Teaching WAIS-R Administration Skills: Comparison of the MASTERY Model to Other Existing Clinical Training Modalities

The final report from the American Psychological Association Task Force on Evaluation of Education, Training, and Service in Psychology (1983) strongly attests to the fact that the best hope for clinical psychology to overcome current legal and economic challenges may lie in the profession's ability to fortify itself with more objective competency-based training and evaluation procedures. The MASTERY model, a competency-based training paradigm, was used in this investigation to bring 20 graduate students in clinical psychology to criterion level for competent administration of the revised edition of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-R). This model was then compared to some existing training models, employed by internship settings, in terms of training effects, cost, and verification. In all comparisons, significant and important differences favored the competency-based approach. The practical and research implications of the MASTERY training model for clinical psychology are discussed.