Section 2 -- Employment Characteristics

Table 2, Figure 1, and Figure 2 illustrate the employment characteristics of psychologists within medical school settings. Seventy-four percent of the medical school psychologists indicated having a full-time academic appointment, compared to 20% whose appointment was part time. The majority of these psychologists (85%) operated on an 11-12-month academic year; only 1% indicated working on a 9-10-month basis. This latter trend is in contrast to traditional academic settings in which the majority of faculty operate on a 9-10-month academic year (Wicherski, Williams, and Kohout, 1998).

The rank and tenure of psychologists within medical school settings differ markedly from that of psychologists in traditional academic settings. In their primary academic setting, assistant professors represented the largest percentage of medical school faculty (34%), followed by associate professors (26%), and then full professors (22%). About 6% of the faculty identified themselves as lecturers. A reverse trend is evidenced in traditional academic settings where full professors comprise the majority of faculty (48%), followed by associate professors (29%), and then assistant professors (22%) (Wicherski, Williams, and Kohout, 1998). In terms of tenure status, 40% of medical school psychologists are not on a tenure track. Twenty-three percent of these psychologists reported having tenure, and a little under 15% are currently on a tenure track. Thirteen percent of these psychologists are employed in an institution in which the tenure system is not used and approximately 6% do not have an academic appointment in their primary medical school/health center. Conversely, in traditional academic settings, tenure is still the norm with 70% tenured faculty and 25% of the faculty on a tenure track, and only 6% not on a tenure track (Gehlmann, Wicherski, Kohout, 1995).

Overall, these psychologists have spent a median of 8 years in their current employment positions.

Table 2: Employment Characteristics of Medical School Psychologists by Department Type

Figure 1: Academic Rank of Medical School Psychologists

Figure 2: Tenure Status of Medical School Psychologists

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