Abstract
For many years, students applying for doctoral internships have been required to answer questions regarding professional conduct when they complete the Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers Application for Psychology Internships, commonly referred to as the AAPI (Association of Psychology Postdoctoral and Internship Centers [APPIC], 2021a). Students often express concern that affirmative responses to these questions will impact the success of their application. The purpose of the present study was to examine how internship training directors (TDs) distinguish various problems of professional competence and how they perceive disclosures of remediation and professional conduct issues when considering applicants for interview and ranking. Surveys were sent to TDs at APA-accredited sites and resulted in a 19% response rate (N = 122). We asked TDs whether they would interview applicants who answered affirmatively to conduct questions and how important certain criteria were to their decision making. We also examined their perceptions regarding how doctoral programs should handle various types of competency concerns (i.e., handle informally, remediate, or something more than remediation such as probation). Participants indicated that affirmative answers to professional conduct questions on the AAPI would not typically exclude applicants from consideration for an internship. There was no agreement on whether professional conduct questions, which address probation, suspension, termination, and discipline, require formal remediation. One implication of this finding is that students in the same situation could be labeled and advised differently with varying outcomes. Other implications and recommendations for the field, academic programs, internships, and students are discussed.