No. OBCP specialists come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. Our board is composed of members with degrees in counseling, clinical psychology, and industrial-organizational (IO) psychology.
Yes, but not exclusively. Our specialists are engaged in organizational, leadership, and consulting practice across a wide range of professional settings. They work in the private sector, private practice, public sector, government, military, and education to deliver science-based assessment, evaluation, and strategies that improve workplace performance.
Common activities include:
- Test development
- Organizational surveys
- Personnel assessment and selection
- Performance appraisals
- Training and development
- Leadership and executive coaching
- Organizational development
- Military and national security psychology
- Managerial psychology
In addition to reviewing the Specialty Definition and Examinee Manual available on this website, the most important consideration is how you spend the majority of your professional time. Many psychologists who apply for this specialty certification find that their work has evolved from providing psychotherapy or healthcare services to primarily addressing issues such as individual job fit and effectiveness, team performance, and organizational success.
This work may focus on assessing and developing work skills and attitudes, providing job training, enhancing productive behavior in teams, or identifying the causes of organizational dysfunction and creating solutions to address them. In some cases, a specialist may serve as a manager or director responsible for leading a department or entire organization. These psychologists typically have greater responsibility for organizational management, strategic vision, and employee performance than would be expected of a clinical supervisor or mentor.
As described above, many ABOBCP members gradually become involved in consulting after completing graduate studies in another psychology specialty. They often develop expertise in the concepts and practices of leadership, organizations, and consulting through independent reading, conferences and training programs, peer coaching, and membership in local or national associations such as the Society for Consulting Psychology (APA Division 13) or the Society of Psychologists in Leadership (SPIL). We take these varied career paths into account during the application and examination processes. Our primary concern as a board is that practitioners provide thoughtful, appropriate consulting grounded in sound principles.
Psychologists who have been involved in consulting for more than 15 years may qualify for examination under this model. This option allows candidates to choose one professional area of practice rather than two, recognizing that they may have developed substantial expertise within a narrower scope than someone earlier in their career.
An examination committee relies on the practice samples provided by a candidate to understand the nature of the candidate’s work and how they approach it. We request detailed but anonymous examples of the candidate’s typical work that illustrate the types of consulting issues they encounter, their approach to determining appropriate actions, and the professional foundations underlying the decisions they make and the techniques they use. Committee members review the samples in depth and discuss each one with the candidate to ensure they fully understand how the psychologist provides consultation. As with other ABPP specialties, the final examination outcome is reported as pass/fail rather than through another form of grading or ranking.