ONTENTSINTRODUCTIONANALYSIS AND COMMENTS ON SELECTED RESULTSA Socio-demographic ProfileA Socio-economic ProfileProfessional DesertionFINAL REMARKSREFERENCESData presented here are a partial report of a large survey carried among Spanish practitioners in March 1990. An stratified random sample was used. The youthful nature of this professional group and the existence of sex discrimination in working conditions and economic profiles are the main findings. There are remarkable differences between the various specialties regarding working hours, the type of organization in which they work, pay and tax liabilities. Desertions are due mainly to economic reasons. A profession exist so long as there is a meaningful reward system that is perceived as fair by practitioners.
This investigation, the results of which we will present in this paper, is a part of a larger project, the purpose of which is to design a communication and corporate discourse for Spanish society regarding the assistance or service that professional psychologists can offer. This arises from an increased awareness of the importance of marketing. The first stage, the investigation of the identity of professional psychologists, will be completed with a study of the image of the psychologists in society, and ends with a publicity campaign.
A significant sample of C.O.P. members were surveyed by means of a questionnaire specially designed for the purpose. The stratified random sample shows proportional stability: 606 psychologists, selected from all the C.O.P. territorial branch-offices in the country, answered a structured interview and a questionnaire. The confidence level was established at 95.5 % and the margin of error was fixed at + 4 %. Data collection took place during March in 1990. An extensive report of this survey has been published in PAPELES DEL PSICOLOGO (Diaz & Quintanilla, 1992).
The youthful nature of psychologists in Spain can be seen clearly in the fact that 46.9 % of them found their first job as practitioners after 1984, whereas only 21.7% began to work as practitioners before 1980. Therefore only one of every five practitioners has more than ten years of professional experience. During the 80īs younger practitioners have faced more difficulties finding the first job, due to the fact that the Spanish market is becoming saturated.
Psychology is a profession that is unequally distributed in rural and urban society: the majority of Spanish Psychologists live and have a labour contract in large cities. In fact, Scientific Research and Applied Psychology obtain recognition and enhance their status in affluent societies.
There are clear-cut differences in what concerns the status of practitioners: 65 % of males and 48% of females are married, 0.3 of males and 2.5 of females are divorced. Over 30 years of age, 21 % of psychologists remain single; they are mainly women who are actively involved in their professional practice. The average birth rate among psychology graduates is higher than the average birth rate in the general population. The average number of children is higher among male psychologists.
Women and younger graduates show less labour integration. It is among the younger psychologists that we find highest indices of unemployment. This is an important fact, since 50 % of Spanish practitioners are under 30. Among those graduates in Psychology who are unemployed 92.1 % are women, and only 6.7 % are men. The rate of unemployment declines with age.
Those graduates who do not carry out any activity directly related to Psychology in their daily work, are working mainly in teachings jobs. In this situation are 23.2 % of the male and 24.8 % of the female psychologists.
Almost 30 % of Spanish psychologists have a monthly salary more than twice the living wage, whereas almost 50 % earn between 1,8 and 3.7 times the living wage. There are also clear-cut differences between male and female practitioners comparing their average salaries and their working hours. The available data suggest sex discrimination: 57 % of males obtain real wages over 2.8 times the living wage, whereas 34.1 % of female psychologists have a monthly salary of less than 1.5 times the living wage. Male practitioners are working more hours per week than the females do: 29,5% of the males and 15,9% of the females are working more than 40 hours a week. If we look at the number of hours per week that practitioners work in each specialty we can say that work and organizational psychologists are the ones that work the most hours and earn the highest average salary (3.3 times de living wage). Nearly half of them (49.1) work more than 40 hours a weak whereas about 43.5% of educational psychologists work less than 30 hours a week.
The analysis of income taxes paid by practitioners in 1989 shows, again, sex differences in tax liabilities. It seems that female psychologists charge lower fees per hour when they carry-out part-time activities and their honorarium remains quite often in the hidden economy. The same bias is found in what concern the Social Security System: 77.5 % of male psychologists and 60 % of female psychologists pay social insurance contributions. About 5.9% of males and 13.8% of females have a part-time contract of employment, whereas 88.2 % of males and 83.6 % of females have a full-time contract of employment.
Psychology in Spain is a profession in which women represent the mayority. It is also a young profession and its becoming saturated. For that reason, during the last few years, graduates are having increasingly more problems finding a job. Therefore we find a growing rate of departures from professional practice. We can also confirm that men and women psychologists do not have the same working conditions and opportunities. Finally we can see that there are remarkable differences between the various specialties in psychology regading weekly working hours, the type of of organization in which they work, and pay.
JOSÉ RAMÓN CORREAS GONZALEZ
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