CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?

 Clinical psychology was first used Education and Training in Clinical

by Lightner Witmer in 1907 Psychology
 He was also the first to operate a
 Aspiring clinical psychologists
psychological clinic
must obtain a doctoral degree in
 He envisioned clinical psychology as
clinical psychology
a discipline with similarities to a
 Most students enter a doctoral
variety of other fields, specifically
program with only a bachelor’s
medicine, education, and sociology
degree, but some enter with a
 A clinical psychologist was a
master’s degree
person whose work with others
o For bachelor’s degree,
involved aspects of treatment,
training consists of at
education, and interpersonal issues
least 4 years of intensive,
 His first clients were children with
full-time coursework,
behavioral or educational problems
followed by a 1-year, full-
More Recent Definitions time predoctoral
internship
 Clinical psychology is the branch o Required coursework
of psychology that studies, includes courses on
assesses, and treats people with psychotherapy,
psychological problems or disorders assessment, statistics,
 The Division of Clinical research design and
Psychology (Division 12) of the methodology, biological
American Psychological bases of behavior,
Association (APA) defines clinical cognitive-affective bases
psychology as: the field of Clinical of behavior, social bases
Psychology integrates science, of behavior, individual
theory, and practice to understand, differences, and others
predict, and alleviate maladjustment,  A master’s thesis and doctoral
disability, and discomfort as well as dissertation are also commonly
to promote human adaptation, required, as is a practicum in
adjustment, and personal which students start to
development. Clinical Psychology accumulate supervised
focuses on the intellectual, experience doing clinical work
emotional, biological, psychological,  Students then move on to the
social, and behavioral aspects of predoctoral internship, in which
human functioning across the life they take greater clinical
span, in varying cultures, and at all responsibilities with supervised
socioeconomic levels experience on a full-time basis
 Clinical psychology involves rigorous (occurs after the degree is
study and applied practice directed obtained)
toward understanding and improving  The most common specialty
the psychological facets of the areas of clinical psychology are
human experience, including but not clinical child, clinical health,
limited to issues or problems of forensic, family, and clinical
behavior, emotions, or intellect neuropsychology
 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Three Distinct Models of Training Used
by Various Graduate Programs
A. Balancing Practice and Science:
The Scientist-Practitioner
(Boulder) Model
 The first conference on graduate
training in clinical psychology was
held in Boulder, Colorado in 1949
 At this conference, training directors
reached an important consensus:
training in clinical psychology should
jointly emphasize both practice and
research
o Graduate students would
need to receive training and
display competence in the
application of clinical
methods (assessment,
psychotherapy, etc.) and the
research methods necessary
to study and evaluate the
field scientifically
 Coursework should reflect this dual
emphasis, with classes in statistics
and research methods as well as
classes in psychotherapy and
assessment
 Graduate students would (under
supervision) conduct both clinical
work and their own empirical
research (thesis and dissertation)
 These graduates would then be
awarded the PhD degree, hence the
term scientist-practitioner model
B. Leaning Toward Practice: The
Practitioner-Scholar (Vail) Model
 In 1973, another conference on
clinical psychology training was held
in Colorado in the city of Vail
 Many current and aspiring clinical
psychologists had been asking,
“Why do I need such extensive
training as a scientist when my goal
is simply to practice?”
o Only a minority of clinical
psychologists were entering
academia or otherwise
conducting research as a
primary professional task
 Clinical practice was the more
popular career choice, and many
would-be clinical psychologists
sought a doctoral-level degree with
less extensive training in research
and more extensive training in the
development of applied clinical skills
 The practitioner-scholar model
was born, along with a new type of
doctoral degree, the PsyD
o These programs typically
offer more coursework
related to practice and fewer
related to research and
statistics
In general, compared with PhD programs,
PsyD programs tend to:
 Place less emphasis on research-
related aspects of training and more
emphasis on clinically relevant
aspects of training;
 Accept and enroll a much larger
percentage and number of
applicants;
 Be housed in freestanding,
independent (or university-affiliated)
“professional schools,” as opposed
to departments of psychology in
universities;
 Accept students with lower Graduate
Record Examination (GRE) scores
and undergraduate grade point
averages (GPAs);
 Offer significantly less funding to
enrolled students in the form of
graduate assistantships, fellowships,
tuition remission, and so on;
 Accept and enroll a higher
percentage of students who have
already earned a master’s degree;
 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?

