Professional Skills for Applied Psychology
摘要
This final chapter focuses on the practical aspects of being a forensic psychologist and considers some key professional skills for this specific area of applied psychology. When reading this chapter, it is important to note that although we present this information through a UK perspective, much of the information is applicable worldwide. Nevertheless, we urge our international readers to explore how information might differ in their home countries, as well as whether any information offered here would benefit from a cultural lens. We will start off by introducing you to how psychologists are trained and why it matters that you understand what training to be a psychologist in the UK involves. We will also introduce you to how psychology is regulated in the UK and what this means in relation to psychological training. In doing this, we will consider the roles of both the British Psychological Society (BPS) and the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and the requirements to become both a BPS Chartered and an HCPC Registered Forensic Psychologist. We will then move on to discuss professional skills by looking at the scientist-practitioner perspective, evidence-based practice, and assessment and formulation, before considering the benefits of reflective practice. We end the chapter by looking at ethical guidelines and how these might relate to your personal values, which neatly brings us back to the roles of the BPS and HCPC in terms of training and regulation. There are three activities for you to complete throughout the chapter. Completing these will help to bring the theory and discussion to life, and to personalise the content for your current and future roles. We hope this chapter and associated activities will help prepare you for the real-world challenges you might face as both a student and a practitioner of forensic psychology.