As a profession we are committed to maintaining and enhancing our competence as psychologists in order to most effectively serve the public throughout our careers. While this is a widely shared commitment among psychologists, there is considerably less consensus regarding how best to accomplish this goal. This dilemma is examined from the ethical, educational and legal perspectives. The American Psychological Association (APA) Ethics Code clearly articulates that competence is an ethical duty, although there is little guidance provided in the code as to how to meet this standard. As a profession we have tended to focus on the construct of life-long learning and we have incorporated this principle into our education and training standards. In fact, APA accreditation requires that doctoral programs inculcate this value into our foundational training. The majority of Psychology Licensing Boards have addressed this issue through the endorsement of mandatory continuing education requirements that primarily focus on hours and the content or structure of approved programs. Potential limitations to our ability to effectively self-assess our professional training needs are discussed and several innovative models are ERICA H. WISE received her PhD in clinical psychology from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and completed her internship in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a clinical associate professor and directs the training clinic in the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is a former chair of the APA Ethics Committee and the North Carolina Psychology Board. Her professional interests include ethical and legal issues in professional practice and clinical training. CYNTHIA A. STURM received her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of Montana. She maintains a private practice in Portland, Oregon, treating adults and couples. Her areas of professional interest include ethics, continuing professional education, and the development and implementation of APA practice guidelines. ROBERTA L. NUTT received her PhD in counseling psychology from the University of Maryland. She is the director of training of the Counseling Psychology Program at the University of Houston. Her areas of professional interest and scholarship include training issues, gender issues, feminist practice, ethics, family psychology, and licensure and credentialing. EMIL RODOLFA received his PhD from Texas A&M University. He is the director of Counseling and Psychological Services at the University of California, Davis. Currently he serves as the Past-President of the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) and is a member of the State of California Board of Psychology. His interests include legal and ethical practice and supervision and training. JACK B. SCHAFFER received his PhD from the University of North Dakota in 1977. He has a diplomate from the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP) in clinical psycholog...

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Continuing professional education in ethics for psychologists is becoming more common, as psychology licensing boards in 14 states now require continuing education in ethics as a condition of licensure renewal. This article suggests ways to improve the quality of ethics continuing education by diversifying the content and teaching methods.

The American Psychological Association recently revised its "Record Keeping Guidelines" (APA, 2007) in order to help psychologists determine the most up-to-date and appropriate methods for developing, maintaining, protecting, disclosing, and disposing of clinical documentation. The revised RKG are expanded in scope, critically different from their prior iteration, and subject to variable interpretation as a result of the complex array of record keeping options they identify. Psychologists who chaired the APA's Committee on Professional Practice and Standards (COPPS) during the development of the revised RKG discuss the specific relevance of these guidelines for clinicians providing psychotherapy and assessment services. The authors explore the interrelation of the revised RKG with the mandatory guidance of the APA's "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct" (APA, 2002) and with the requirements of state and federal law, including the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA, 1996). These substantial ethical and legal correlates underscore the critical importance of managing clinical documentation carefully in an era of evolving technologies.

Client acceptability of treatment procedures has recently become a significant concern in the assessment of psychotherapeutic effectiveness (Kazdin, French & Sherick, 1981; Wolf, 1978). Formally, acceptability refers to the fairness, appropriateness and intrusiveness of the treatment procedure as judged by clients, lay persons and nonprofessionals (Kazdin, 1980a). Unfortunately, marital and family therapists have yet to utilize this criterion in an evaluation of their psychotherapeutic interventions. Consequently, the purpose of the present investigation was to examine the acceptability of four differing therapeutic models (psychoanalytic, behavioral, systems and eclectic) used in the treatment of marital discord.