Postdoctoral internships: Potential adverse impacts on internships, dissertations, and trainees

Increased consideration of transforming the predoctoral psychology internsh ip into a postdoctoral training experience has resulted from changes in the training and reimbursement for psychology trainees, concerns about employm ent of recent graduates, and the perceived limited status of psychology int erns within health care settings. Whether this fundamental shift in psychol ogy's training paradigm could resolve any of the problems that have led to its deliberation is not known. The authors identify problems with a postdoc toral internship which may be as thorny as the problems it is intended to a meliorate. It may have unintended adverse effects (e.g., risk of reduced qu ality in training and dissertations, new pressures on internship programs a nd trainees, increased licensure quandaries). Until a highly detailed propo sal is developed and its full range of potential consequences are analyzed and debated, it is premature for professional organizations to conclude whe ther such fundamental change should be pursued.