Undergraduate internship supervision in psychology departments: Use of experiential learning best practices

Abstract

This study examined trends in how psychology internships are supervised compared to current experiential learning best practices in the literature. We sent a brief online survey to relevant contact persons for colleges/universities with psychology departments throughout the United States (n=149 responded). Overall, the majority of institutions offered academic credit for internships through letter grading and had one faculty member supervising all psychology interns. The top three academic requirements for internship courses included: completing a reflection paper; completing a work diary; and individual meetings with the faculty supervisor. Although these practices promote experiential learning, one opportunity for improvement is promoting students’ professional development. Psychology departments can use these findings to inform their institution’s internship course design.