The Portable Mentor: Expert Guide to a Successful Career in Psychology

All students know that you don't learn everything in the classroom, and that having a mentor can be an invaluable help in negotiating career challenges and pitfalls. But not even a mentor can have all of the answers all the time. The Portable Mentor was designed to combine the wisdom of a wide range of noted psychology experts whose knowledge and training experience provide you with the guidance you need. Based on the real-life concerns of students and beginning professionals, this volume will take you from graduate school to career development and beyond. Comprehensive in scope, but practical to use, The Portable Mentor offers the best possible professional development training from the most successful leaders in psychology. The book is divided into five sections that thoroughly cover issues relevant to each stage of early career development and that explore in depth research, practice and personal growth. This volume will answer many questions including how to: ? -write a grant; -teach a class; -publish a research manuscript; -apply for a postdoctoral fellowship; -start a thriving clinical practice; -and more...

Table of Contents:
I. Beginning Your Career.- 1. Taking the Scientific Path: A Road Map for Applied Psychology Students.- 2. Cultural Sensitivity and Cultural Competence.- 3. Developing and Practicing Ethics.- 4. Balancing Career and Family.- II. Your Research/Academic Career.- 5. Writing a Literature Review.- 6. Presenting Your Research.- 7. Publishing Your Research.- 8. Recommendations for Teaching Psychology.- 9. Proposing and Completing Your Dissertation.- III. Your Career as a Practitioner.- 10. Gaining Clinical Experience In and After Graduate School.- 11. Training to Begin a Private Practice.- 12. Navigating the Internship Application Process.- 13. Predoctoral Internship: The APPIC Computer Match.- 14. Obtaining a License to Practice Psychology.- 15. Specialty Certification in Professional Psychology.- 16. Becoming a Clinical Supervisor.- IV. Your Professional Service Career.- 17. Getting Involved in Professional Organizations: A Gateway to Career Advancement.- 18. Advocating for Student Advocacy.- 19. Public Education of Psychology: An Interview with Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D.- 20. Strategies for Successful Interactions with the News Media.- V. Your Career After Graduate School.- 21. Recommendations for a Postdoctoral Fellowship.- 22. Applying for NIH Grants.- 23. The Job Search.- 24. Contemporary Employment in Psychology and Future Trends.

About the Author :
Mitchell J. Prinstein, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, previously Associate Professor and Director of Clinical Training in the Department of Psychology at Yale University and an Adjunct Assistant Professor (Research) at Brown Medical School. The emphasis of Dr. Prinstein's published work in developmental psychopathology examines interpersonal models of internalizing symptoms and health risk behaviors. His research has been funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health and several private foundations. Apart from his research, Dr. Prinstein has had a long-standing interest in the professional development of psychologists, beginning with his development of a survival guide in graduate school that served as a conceptual blueprint for this volume. As the elected Chair of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students, Dr. Prinstein has had numerous opportunities to represent graduate student training interests to governance groups in psychology internationally, such as the Psychology Executives Roundtable, APPIC, the APA Board of Educational Affairs, and APA Council of Representatives. Dr. Prinstein was the first student representative to serve as a member of the APA Board of Directors, and he is currently the Chair of the APA ad hoc Committee on Early Career Psychologists. He created and currently is the instructor of a Professional Development Workshop Series offered to doctoral students in psychology at Yale University. Marcus D. Patterson is currently a doctoral (Ph.D.) candidate at Boston University and an Adjunct Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Boston. As a student, Mr. Patterson was a member of the APA Committee on Accreditation and a member of the international Psychology Executives Roundtable. He served on the APA Advocacy Coordinating Team from 1996-1998, and has been an invited attendee at the State Leadership Conference for over five years. Mr. Patterson has also served as a liason to the APA Council of Representatives, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB), the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP), the Presidential Commission on Education and Training Leading to Licensure and on the APA Education Leadership Conference. He received the President's award for contribution and service to the profession of psychology from the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students (NAGPS) in 1998. He was the 1997-98 Rosenblum Fellow in Political Advocacy for the Massachusetts Psychological Association (MPA) and founded the MPA Doctoral Student Group. He was Chair of the American Psychological Association's Graduate Students (APAGS) from 2000-2001 and continues to serve on the APAGS executive committee. Mr. Patterson has written a number of articles and given numbers presentations on training issues impacting students.

Review :
"What a great idea for a book! Edited by two former chairs of the American Psychological Association of Graduate Students (APAGS), this book covers, in a comprehensive fashion, everything about graduate school and career planning a psychologist in training usually learns by word-of-mouth! It's about time someone compiled this crucial information. Whether one is headed for a research or a clinical career, all of the practical steps to get there are included. And, "The Portable Mentor" is an apt description. Every graduate student and young professional will want to have this book readily available." (David H. Barlow, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Research Professor of Psychiatry, Director of Clinical Programs, and Director of the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders at Boston University) "Prinstein and Patterson have recruited a veritable who's who of psychology to provide us a well-written, scholarly, and comprehensive guide to a successful career in psychology. The volume is filled with critical commentary and issues confronting clinical psychology and with practical and well-reasoned advice on how to negotiate many of the muddy and troubled waters that characterize our field of study in the new millennium. I wish I'd had such a book in my "back pocket" upon my graduation some years ago!" (Thomas H. Ollendick, Ph.D., University Distinguished Professor, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University) "In diverse chapters by active and leading experts, "The Portable Mentor" provides insightful commentaries and bullet-lists of ideas to facilitate early career advancement in psychology. Want to review a research literature, arrange a positive teaching experience, navigate a dissertation? Or perhaps your questions concern practica, internship, licensure, private practice, or board certification or ethics, or being active in service organizations, or even balancing a career and a family. For any and all, and more, "The Portable Mentor" provides pathways to a productive early career. And for those already into their career, advice on how to be a good mentor to our future. Indeed, for psychologists at countless points in their careers, "The Portable Mentor" is a very worthwhile read." (Philip C. Kendall, Ph.D., ABPP, Laura H. Carnell Professor of Psychology, Temple University)