FAQs, Links & Resources for Personnel Security Professionals

A psychologist is a doctoral level expert who has studied the science of how people think, feel and behave and applies this knowledge to help people understand, explain and change behavior. In the security clearance process, a psychologist functions as a consultant providing expert opinions about the meaning of historical and current information, symptom patterns, and behaviors and making predictions about the impact on an applicant’s reliability, trustworthiness, and judgment. Psychologists augment the security clearance decision making process with enhanced information adjudicators can use—in conjunction with all other available information—to make accurate clearance decisions.

Psychologists are trained to systematically gather and interpret information using scientifically established methods. Even so, there are limits to the certainty with which diagnoses, judgments, or predictions can be made about human beings. The psychological evaluation should be seen as ONE source of information rather then THE source when making security clearance decisions.