Clinical Psychology-1

Course Code (PSY-601)

Course Instructor
Miss. Naima Mukarram
Introduction
 Definition
• "The field of Clinical Psychology integrates science, theory,
and practice to understand predict, and alleviate
maladjustment, disability, and discomfort as well as to
promote human adaptation, adjustment, and personal
development.
• Clinical Psychology focuses on the intellectual, emotional,
biological, psycho- logical, social, and behavioral aspects of
human functioning across the life span, in varying cultures,
and at all socioeconomic levels" (Society of Clinical
Psychology, 2002).
 Definition
• “This field of psychology focuses on the
assessment, diagnosis, causes, and
treatment of mental disorders.”
 Scope and Settings of Clinical
Psychologists
• Another way of learning about what clinical psychology is involves
looking at what clinical psychologists meet privately with people
who are in psychological distress to help them overcome their
problems.
• But clinical psychologists do so much more. They are involved in:
• Research,
• Writing,
• Teaching,
• Assessment,
• Consultation,
• Administration, and other Professional Activities.
 Research
• Most clinical psychologists are products of graduate programs
that include extensive training in research design, methods,
and statistics.
• Clinical psychologists who train in traditional scientist
practitioner programs must conduct at least one piece of
original research in order to obtain their degree.
• In fact, training in research is one of the characteristics that
distinguishes clinical psychology from most other helping
professions.
• Clinical psychologists who are university professors report
that, on average, they spend about a quarter of their
professional time engaged in research.
 Research
• The types of research clinical psychologists conduct is
extremely varied.
• Clinical Psychology received at the time of this writing show
studies on adolescent
• Physical aggression,
• Work adjustment of bipolar patients,
• Treatment of spit tobacco users,
• Posttraumatic stress disorder,
• Prevention of delinquent and violent behavior ,
• Couples therapy, and
• Telephone-administered treatment of depressive symptoms in
people with multiple sclerosis.
 Teaching
• Clinical psychologists are engaged in a variety of forms of teaching.
• About 50 percent of clinical psychologists report that they spend
some portion of their professional time teaching. Between 15 and 20
percent are employed as professors at colleges, universities, and
other academic institutions.
• Clinical psychology professors typically teach courses that are
within the domain of clinical psychology.
• At the undergraduate level, courses might include abnormal
psychology, tests and measurement, introduction to clinical
psychology, and systems of psychotherapy.
• Graduate courses taught by clinical psychologists include
psychological assessment, theories of psychopathology,
psychotherapy, clinical research methods, professional ethics, and
any number of focused advanced seminars such forensic
psychology, child psychopathology, child assessment,
neuropsychology, health psychology.
 Teaching
• In addition to traditional classroom-based courses, clinical
psychologists engage in a variety of other forms of teaching.
• Perhaps one of the most challenging but also most gratifying
forms of teaching is clinical supervision.
• Here the clinical psychologist works with graduate students to
help them develop clinical skills in assessment, psychotherapy,
or other applied activities (e.g., consultation).
• Many graduate programs in clinical psychology affiliated
training clinics where students work with real people
presenting with real problems under the supervision of a
licensed psychologist.
 Teaching
• Clinical supervision might take the form of modeling
interviewing,
• testing or therapy skills,
• observing the trainee,
• listening to audiotape recordings of therapy sessions,
• or critiquing videotaped sessions along with the supervisee.
• Clinical supervisors often need to help supervisees manage
their own anxiety about clinical work or to work through
feelings aroused by the client.
 Teaching
• Psychologists may train medic students in basic interviewing
skills or teach a group of lawyers about the limitations of
psychological tests clinical psychologists also often share their
knowledge with other professionals through continuing
education workshops or grand s are also frequently involve
psychology.
 Psychotherapy
• Psychotherapy involves helping people to understand and resolve
problems. The term psychotherapy encompasses a broad array of
psychological interventions including behavior modification, individual
counseling, family therapy, parent training, and others.
• The psychotherapy is a one-on-one meeting between the therapist and
client to discuss the client's problems. This form of therapy, referred to as
individual psychotherapy, is the most common form of therapy engaged in
by clinical psychologists .
• But it is not the only form of psychotherapy. Therapy can include meetings
in groups, with couples, or with extended families The variety of presenting
problems that psychotherapy can be used to address is practically endless.
Anxiety, depression, eating disorders, psychoses, alcohol abuse, drug
addiction, relationship difficulties, compliance with medical procedures,
sexual functioning, traumatic memories, phobias, shyness, and a host of
other issues might prompt someone to seek help from a psychotherapist
Psychotherapy has become the predominant activity of clinical
psychologists. It is their most frequently engaged in activity.
 Psychotherapy
• Eighty-four percent of clinical psychologists in a recent
survey reported that they engaged in psychotherapy .
• Psychotherapy has clearly been the growth area for
psychologists over the past forty years.
