BACKGROUND

The 1997 Medical School Psychologists Employment Survey is a collaborative effort between the American Psychological Association's (APA) Research Office and the Association of Medical School Psychologists' (AMSP) Executive Committee. This survey represents the first effort by the APA to collect national-level employment and salary data on psychological personnel who are employed within medical school settings. Although previous literature has examined employment characteristics of this group (e.g., Nathan, Lubin, and Matarazzo, 1981; Nathan, Lubin, Matarazzo, and Persely, 1979), there has not been recent literature of this nature. Even though the APA Research Office has examined this population in other reports (e.g., Williams, Wicherski, and Kohout, 1998), these reports have focused only on salaries and have made only brief mention of medical school psychologists. This undertaking was prompted by the paucity of recent research on psychologists in medical school settings, along with the continuing changes and cutbacks that medical schools are experiencing in this era of managed care. Given that psychologists are a relatively small group of professionals in medical school settings, it was deemed essential to identify these psychologists, provide descriptive employment and salary characteristics in several domains, and begin to explore how they have been impacted by recent changes in the health care system.

In March, 1997, the survey was mailed to 4,958 psychologists who were employed in medical school and allied health settings. These psychologists were identified from membership lists of the APA, Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and the Council of Deans of the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine. All psychologists were doctoral-level, with varying licensure status, degree types (Ph.D., Psy.D., Joint MD/Ph.D.), and specialty areas (clinical psychology, neuropsychology, experimental psychology). The survey was not anonymous so that nonrespondents could be tracked. Postcard reminders were mailed in April, 1997 and a second survey and reminder letter were mailed in May, 1997 as a final attempt to contact non-respondents. As a result of membership with more than one association, some psychologists were inadvertently mailed duplicate surveys. Their surveys were identified and then de-duped to yield a final pool of 3,894 psychologists who actually were sent surveys.

The eight-page survey comprised six sections (see Appendix A): (1) Information About Appointments, (2) Characteristics of Department and School, (3) Employment Activities, (4) Salary Information, (5) Demographic Information, and (6) Experiences. The survey, which was in a scannable format, contained mostly closed-ended questions/items. A select few questions allowed for more detailed, open-ended responses. Respondents were provided postage-paid envelopes to return their surveys.

STRUCTURE OF REPORT

The report is divided into six main sections:

The first section, Demographic Characteristics, provides information about the sex, race/ethnicity, and years of experience of responding psychologists in medical school settings. The next section, Employment Characteristics, details the appointment status (full time or part time), academic calendar (9-10 months or 11-12 months), rank, tenure status, and number of years spent in current position. Section 3, Characteristics of Employer and Institutions/Departments, offers information about the types of departments in which psychologists are employed, and whether these departments have a separate psychology administrative unit and a chief psychologist. Fourth, Activities, Privileges, and Benefits focuses on the numerous roles that psychologists have within their respective primary departments, as well as in other external departments/institutions. These roles include providing clinical service, research, administration, and training. This section further discusses the privileges afforded to and restrictions imposed on those psychologists who are members of the medical staff. Finally, this section examines whether or not medical school psychologists receive the benefit of employer-paid malpractice insurance. The remaining two sections of this report concentrate on earnings. Section 5 focuses on the factors that influence earnings such as "soft money" income arrangements, supplemental income, overhead rates, and managed care. The largest section in this report, Section 6, illustrates earned income of psychologists in medical school settings. In this section, salaries are broken down by department type, academic rank, years since doctoral degree, geographic region, and sex. Salaries for non-tenured faculty also are provided in this section.

Each section begins with a brief summary, followed by its respective tables and figures.

RESPONSE RATES

A total of 1,938 useable surveys were returned, yielding a response rate of 50%. This response rate is far below the 60-70% response rates typically obtained with other surveys conducted by the APA Research Office. Surveys were excluded from analyses if the respondent provided incomplete data on pertinent variables.

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