Good Examination Of Clinical Psychology Research Paper Example

Clinical psychology focuses on the mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders that people have problems with. It has been around since 1896, in which the first psychological clinic was established at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer (Weiner, n.d.). At this time, there was not a wide variety of areas being studied. A large amount of time was spent on issues such as intelligence and personality in the beginning. However, in the 1940’s, clinical psychology became a profession, and help was necessary for veterans with psychological disabilities who were returning home from war (Weiner, n.d.). The National Institute of Mental Health introduced “training grant support of psychology departments with clinical psychology programs, and the American Psychological Association formalized a required curriculum for becoming a clinical psychologist, and began accrediting programs that meet these requirements” (Weiner, n.d.). In just ten years, it was necessary to have a license to practice psychology. Today in the United States there are 105,000 licensed psychologists (Weiner, n.d.). There are three main professions that came out of this field, which are a clinical scientist, a scientist-practitioner, and an applied clinical scientist.
The role of research in clinical psychology is very important. Compared to other studies, psychology is fairly new, and more needs to be done to understand it more thoroughly. By performing research, it can be possible to develop new clinical assessment methods and devices, it can show valid and invalid psychotherapies, psychological interventions, and prevention efforts (Roberts & Hardi, n.d.). Research can also help with the measurement of the range of outcomes of these techniques, and the costs and benefits of them; program evaluation is also important too (Roberts & Hardi, n.d.). Statistics must be used to determine if the results from this research are significant and can be applied to the general public. These numbers show us things such as what treatment methods do and do not work, symptoms of particular disorders, and several other data that is necessary for us to better understand clinical psychology.
The main difference between clinical psychology and social work is that social workers are often employed at community centers. Rather than being the sole source of treatment for the patient, they often have additional information regarding other places for help. School psychology is different than clinical psychology in that it does not deal with serious mental illnesses as frequently. It is more common for school psychologists to focus in areas such as vocational assessment (Differences between psychology, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers, 2011). Psychiatry is different from clinical psychology because it uses medical procedures. Psychiatrists can send their patients to hospitals, and perform procedures such as EEGs and brain imaging scans (Differences between psychology, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers, 2011). While there are differences between all of these professions, there are still many areas that overlap, and they all have the main goal of helping people.

References

Differences between psychology, psychiatrists, counselors, and social workers. (2011).
PsychologyMatters. Retrieved from:
http://www.psychologymatters.asia/article/41/differences-between-psychologist-
psychiatrists-counsellors-and-social-workers.html
Weiner, I. (n.d.). Clinical psychology [PowerPoint Slides]. Retrieved from:
http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LKvC4d0GNvgJ:https://www.a
pa.org/education/k12/clinical.ppt+&cd=7&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Roberts, M., & Hardi, S. (n.d.). Clinical psychology research. Retrieved from:
https://www.blackwellpublishing.com/content/BPL_Images/Content_store/
Sample_chapter/0631226737/Roberts-001.pdf