The Implications of Doctoral Students’ Professional Socialization Experiences in Graduate Training

Using survey data from 278 counseling psychology doctoral students, we explored the concept of professional socialization in graduate training and investigated the degree to which a combination of student training factors accounted for (a) greater professional involvement in the Society of Counseling Psychology, (b) endorsement of counseling psychology values, and (c) affiliation with the Society. Results revealed that training programs fostered students’ professional connection to the field by providing faculty models, emphasizing counseling psychology identity, and encouraging student involvement in the Society. Together, these three professional socialization variables accounted for students’ professional activity, counseling psychology values, and Society membership status above and beyond years of enrollment, degree at admission, and membership status in other professional organizations. Implications regarding the influence of early professional socialization in graduate training within the context of establishing a long-term professional pipeline for the Society are discussed.

Early Career Psychologists

The findings from the Smith et al. (2012) survey of early career psychologists (ECPs) who are members of the Society of Counseling Psychology (SCP) provide a snapshot of the current state of affairs for ECPs in the SCP as well as recommendations about how the SCP can better meet the professional needs of ECPs. Ideally, the implementation of these recommendations will result in more ECPs joining the SCP and finding their membership to be a beneficial part of their professional lives. Capturing the interest and involvement of ECPs into the SCP needs to be an ongoing priority requiring focused attention and effort by SCP leadership. Who are the next generation of counseling psychologists? How are they fundamentally different from prior generations of counseling psychologists? And how have cohort and external environmental changes helped or hindered ECPs’ involvement in professional organizations? Finding the answers to these questions is necessary to guarantee that the Society changes in ways that make it professionally relevant for future generations of counseling psychologists.