in psychology training: Where are we?

Erin E. Andrews, Emily M. Lund

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Scopus citations

Abstract

Despite the high prevalence of disability in the United States, there is a current lack of comprehensive data about the number and characteristics of disabled psychologists and psychology trainees. This is problematic, as the development of cultural competence with individuals with disabilities is important for working with consumers, and because the presence of disability contributes to diversity in training programs and to the field of psychology. This study was undertaken to explore the prevalence of psychologists and trainees with disabilities across different time periods and throughout the educational and professional pipeline. Publicly available data from the American Psychological Association (APA) Commission on Accreditation, the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers, and the APA Center for Workforce Studies were reviewed. Results demonstrated that people with disabilities have not been consistently included in measurement of the prevalence of diverse groups in psychology. The ways researchers query disability, and the lack of a clear definition of disability, likely have contributed to inaccuracy in data collection of the numbers of disabled psychologists and trainees. Regardless of the data source, people with disabilities appear to be underrepresented in psychology, and likely within higher education and professional careers in general. However, given the trend of increased presence among other diverse groups in psychology, the lack of similar growth of disabled professionals and trainees is concerning, and may represent one of the most marginalized groups in the field.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)210-216
Number of pages7
JournalTraining and Education in Professional Psychology
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 American Psychological Association.

Keywords

  • Disability
  • Diversity
  • Prevalence
  • Psychologists with disabilities
  • Psychology trainee

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Disability in psychology training: Where are we?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this