- What is the Psychodiagnostics Basic Registration certificate (BAPD)?
- Obtaining BAPD during or after your master's programme
- Obtaining BAPD in your working life
- Why the BAPD-certificate exists
- The value of the BAPD-certificate
- Supervision and assessment
- Practical criteria
- Theoretical criteria
What is the Psychodiagnostics Basic Registration certificate (BAPD)?
The BasisAantekening Psychodiagnostiek (BAPD) is a certificate from the Dutch Instute for Psychologists (NIP) to certify that holders of a Master's degree in Psychology posess sufficient knowledge and skills in psychodiagnostics when they enter the labour market. This is an additional certificate that you can obtain, with additional requirements.
Obtaining BAPD during or after your master's programme
If the clinical internship is a part of your programme, either mandatory or optionally, you can may add the BAPD-elements to your clinical internship. For some programmes, it is possible to do a clinical internship after your graduation, and as such also obtain the BAPD-certificate and/or GZ-certificate. Keep in mind that this can be a intense and complex route. See Clinical internship after graduation >>The BAPD has theoretical requirements. If you did the FPN Bachelor in Psychology, you fulfill these theoretical requirements. If you did any other bachelor, at UM or elsewhere, please contact the BAPD/LOGO-coordinator to discuss your options.
See the schematic -> Clinical with BAPD/LOGO-GZ option >>
Obtaining BAPD in your working life
The requirements for a BAPD can be fulfilled via the national BAPD committee. This is possible if someone has completed a BA+MA in psychology and, following graduation, has successfully completed a clinical internship under the supervision of a recognised BAPD supervisor. Only those who have completed BA+MA degree programmes that are recognised by the Dutch Association of Psychologists' national BAPD committee are eligible. See www.psynip.nl >>
Why the BAPD-certificate exists
Psychodiagnostics is an examination process aimed at arriving at an assessment of someone's mental state. A decision is made, a treatment is undertaken and/or a recommendation is given. Within this process, a distinction can be made between the following stages: - holding an intake interview and further meetings; - psychological examination; - drawing up reports; - feeding back the research data and reports to the client.Psychodiagnostics is a professional application of psychology that can have a profound impact on people's lives. Say, for example, a child exhibits symptoms of ADHD: they are restless, talk too much, exhibit recalcitrant behaviour, etc. After some time, the child's teacher advises the parents to seek help for their child's behaviour, citing the term 'ADHD' as the possible explanation. If the psychologist agrees with this hypothesis, the child may be prescribed a trial period of medication. But what if this child doesn't have ADHD, but is highly intelligent, insufficiently challenged by the curriculum and bored in class, and therefore engages in activities that alleviate that boredom (but that are disruptive to the rest of the class)? If a client is incorrectly diagnosed, the suggested treatment approach may also be incorrect. Accurate diagnostics are, therefore, of vital importance. For this reason, psychologists (or those training to be psychologists) need to have sufficient theoretical and practical training to be able to practise psychodiagnostics responsibly.
The assumption is that the curricula of psychology degree programmes in the Netherlands are structured in such a way as to provide students with sufficient theoretical training in psychodiagnostics. However, it is possible in the Netherlands for someone to graduate as a psychologist without having worked as a psychodiagnostician in clinical practice. This raises the question as to whether a degree programme that does not include this type of experience in clinical practice provides sufficient practical training (i.e. through practical lessons focusing on areas such as communication skills) to enable practitioners to perform psychodiagnostic assessments after graduating. It was with this in mind that the Dutch Association of Psychologists (Nederlands Instituut voor Psychologen, or NIP) established the Psychodiagnostics Basic Registration certificate (Basisaantekening Psychodiagnostiek, abbreviated ‘BAPD’). This certificate is issued by the Dutch Association for Psychotherapists, and as such is only recognised within Dutch psychology practices.
The value of the BAPD certificate
The BAPD has been created to optimise the quality of university education (at the bachelor's and master's levels) in the field of psychodiagnostics, as well as to promote graduates' command of the theory and practice of psychodiagnostics to a sufficient basic level. The emphasis here is on the phrase 'basic level'. After all, it cannot be expected that someone who meets the standards of the BAPD qualification will be a consummate psychodiagnostician.As such, the certificate is restricted in meaning. In practice this means that someone who has been awarded the BAPD possesses basic knowledge and skills pertaining to psychodiagnostics. Their theoretical and practical expertise in the field of practice-orientated psychodiagnostics must be further developed in postgraduate training (such as training programmes leading to qualification as a Healthcare Psychologist or Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Neuropsychologist) or in specific courses.
Many Dutch employers (particularly in the mental health field) make the BAPD a requirement when recruiting psychologists. This can be a good incentive for those seeking to work in this field to obtain the BAPD during or after taking their degree. However, it must be said that no diagnostic competence can be derived from this qualification, although it does constitute proof of a minimum level of expertise.
