Examination of Clinical Psychology
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According to Rotter (1954), psychology is the study of behavior and mind with an ultimate goal of understanding mental processes and behavior through various principles and cases. Nevertheless, clinical psychology is the integration of theories, science and clinical knowledge that promote the subjective personal development, and well-being through preventing the psychological dysfunction. Under this context, clinical psychology is assumed to have begun in 1896 and since then, the word has increased knowledge in clinical psychology. In many cases, clinical psychology is often a synchronized mental health professional. With this in mind, this paper seeks to analyze the history and evolving nature of clinical psychology in addition, explain the role of research and statistics in clinical psychology. Subsequently, the paper will also discuss the differences between clinical psychology and other mental health professions that include social work, psychiatry, and school psychology.
It is a well-documented fact; clinical psychology is the most popular are in psychology. In the article, Discovering Lightner Witmer: A forgotten Hero of psychology 2009 Thomas outline that, clinical psychology was started by Lightener Witmer in 1896 with the first psychological clinic being at Pennsylvania University. With no doubt; Lightner Witmer is outlined to be the founder of clinical psychology who in his efforts developed school psychology and specials education. In facts, Lightner was an integrationist and open minded in clinical psychology in the sense that, he opened the laboratory in Pennsylvania University with an aim of assisting children with mental defects. From Lightner Witmer assumption, clinical psychology is a term derived from the word medicine, which implies that, this field is concern with treating sick patients. In other words, clinical psychology involves researching on treatment of patients with mental disorders. The most popular treatments at 19th century involved phrenology that involved the study of personality through the shape of a skull. In conjunction with this, other treatments included physiognomy through the assessment of personality through the outer appearance and Mesmer’s using magnets among others.
With this regard, the field became organized under the name clinical psychology, and since then, it has been leading area in psychology. According to Barlow (1981), clinical psychology has expanded into a stout professional as well as, an academic field. With this regard, it is estimated that, the number of clinical psychologists between 1974 and 1990 in the United States increased from 20,000 to 63,000 thus; outlining the fastest growing psychology. Up-to date, clinical psychologists are experts in psychotherapy and assessment. It is essential to note that, clinical psychology professional requires research and statistics, which play a fundamental role to understand the field phenomena interest.
Research play a fundamental role in the sense that; it is the foundation of understanding facts in clinical psychology. In other words, it provides facts to conduct clinical practice including best methods to assess disorders along with prevention and treatment. Barlow (1981) argue that, research provide applications and directions for clinical psychology with links of psychology, social sciences and biological. With this regard, clinical psychologists conduct researches in different settings such as in hospitals, community, schools and clinics to carry their activities effectively. Subsequently, statistics enables researchers to base their data findings through measuring the information or facts gathered to present legitimate results. This implies that, statistics and research are the key components for efficiency and success of clinical psychology (Rotter, 1954).
In conclusion, there are various differences between clinical psychology and mental health professional that include the following. First, the mental health professional offers services with an aim of improving the person mental health and a times treating mental illness. Mental health professionals include social workers, psychiatric nurses, school psychologists and psychological counselors (Diana, Elliott., & James, 1993). On the other hand, clinical psychology is the integration of theory and science whose purpose is to enhance personal development through relieving psychologically dysfunction. With this in mind, they use research and psychological methods to enhance positive changes to clients and tackle complex patients. In this regard, this paper has analyzed clinical psychology in detail in addition, discussed how it differs with mental health professions.
References
Barlow, D.H. (1981). On the relation of clinical research to clinical practice: Current issues, new directions. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 49 (2) 147-15.
Diana, Elliott., & James D. (1993). Mental health professionals versus non-mental-health professionals: Childhood trauma and adult functioning. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 24 (1) 83-90.
Rotter, J.B. (1954). Social learning and clinical psychology. American Psychological Association, 5 (3) 466.
Thomas, H. (2009). Discovering Lightner Witmer: A forgotten Hero of Psychology. Journal of scientific psychology, 7 (5) 3-12.
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