 Have lower rates of success placing clinical science, where the

their students in APA-accredited Academy of Psychological
predoctoral internships; Clinical Science was
 Produce graduates who score lower founded which McFall served
on the national licensing exam as its president
(EPPP);
Getting Into Graduate School in Clinical
 Graduate students in a briefer time Psychology
period (about 1.5 years sooner);
 Graduate students who pursue  In the Philippine setting, Republic
practice-related careers rather than Act No. 10029 permits students to
academic or research-related take up Master of Arts in Clinical
careers; and Psychology
 Have at least a slightly higher
Getting Licensed
percentage of faculty members who
subscribe to psychodynamic  Licensure enables independent
approaches, as opposed to practice and identification as a
cognitive-behavioral approaches member of the profession
C. Leaning Toward Science: The  Requires appropriate graduate
Clinical Scientist Model coursework, postdoctoral internship,
 In the 1990s, a movement toward and licensing exams
increased empiricism took place
among numerous graduate Qualification of Applicants for the
programs and prominent individuals Licensure Examination for
involved in psychology training Psychometricians
 The leaders of this movement  Should be a Filipino citizen
argued that science should be the  Holds at least a bachelor’s
bedrock of clinical psychology (the degree in psychology conferred
clinical scientist model), which by a university, college or school
stresses the scientific side of clinical in the Philippines or abroad
psychology more strongly than the recognized/accredited by the
Boulder model CHED and has obtained
 A PhD from a clinical scientist sufficient credits for the subjects
program implies a very strong covered in the examinations
emphasis on the scientific method  Is of good moral character
and evidence-based clinical
 Has not been convicted of an
methods
offense involving moral turpitude
 Two defining events highlight the
initial steps of this movement: Examination Subjects for Psychologists
o In 1991, Richard McFall, a
 Advanced Theories of Personality
professor of psychology at
Indiana University, published  Advanced Abnormal Psychology
an article that served as a  Advanced Psychological
rallying call for the clinical Assessment
scientist movement  Psychological Counseling and
o A conference took place at Psychotherapy
Indiana University to promote
 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?
Examination Subjects for
Psychometricians
 Theories of Personality
 Abnormal Psychology
 Industrial Psychology
 Psychological Assessment
Professional Activities and Employment
Settings
 Private practice has been the
primary employment site of 30% to
41% of clinical psychologists,
followed by the university
psychology department (19%)
 Other primary work setting (2-9%)
include psychiatric hospitals, general
hospitals, community mental health
centers, medical schools, and
Veterans Affairs medical centers
 Others (15%) work in diverse
settings such as government
agency, public schools, substance
abuse center, corporation, and
university counseling center
What Do Clinical Psychologists Do?
 Psychotherapy is the primary
activity that clinical psychologists do
 They spend between 31% and 37%
of their time conducting
psychotherapy
 Of those who practice
psychotherapy, individual therapy
occupies the largest of their therapy
time (76%), with group, family and
couples therapy far behind (6% to
9% each)
 Some are also involved in other
activities: diagnosis/assessment,
teaching, supervision,
research/writing, consultation, and
administration
 Diagnosis and assessment generally
occupy more of clinical
psychologists’ time than do the
others
How Are Clinical Psychologists Different
From..
a. Counseling Psychologists
 Historically, they have differed
primarily in terms of their clients’
characteristics: clinical psychologists
were more likely to work with
seriously disturbed individuals,
whereas counseling psychologists
were more likely to work with less
pathological clients
 Today, both see the same types of
clients, sometimes as colleagues
working side by side
 These two fields are also similar in
that their graduate students occupy
the same internship sites, often earn
the same degree, and obtain the
same licensure status
 Compared with counseling
psychologists, clinical psychologists
till tend to work with more seriously
disturbed populations, and,
correspondingly, tend to work more
often in settings such as hospitals
and inpatient psychiatric units
 Counseling psychologists still tend to
work with less seriously disturbed
populations, and, correspondingly,
tend to work more often in university
counseling centers
 Some differences in theoretical
orientation are also evident: clinical
psychologists tend to endorse
behaviorism more strongly, and
counseling psychologists tend to
endorse humanistic/client-centered
approaches more strongly
 Counseling psychologists tend to be
more interested in vocational testing
and career counseling, whereas
clinical psychologists tend to be
more interested in applications of
psychology to medical settings
 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?

b. Psychiatrists housing, employment, and outpatient

 Psychiatrists go to medical school mental health services were met
and get licensed as physicians, and  The training of social workers is also
they are allowed to prescribe different: they earn a master’s
medication degree rather than a doctorate, and
 Clinical psychologists and although their training includes a
psychometricians also differ in their strong emphasis on supervised
understanding of and approach to fieldwork, it includes very little on
behavioral or emotional problems: research methods, psychological
o Clinical psychologists are testing, pr physiological psychology
trained to appreciate the  Their theories of psychopathology
biological aspects of their and therapy continue to emphasize
clients’ problems, but social and environmental factors
psychiatrists’ training d. School Psychologists
emphasizes biology to such an  School psychologists usually work
extent that disorders are viewed in schools, but some may work in
first and foremost as other settings such as day-care
physiological abnormalities of centers or correctional facilities
the brain  Their primary function is to enhance
 For clinical psychologists, the clients’ the intellectual, emotional, social,
problems are viewed as behavioral, and developmental lives of students
cognitive, and emotional—still  They frequently conduct
stemming from brain activity, but psychological testing (especially
amenable to change via intelligence and achievement tests)
nonpharmacological methods to determine diagnoses such as
c. Social Workers learning disorders and ADHD
 Social workers have focused their  They use or develop programs
work on the interaction between an designed to meet the educational
individual and the components of and emotional needs of students
society that may contribute to or  They also consult with adults
alleviate the individual’s problems involved in students’ lives—teachers,
 They saw many of their clients’ school administrators, school staff,
problems as products of social ills— parents—and are involved to a
racism, oppressive gender roles, limited degree in direct counseling
poverty, abuse, and so on with students
 They also helped their clients by e. Professional Counselors
connecting them with social  Professional counsels earn a
services, such as welfare agencies, master’s degree and often complete
disability offices, or job-training sites their training within 2 years
 When they worked together with  Their work typically involves
psychologists and psychiatrists, they counseling, with very little emphasis
usually focused on issues such as on psychological testing or
arranging for clients to transition conducting research
successfully to the community after  Professional counselors are among
leaving an inpatient unit by making clinicians who serve wide varieties of
sure that needs such as those for clients in community agencies, and
 CHAPTER 1: WHAT IS CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY?

they often enter private practice as

well
 They specialize in such areas as
career, school, addiction,
couple/family, or college counseling

louisiana, Idaho, (5 states abt psychiatry?)