Application of a Competency Model to Clinical Neuropsychology

Professional competencies in psychology have received significant attention as education and training standards have been increasingly framed in the context of behavioral, knowledge-based, and attitudinal learning outcomes. We first review the development of the specialty of clinical neuropsychology and describe the establishment of educational and training guidelines in the specialty, including their most recent update (Hannay et al., 1998). Competency initiatives in professional psychology over the last decade are then summarized. Specialties in professional psychology have delineated education and training guidelines and are beginning to incorporate competency-based approaches to describe advanced and specialized abilities that build on generic, core, foundational and functional psychology knowledge, skills, and attitudes. Following the model of France et al., (2008), we apply the Assessment of Competency Benchmarks framework to describe specific competencies required for specialty practice in clinical neuropsychology.