Chapter 1: What is Clinical Psychology

Question 1

Clinical Psychology

Answer 1

Field of Psychology - Div 12 APA

Both a science and an art - uses the empirical method & research with creative application of knowledge

Question 2

Definition of Clinical Psychology

Answer 2

The field of Clinical Psychology involves research, teaching, and services relevant to the applications of principles, methods, and procedures for understanding, predicting, and alleviating intellectual, emotional, biological, pschological, social and behavioral maladjustment, disability and discomfort, applied to a wide range of client populations

Question 3

APA Definition of Clinical Psychology

Answer 3

Highlights activities in which clinical psychologists engage

Highlights the overall purpose of engaging in those activities

Question 4

Clinical Attitude/Clinical Approach

Answer 4

Tendency to combine knowledge from research on human behavior and mental processes with efforts at individual assessment in order to understand and help a particular person;

Question 5

Traits That Are Crucial for Clinical Psychologists

Answer 5

Interest in people
Honesty and integrity in dealing with others
Emotional stability

Question 6

Training Requirements

Answer 6

Education - doctorate degree required; PhD (research based) or PsyD

Experience - Internship (1 year) and post-doctoral training (1 year)

Specialized training - (neuropsych, forensic) usually begun in internship and postdoc training; advanced certification available after licensing

Testing of Competence - National Exam - EPPP (Examination for Professional Psychology Practice) and State Exam required for Licensing; CE required thereafter

Advanced Certification - ABPP

Good Character

Question 7

Independent Practice Privilege

Answer 7

Come after:
Trainee as completed a doctoral-level degree tat includes course work, research training, and an approved internship
Completed a certain number of hours of supervised practice
Passed a licensing board exam

Question 8

Grey Areas in Clinical Psychology

Answer 8

How much knowledge of or training in a new therapy thechnique is necessary before a therapist can begin to ethically offer it to clients?
What kind of records should a therapist keep?
With whom should those records be shared?
If a potentially violent client reports seriously thinking of harming another person, what legal and ethical obligations (and liability) does the therapist have to report the danger?
What restrictions, if any, should there be if a therapist and a client (or former client or relative of a former client) begin to develop romantic interests in each other?
Can a clinical psychologist who has just read about an interesting new psychological test use it in the assessment of his or her next client?
How should a clinical psychologist respond if asked to testify in divorce court on behalf of one of two spouses whom he or she treated in marital therapy?
How should a clinical psychologist respond if a parent seeking custody of a child asks for a personal meeting, just before the psychologist is to conduct a court ordered custody evaluation of a child?

Question 9

Familiarity with the Ethics Code & State & Federal Laws

Answer 9

Necessary for psychologists to be effective and to avoid professional mistakes that could have serious consequences

Question 10

American Psychological Association

Answer 10

The largest organization of psychologists in the US

Question 11

Clinical Psychologists

Answer 11

Core mental health professionals; includes counseling psychology, school psychology, social work, psychiatry, psychiatric nursing, and marriage and family therapy

Question 12

Counseling Psychologists

Answer 12

Counseling psychologists can earn a PhD, PsyD, or EdD but different in emphasis; eligible for the same licensure, insurance reimbursement, and professional benefits as clinical psychologists, providing they meet requirements; concerned with treatment and prevention of psychological disorders but they also deal with normal transitions and adjustments people face

Question 13

School Psychologists

Answer 13

Share a scientist-practitioner model of training, move through similar internship and licensure requirements, conduct assessments, design intervention at the individual and system levels, and evaluate programs

Question 14

Social Workers

Answer 14

Provide direct services to clients or work to improve social conditions or both; trained in various psychotherapy techniques but focus on how social/situational variables, rather than intrapersonal and interpersonal variables affect functioning;

Question 15

Psychiatrist

Answer 15

Deals with the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental disorders; complete psychiatric residency and take coursework in psychology, undergo supervision by qualified psychiatrists as they work with patient

Question 16

Distinction between Psychologists and Psychiatrists

Answer 16

Psychiatrists are medical doctors; focus on biological views of the causes of mental disorders while Psychologists focus on the psychological view of the causes of mental disorders

