Exploring the Professional Identity of Swedish Psychologists – Construction of the Psychologists’ Professional Identity Questionnaire (PPIQ)

• Main Authors: Bengtsson, Ida, Rosenlind, Johanna
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Örebro universitet, Institutionen för juridik, psykologi och socialt arbete 2019
• Subjects: Professional identity; psychologists; exploratory factor analysis; Psychology; Psykologi
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-79319

Professional identity has shown to affect the manner in which people conduct themselves at their places of work, how people feel about their work, and how successful they are in their execution of it. Little research has yet been done on the professional identity of psychologists and, as such, this study aimed to construct a measure and explore the dimensions of psychologists’ professional identity. After an online recruitment process, 306 psychologists filled out an online survey and an exploratory factor analysis was employed to examine the data. Seven dimensions were found: 1) Humanistic Values, 2) Directiveness and External Focus, 3) Professional Confidence, 4) Connectedness to the Profession, 5) Neutrality, 6) Primacy of Intuition, and 7) Professional Development. The data was further examined in a cluster analysis and five clusters were found, differing in degree of identification with different theoretical orientations, age, and most common areas of work throughout one’s career.