The BAPD has the following objectives:
a. to create a commonly accepted framework for the assessment of practitioners' level of knowledge and skills in the field of general psychodiagnostics;
b. to ensure a minimum level of knowledge and skills in the field of general psychodiagnostics (at the master's level);
c. to ensure psychodiagnostics is integrated in university psychology curricula and across the diverse areas of the profession.
Supervision and assessment
The BAPD committee has given the universities – in this case the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience – the authority to decide on this matter, with a prescribed set of theoretical courses, skills training courses, etc. that students must complete to this end. In the case of students and non-degree seeking students enrolled in a university degree programme in Psychology, the university will assess whether the student's level in respect of both theory and practice, is sufficient to be awarded the BAPD. In practice, this means that bachelor's/master's programmes are individually and specifically accredited by the BAPD.In addition to successfully completing the theoretical component, students wishing to obtain a BAPD must also successfully complete a clinical internship comprising at least 200 hours of psychodiagnostic practice. Here, the student is supervised by two different people. One is a supervising lecturer (also referred to as the faculty supervisor) who works at the university. A number of lecturers within the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience have been recognised as supervising lecturers by the Dutch Association of Psychologists/ BAPD.
Second, the student is supervised by a psychologist at the institution where they are doing their internship. This is someone with a great deal of experience, both in clinical practice and in the supervision of students during their BAPD internship. This supervisor is an expert in the field, but does not necessarily have to be a BAPD supervisor recognised by the national BAPD committee. The supervising lecturer, however, must be recognised by the national BAPD committee.
Supervision entails a personal learning process during which the supervisee is guided by a supervisor. During supervision meetings, the supervisee is encouraged to reflect on their own learning process and their own professional practice, with personal development and hands-on experience influencing each other directly and reciprocally.
After completing the internship and submitting the case reports, the clinical activities report and the assessment forms, the faculty supervisor will check whether the student meets all the requirements, after which the BAPD can be issued by the university.
Practical criteria
In short, the minimum criteria for the BAPD are:
• have 200 hours working experience in psychodiagnostics, of the required 520 hours clinical internship.
• have written 3 case reports. These reports will be examined by a designated BAPD reviewer. Case reports are already included in the internship for the Research Master NP.
3.2. The student must have completed a minimum of 200 hours of supervised psychodiagnostics practice (i.e. a clinical internship).
Please note: the supervision for the Healthcare Psychologist qualification internship must comprise a minimum of 520 hours and must include activities related to diagnosis, care needs assessment and treatment. In this context, 'psychodiagnostics' can be understood more broadly than just as testing. Both the conducting of structured (or semi-structured) interviews and the history of symptoms which the student records in the context of an admission also form part of this. Evidence of these activities must be provided when applying for a BAPD. The supervisors must have awarded at least a passing mark to the internship as a whole, the case reports and the clinical activities report.
3.3. The student has submitted three case reports to the faculty supervisor which have been co-signed by the supervisor at the institution at which they did their internship.
See The supervisor must have awarded at least a passing mark for the case reports.
3.4. The clinical activities report has been submitted to the faculty supervisor and given a passing mark.
See Clinical activities report >>
3.5. The student has received a minimum of 20 hours of supervision from the faculty supervisor and/or the supervisor at the institution at which they did their internship.
Within the context of the BAPD qualification, the supervisor is responsible for supervising the supervisee in their personal learning process where the development of a basic level of knowledge and skills relating to general psychodiagnostics is concerned. The supervisor bears partial responsibility for compliance with the provisions of the BAPD regulations.
The supervisor must oversee the supervisee (or student) when they are writing the case study reports required for the BAPD. This supervision is focused on the following aspects:
- The structure and presentation of the report,
-The quality of the case study in terms of the content,
- The formal requirements that the case study report must meet according to the BAPD guidelines.
Theoretical criteria
updated 22-03-2022
The theoretical requirements consist of a combination of courses of your master and bachelor programme. A pass for the bachelor module PSY3109 / IPN3109 Psychodiagnostics is in itself not sufficient for the BAPD.REQUIREMENT 1: Theoretical knowledge of the psychodiagnostic process (5-8 EC) Please note: the implementation of this knowledge is reflected in REQUIREMENTS 2 through 4.
REQUIREMENT 2: The collection of data about the person: Conducting a diagnostic conversation and using diagnostic measuring instruments (4-8 EC) Please note: interpretation and reporting are listed under REQUIREMENT 4.
REQUIREMENT 3: Psychometry and decision-making (5-8 EC)
REQUIREMENT 4: Ability to implement the theoretical knowledge of psychodiagnostics (mentioned under REQUIREMENT 1): The execution of the diagnostic cycle - other than conducting tests -, reflection and ethics (6-9 EC)
In total the 4 requirements should cover at least 27 EC.