Abstract
Psychologists have a diverse set of skills, including communication, research, interpersonal perception, diagnosis, psychotherapy, and consultation. An emerging skill for psychologists is software development. This chapter describes how I have used software development in my professional work as a psychologist. My development work has ranged from a tutorial system to teach Rorschach scoring methods, an ethics case-study simulator, mobile applications to help psychotherapists evaluate psychotherapy outcome and alliance, psychometrics-based consulting work with independent colleges, and a competency assessment system to help doctoral programs monitor the effectiveness of their training. Though the initial challenges of learning a computer language may seem daunting, a number of online resources are helpful for psychologists desiring to learn software development.
Throughout this chapter, I describe the Therapy Outcome Management System (TOMS), an iOS app that allows psychotherapists to monitor outcome and working alliance on a session-by-session basis. Not only is the TOMS useful for clinicians and their patients; it also allows for large-scale data collection from a worldwide sample.
Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.(Steve Jobs)
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McMinn, M.R. (2017). A Psychologist and a Software Developer. In: Maheu, M., Drude, K., Wright, S. (eds) Career Paths in Telemental Health. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23736-7_24
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23736-7_24
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