• But there is strong evidence that this growth cannot continue
and that, in fact, psychotherapy may play a less central role in
the professional lives of psychologists in years to come.
 Assessment
• After psychotherapy, psychological assessment is the most
frequently engaged in activity by clinical psychologists.
• Psychological assessment involves collecting information
about people's behavior, interests, emotions, thoughts,
intelligence, inter- personal styles, and so on and integrating
this information to develop a greater understanding of the
person.
• Clinical psychologists use interviews, psychological tests,
and observations to collect the data upon which they base
their assessments.
 Assessment
• The procedures used in any given psychological assessment
will vary depending upon the goal of the assessment.
• Some of the general goals of psychological assessment are to
diagnose, to formulate treatment plans, to make predictions
about future behavior, and to evaluate the outcome of a
psychological intervention.
• The complexity of psychological assessment can best be
appreciated by looking at the types of questions clinical
psychologists evaluate.
 Assessment
Consider for a moment the following assessment questions:
1. A child is failing the fourth grade. Why and what can be done
to help?
2. A 24-year-old suffers a head injury in a car accident. What
impact has this had upon his intellectual functioning?
3. A 33-year-old woman seeks a therapist and complains that
she has lost her zest for life. What can be done to help her?
 Consultation
• When functioning in the role of consultant, a clinical
psychologists may utilize skills in teaching, research,
assessment, or even psychotherapy.
• Clinical psychologists are often hired by organizations to
provide advice and share their expertise.
• A school might hire a clinical psychologist to evaluate students
who present significant behavior problems. The psychologist
evaluates students and then works with the staff to design
learning environments that best suit to the students' needs.
 Consultation
• A clinical psychologist might consult with a pediatric
oncology center to develop strategies to help patients comply
with unpleasant medical procedures.
• In a business setting, a clinical psychologist might be hired to
help employees learn to man age stress.
• A correctional facility might hire a clinical psychologist to
provide staff training in suicide prevention.
• Clinical psychologists have been hired by law enforcement
agencies to assist in hostage negotiations.
 Consultation
• A clinical psychologist might be hired by a mental health
agency to help develop methods of evaluating the efficacy of
clinical intervention services provided by the agency.
• The consultant meets with about one-quarter of the staff at a
time to provide more formal training in areas such as conflict
resolution, talking to students about sexual issues, anger
management, or managing job-related stress. After that
training, the consultant might meet with individual staff
members to help them with specific problems or concerns.
• Some clinical psychologists find consultation work to be
personally and financial rewarding enough that they make it
their primary professional activity.
 Administration
• Although not the most glamorous of professional activities,
many clinical psychologists find themselves holding
administrative responsibilities as their careers develop.
• At universities, clinical psychologists are department chairs,
deans, vice presidents, and presidents. Psychologists also
frequently occupy administrative positions in hospitals, clinics,
and mental health agencies.
•
 Administration
• On average, clinical psychologists report spending about 10
percent of their time with administrative duties.
• They worked as administrator because of their training in
research, clinical psychologists develop strong organizational
skills and through their clinical training, clinical psychologists
develop strong interpersonal skills. It may be this combination
of a highly organized individual who is skillful at interacting
with people in a variety of emotional states that lends itself to
successful administrative work.
•
 Specific Nature of Clinical
Psychology
• Clinical psychology is one of several helping professions that
concern itself with human psychological distress. There is
considerable overlap in the activities of clinical psychologists
and those of related professions Clinicians with graduate level
degrees in medicine, psychology, social work, nursing, or
education might, for example, provide psychotherapy. Why
clinical psychology and What sets this field apart from the
others? We will endeavor to highlight the characteristics of
clinical psychology that distinguish it from related professions.
 Psychiatry
"What's the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist?"
"Psychiatrists prescribe medication, psychologists don't.“
• In 2002, New Mexico became the first state to pass legislature
allowing licensed psychologists with appropriate training to
prescribe medications.
• Besides the differences in training content and training methods that
distinguish psychiatry from clinical psychology
• Psychiatry is a medical specialty. The undergraduate education of
most psychiatrists had a heavy emphasis upon course work that
prepared them for medical school (e.g., biology, chemistry).
Psychiatrists complete four years of post-baccalaureate training in a
medical school and obtain a medical degree (M.D.). Medical school
training for psychiatrists is the same as that of physicians who
specialize in other areas. After medical school, psychiatrists
complete a one-year internship in general medicine.
 Psychiatry
• The training of clinical psychologists is quite different. At the
undergraduate level, training typically it in psychology or a related
