Wicks, Christine I. (2022) Help or Hinderance? Student Experience of a Master Program and the Transition from Student to Professional. Honours thesis, University of Southern Queensland. (Unpublished)
Abstract
Australia’s recent mental health crisis has exacerbated the need for more psychologists to address the long wait times and chronic staff shortages in hospitals, schools, and clinics. Higher education has never been under more pressure to train psychologists to address the rising demand. Although extensive study has been conducted on the transition from student to professional for some trainee health professionals, there is limited research on the experience of psychologists. Although research indicates provisional psychologists experience significant anxiety and stress, little is known about their perceptions and attitudes toward the training they receive as they move through the higher education pathway to becoming generally registered psychologists. The current study addressed this gap in the literature by exploring first-year postgraduate psychology students’ perspectives on what aspects of their Master training helped or hindered their adjustment to becoming provisional psychologists. Nine University of Southern Queensland (UniSQ) Clinical Master of Psychology students participated in semi-structured interviews. The data collected were analysed for common themes expressed by participants. Elements of the program that students found helpful in transitioning from student to practitioner centred on the value of working with real clients, undertaking relevant learning, participating in an innovative program structure, and gaining high quality supervision. Aspects of the program students found hindered their adjustment process centred on unrelenting requirements, assessment expectations, lack of preparation and poor quality supervision.
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| Item Type: | Thesis (Non-Research) (Honours) |
|---|---|
| Item Status: | Live Archive |
| Additional Information: | Current UniSQ staff and students can request access to this thesis. Please email research.repository@unisq.edu.au with a subject line of SEAR thesis request and provide: Name of the thesis requested and Your name and UniSQ email address |
| Faculty/School / Institute/Centre: | Current – Faculty of Health, Engineering and Sciences - School of Psychology and Wellbeing (1 Jan 2022 -) |
| Supervisors: | Samantha Brown |
| Qualification: | Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Aug 2025 03:32 |
| Last Modified: | 06 Aug 2025 03:32 |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | provisional psychologist; thematic exploratory research; higher education program; transition |
| Fields of Research (2008): | 17 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 1799 Other Psychology and Cognitive Sciences > 179999 Psychology and Cognitive Sciences not elsewhere classified |
| Fields of Research (2020): | 52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5299 Other psychology > 529999 Other psychology not elsewhere classified |
| URI: | https://sear.unisq.edu.au/id/eprint/52878 |
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