Question 17

Psychiatric Nurses

Answer 17

Trained in the care and treratment of persons with psychiatric discorders; usually work in hospital settings

Question 18

Marriage and Family Therapists

Answer 18

Trained to treat psychological disorders as they occur within the context of marriages, couples, and families; training emphasizes family systems models and psychotherapy techniques applicable to the populations they treat

Question 19

Paraprofessionals

Answer 19

Persons trained to assist in or supplemental health services; generally work as part of a treatment team, and their activities are supervised by professionals

Question 20

Alternative Treatments

Answer 20

Persons who practice alternative treatments often describe teir work as falling within a holistic tradition that emphasizes the integration of mind, body, spirit

Question 21

Activities of Clinical Psychologists

Answer 21

Assessment & Treatment (~50% of workload)

Research
Teaching (including Supervision)
Consultation
Administration

Question 22

Assessment

Answer 22

Involves collecting information about people: their behavior, problems, unique characteristics, abilities and intellectual functioning; information is used to diagnose problematic behavior, guide client toward an optimal vocational choice, facilitate selection of job candidates, describe a client’s personality characteristics, select treatment techniques, guide legal decisions regarding the commitment of individuals to institutions, to provide a more complete picture of a client’s problems, to screen potential participants in psychological research projects, to establish pretreatment baseline levels of behavior against which to measure posttreatment improvement, etc.

Question 23

Treatment

Answer 23

Designed to help people better understand and solve distressing psychological problems; interventions are known as psychotherapoy, behavior modification, psychological conseling

Question 24

Research

Answer 24

Makes clinicians stand out among other helping professionals and it is an area where clinicians make their greatest contribution

Question 25

Why graduate schools train in Empirical Research

Answer 25

So clinicians can critically evaluate published research to determine which assessment procedures and therapeutic interventions are likely to be effective for their clients and which have not been empirically validated
Clinicians who work in academia must often supervise and evaluate research projects conducted by their students
Psychologists who work in community mental health centers or other service agencies are asked to assist administrators in evaluating the effectiveness of the agency’s programs
Can help clinicians objectively evaluate the effectiveness of their own clinical work

Question 26

Teaching

Answer 26

Psychologists spend time in educational activities;

includes research supervision, supervising practica, teaching in the context of in-service training

Question 27

Consultation

Answer 27

Provide advice to organizations about a variety of problems; Case Oriented & Program/Administration Oriented

Question 28

Evidence-Based Practice

Answer 28

Basing professional practice on solid, up-to-date research

Question 29

Clinical Experience

Answer 29

Starting point for generating hypotheses about what makes psychotherapy effective;

Question 30

Boulder Model

Answer 30

Came out of clinical psychology’s first major training conference; referred to as the Scientist-Practitioner Model; Recommended that clinical psychologists be proficient in research and professional practice, earn a PhD in psychology from a university-based graduate program, and complete a supervised, year-long internship

Question 31

Vail Model

Answer 31

Recommended alternative training that placed proportionately less emphasis on scientific training and more on preparation for the delivery of clinical services

Question 32

Eclecticism

Answer 32

Using techniques from a variety of schools rather than sticking to just one; closely related to psychotherapy integration

Question 33

Psychotherapy Integration

Answer 33

Systematic combining of elements of various clinical psychology theories;

Question 34

Mental Health Parity

Answer 34

Require health insurers to provide the same level of coverage for mental illnes as they do for physical illness

Question 35

Dynamics Behind Lack of Insurance Support for Mental Health Illness

Answer 35

Attitudes aout mental illness
Limited dissemination of evidence about the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of psychological treatments
Financial interests of certain stakeholders and constituents

Question 36

Managed Care

Answer 36

Use business principles to make decisions about treatments; stimulated research as to which treatments are more effective

Question 37

Nomothetic Research

Answer 37

Type of research that is most common, emphasized in research methods

Study of groups in the population

search for general laws, focus on narrow number of variables

quantitative & objective

Question 38

Ideopathic Research

Answer 38

Background and symptom information of an individual client

search for understanding of complex factors influencing the individual

qualitative & subjective