social science. Students take course work in the psychological
approaches to understanding normal and abnormal behavior (eg,
learning, personality, cognition) Graduate school is typically
designed to last five years, although it may take longer.
• The first four years of training occur at the home institution and
involve course work in psychology, practicum training in the clinical
areas (e.g, assessment, psychotherapy), and training in research. The
fifth year of training is the pre-doctoral internship, which is usually
pent at another institution and involves twelve months of full-time
clinical work. The degree in clinical psychology (Ph.D. or Psy.D) is
awarded after the student defends his or her doctoral dissertation.
 Counseling Psychology
• Counseling psychology is the specialty of psychology that is
most similar to clinical psychology. Like clinical
psychologists, counseling psychologists complete five years of
graduate training that includes a one-year full-time internship.
They receive training in research, and must complete a
dissertation. In most states, clinical and counseling
psychologists are licensed under the same law.
• The distinction between clinical and counseling psychology
has been in the areas emphasized in training and practice.
Counseling psychologists have tended to deal with problems
of adjustment in healthy individuals or more minor forms of
maladjustment.
 Counseling Psychology
• Typical activities that defined counseling psychology included
career and educational counseling.
• There was less of an emphasis upon testing in counseling
psychology, and when it was used, testing tended to involve
vocational interest inventories, aptitude testing, and
personality. The prototypical work setting for a counseling
psychologists was the college or university counseling center.
Student counseling centers typically emphasize outreach pro-
grams (e.g., eating disorders awareness presentations),
prevention (e.g., workshops for mar- red students), and short-
term counseling.
 School Psychology
• School psychology is another specialty area that has some
characteristics in common with clinical psychology.
• School psychologists work with educators to help them meet
the intellectual, social and emotional needs of school-age
children.
• A significant component of the work of school psychologists
involves psychological testing.
• They typically rely heavily upon tests of intelligence,
academic achievement, and behavior functioning.
 School Psychology
• School psychologists are called upon to make diagnoses about learning
disability, attention deficit hyper- active disorder, or mental retardation.
• They consult with schools to help them create learning environments that
promote children's academic and personal development.
• They may help teachers to develop and refine their classroom management
skills, School psychologists sometimes may provide brief therapy for
students. Some school psychologists receive a doctorate degree.
• Most school psychologists, however, have only masters-level training. The
National Association of School Psychologists recognizes the masters as the
degree necessary for entering the profession.
• In contrast, clinical psychology has always viewed the doctorate as the
entry level, degree.
 Social Work
• Social work is a profession whose roots are in social service.
Traditionally, social workers have worked with the poor and
disenfranchised segments of the population. In mental health
settings, the social work role historically had been to take the social
history, hook patients up with social resources and arrange for
residential or vocational placements.
• The traditional roles of different professions working as a
multidisciplinary team in a psychiatric hospital or community
mental health center would be as follows.
• At intake, the social worker would take a social history, the
psychiatrist would conduct a diagnostic interview, and the
psychologist would administer psychological tests.
• The team, usually with the psychiatrist as its head, would meet to
develop a treatment plan.
 Social Work
• In treatment, the psychiatrist would prescribe and monitor
medications, the psychologist would conduct psychotherapy,
and the social worker would provide support services for the
family and mobilize community resources as needed (e.g..
halfway house, food stamps, job training, etc.).
• Clinical social workers make diagnoses and conduct
psychotherapy. They are also likely to occupy important
administrative positions in hospitals, clinics, or other social
services agencies. The training of clinical social workers is
markedly different from that of a clinical psychologist. The
Masters in Social Work (M.S.W.) is the degree required for
clinical practice.
Specialization in Clinical
Psychology
 Undergraduate Preparation
• Training in clinical psychology occurs at the graduate level. But in
order to participate in graduate-level training, one must first, of
course, complete a course of bachelor's-level education. A strong
undergraduate education in psychology is the best preparation for
specialized training in clinical psychology.
• Course work in the basic areas in psychology such as biological
bases of behavior, learning, social, cognition, perception, and
developmental psychology lay the groundwork for specialized
training.
• Courses in clinically relevant areas of psychology are important as
well (e.g, abnormal psychology, tests and measurement, and
personality theory). Most psychology majors will complete a
sequence of courses in research design and statistics. These are
critically important courses for students interested in scientist
practitioner training.
 Undergraduate Preparation
Students can obtain five basic things to improve their chances of
acceptance into graduate school in psychology

