But what's your stance...that the stress interviews are good? So they can 'weed out' the applicants who might be dealing with psychological issues themselves? Not sure if you're saying they are a good thing or not 😛 Because you also seem to say that, even if the psychologist has a mental illness, they can still be competent/effective in their job. Or are you saying the Ph.D.s giving the interview are the mentally ill ones?
Ah, sorry about that. I was trying to give people another view of the issue, without pointing fingers at specific situations that have been described here. I guess I was being a bit *too* obscure...
😳
I don't think that one can draw any general conclusions about psychologists with mental health diagnoses; some are marvelous at their jobs, others are a disaster. It depends on the specific diagnosis, and on how that individual has dealt with it. For instance, one of my mentors has a mental health diagnosis, and he is one of the wisest and most perceptive clinicians you'll ever meet. On the other hand, a psychologist with, say, an out-of-control Axis 2 diagnosis, or who hasn't accepted and adequately dealt with any diagnosis, is fairly unlikely to be competent/effective.
No one is perfect, and that includes psychologists. An effective psychologist isn't someone who shows clients the path to perfection from a flawless position of their own. An effective psychologist is someone who shows clients how to cope with their issues, and sometimes an important part of that psychologist's development comes from the experience of having walked those same rocky paths themselves.
To answer your other questions... I haven't had any experiences with stress interviews, but they sound fairly pointless to me. (For whatever my opinion is worth.
😀) Applying to a PhD/PsyD program in clinical/counseling/school psychology is stressful enough as it is; one need only read the threads here to see that most applicants are reduced to a bundle of nervous, worried stress by the whole process, regardless of how resilient and mentally healthy they are otherwise. That's all a stress interview is going to "explore". I think it says little to nothing about how an applicant will cope with stress in grad school or on the job.
And yes, I was suggesting that, when an interview situation goes sideways, the problem could be with the interviewer and/or the program rather than with the interviewee. As above, I say that as another viewpoint to consider, not in response to any specific situation described here. I've heard some wild stories about people's academic experiences, though; there are some odd programs and difficult people out there. It can be hard to spot that when you're applying to school. We're taught to take responsibility for what happens to us, rather than blame others. Mostly that's a reasonable approach, but not when taken to such an extreme that it blinds us to mistreatment or unreasonable behavior from others. And I think that's an easier-than-usual trap to fall into when one is faced with the power imbalance that's inherent in the grad school application process.
