The Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology: An Examination of Construct Validity

Passing the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology (EPPP) is a requirement for licensure as a psychologist across the United States as well as in numerous territories and provinces. Despite long-standing and empirically driven criticisms, the methodological and analytic decisions underlying the EPPP are being used to expand the existing EPPP into a longer two-part test, branded as the enhanced EPPP. The present study elucidates the methodological and analytic weaknesses in the EPPP development approach by examining the association of obtained EPPP scores with archival practicum and internship competency evaluation data from a standardized measure with strong psychometric support (retrospective/postdictive validity) as well as self-appraisals of competency by licensed individuals (concurrent validity), and several tests of neurocognitive abilities (discriminant validity) are associated with 36 early career professionals who graduated from an American Psychological Association-accredited program in clinical psychology. White non-Hispanic individuals were found to score significantly higher than Hispanic individuals. Performance on measures of neurocognitive ability is significantly positively correlated with EPPP scores, with a large effect size. Evaluations of competency did not correlate significantly with EPPP scores. Taken together, results suggest EPPP scores contain more construct-irrelevant variance than relevant variance, with individuals who are Hispanic/Latino systematically disadvantaged. Implications for exam development and the field are discussed. Public Significance Statement Findings offer evidence that the Examination for the Professional Practice of Psychology differentiates candidates for licensure more strongly by race, ethnicity, and general neurocognitive abilities than by profession-specific knowledge, skills, and abilities. The study highlights the need for better licensure exam development processes to uphold the principles of the field and foster equal employment opportunity in the professional workforce.