1. High grade-point average

2. Good scores on the Graduate Record Examination

3. Research/scholarly experience

4. Clinically relevant experience

5. Strong letters of recommendation

 Graduate Training
• Most graduate programs require advanced course work in the basic
areas of psychological science Scientist-practitioner programs, for
example, typically include training in the following content areas:
biological bases of behavior, cognitive-affective bases of behavior,
social bases of behavior, and individual behavior. How these basic
content areas are covered varies depending upon the competencies
and interests of the training faculty Biological bases of behavior
may be covered through courses in neuropsychology,
neuroanatomical and physiology, circadian rhythm, or
endocrinological influences on behavior.
• Similarly, courses in psychopathology, personality theory, or child
development would all be relevant to developing a knowledge base
about individual differences in behavior.
 Graduate Training
• Course work and experience in clinical psychology are, of course,
central to any training program. Graduate seminars in psychological
assessment, psychotherapy, and psychopathology typically make up
the core clinical courses.
• Many programs require that students receive training in professional
ethics and legal issues germane to clinical psychology. Specialized
courses in areas such as neuropsychology, psychopharmacology,
health psychology, family systems therapy, or consultation in
medical settings might round out the clinically oriented course work.
• Doctoral training programs typically require that students complete
a doctoral qualifying examination before they are officially
considered to be doctoral candidates. The doctoral qualifying
examinations sometimes referred to as comprehensive exams,
usually fall some- where around the midpoint of students' graduate
careers and mark a transition from graduate student to doctoral
candidate.
 Post-Doctoral Training
• Post-doctoral training in psychology has been discussed at
every major training conference on clinical psychology.
Specialty areas within clinical psychology were the first to
develop criteria for post- doctoral training (e.g, health
psychology, clinical child psychology).
• Most states have codified the need for post-doctoral training in
their licensing laws. One year of post-doctoral training is the
typical prerequisite for licensure.
• There is general agreement in the field that a period of
supervised post-doctoral experience should be required for
licensure.
 Post-Doctoral Training
• The post- doctoral training period is a time to develop a
research specialty and to establish the track. records of
scholarly publications one needs to secure an academic
position.
• Post-doctoral training is far less regulated than graduate
training in clinical psychology .
• State licensing laws require a year of supervised practice, not a
year of organized post-doctoral study.
 References
• BOOKS
• Required (students must buy)
• Hersen, M. & Gross, A. M. (2008). Handbook of clinical
Psychology. Children and Adolescents Vol.2. Published by
John Wiley & Sons. Inc.
• Pope. K. S. & Vasquez, M. J. T. (2007). Ethics in
Psychotherapy and counseling in psychology. A practical
Guide, 3rd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights
reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass
 References
BOOKS Recommended (would be useful to students)
Boll, T. J., Raczynski, J. M., & Leviton, L. C. (2004). Handbook of
clinical health psychology. Disorders of behavior and health.
Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
David. H. B. (2011). Oxford Handbook of Clinical Psychology.
Updated Edition. Oxford Library of Psychology do not buy, read if
available in library/elsewhere)
( Hecker, J. E. & Thorpe, G. L. (2005). Introduction to clinical
psychology: Science, practice, and ethics. New Delhi: Pearson
Education Inc.
JCR Journals (subject related and relevant)
British Journal of Clinical
Psychology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/20448260 Clinical
Psychology Review. https://www.journals.elsevier.com/clinical-
psychology review