The return of science to education in clinical psychology: a reply to Snyder and Elliott

Clinical psychology currently exists in a state of isolation from the other scientific domains. This disconnect is explained, in part, by the continued adherence to mind-body dualism by many clinical psychologists and the rift between researchers and practitioners within the discipline. However, natural science researchers are reasserting the connection between physical and biological properties and psychological phenomena. As a result, knowledge and skill pertaining to the scientific method will become increasingly important in the education of future clinical psychologists. Modifications to both undergraduate and graduate training are suggested.     

Biopsychosocial approaches and evolutionary theory as aids to integration in clinical psychology and psychotherapy

This paper explores the problem of fragmentation in clinical psychology. It is suggested that this is due to the nature of clinical psychology with its multitude of different concerns, ranging from the cultural to the physiological. To help us become more integrative we could more formally adopt the biopsychosocial approach which explicitly asks the clinician and theorist to focus on the interactions between various levels. This paper also argues that the biopsychosocial approach could be informed by evolutionary theory because this theory provides possible explanations of why certain developmental and social contexts can so powerfully impact on physiology. An evolutionary psychology relevant to clinical psychology can focus on the archetypal nature of human experience, be helpful in exploring therapeutic issues, and avoid some of the reductionist aspects of sociobiology.     

Assessment interviewing in clinical psychology.

The relative specificity of the structure of psychological traits has presented the clinical psychologist with a very difficult problem; it means that generalized test procedures are of limited use. This paper suggests: (1) that the interview presents one way of beginning to solve this problem, and (2) that the findings of psychological research may provide the means of arriving at a distinctive style of valid interviewing for assessment purposes. This style has two main features: (1) it facilitates self-exploration and self-disclosure and (2) it maximizes the accuracy of the information obtained. An outline of some of the research findings is presented; some of the methodological problems are discussed; and a brief example is given.     

Toward a consilient science of psychology

From its inception, psychology has been characterized by conceptual fragmentation and slow scientific progress (Henriques, 2004; Meehl, 1978). In contrast, the natural sciences have achieved in recent decades a remarkable degree of consilience--the linking of fact, theory, and method across disciplines (and subdisciplines) and across nested levels of informational complexity (Wilson, 1998). Although such consilience serves as a potent catalyst of scientific discovery, there exists several barriers to the emergence of a consilient science of psychology (e.g., the persistent influence of dualism, longstanding internecine discord, resistance to perceived reductionism, etc.). We discuss the manner in which the development of metatheoretical frameworks (including Henriques' Tree of Knowledge model) may play an important role in addressing such barriers. Likewise, we describe the hybrid interdisciplinary domain of cognitive neuroscience, which provides an empirically testable metatheory and a promising consilient bridge between psychology and the natural sciences.     

Positivism and clinical psychology

Approaches to clinical psychology which favour quantification and experimental methods are often criticized as being ‘positivistic’. Critics typically do not define what they mean by ‘positivism’. At best they merely offer hints as to what they mean by this term. An outline of positivism as a philosophical doctrine is provided and it is agreed that in terms of any meaningful definition, positivism is a flawed doctrine. However, it is also argued that those approaches which critics typically claim to exhibit features of ‘positivistic’, do not necessarily do so. ‘Positivism’ is not a helpful term in discussing the appropriate epistemologies for clinical psychology. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

X-ray microanalysis as applied to fungal tissues.

Analytical electron microscopy combines the techniques of high-resolution electron microscopy and high-sensitivity X-ray microanalysis of samples. Spectrometry of the elements (characteristic X-rays produced by a scanning electron microprobe) was employed to detect some elements of Mendeleev''s classification in pathogenic fungi for humans. X-ray microanalysis applied in wavelength dispersive spectrometry was used to study Coccidioïdes immitis, Paracoccidioïdes brasiliensis and Trichosporum cutaneum.     

Relationship between practice counselling and referral to outpatient psychiatry and clinical psychology.

BACKGROUND: Although reduction in the use of secondary care mental health services is a suggested benefit of counselling in general practice, there has been little empirical investigation of this relationship. AIM: To investigate the relationship between the provision of counselling in general practice and the use of outpatient psychiatry and clinical psychology services across a geographical area. METHOD: Information on referrals to outpatient psychiatry and clinical psychology from all general practices in the London Borough of Islington over one year (October 1993 to September 1994) was collected from the routine information systems of the main hospital departments serving this area. Referral rates per 1000 practice population were compared for practices with and without a practice-based counsellor. RESULTS: Fifteen (35%) of the 43 practices had a counsellor based in the practice. The median referral rate to clinical psychology was higher in practices with a counsellor (4.1 per 1000) than in practices without a counsellor (0.8 per 1000). There was no relationship between the provision of practice counselling and median referral rates to outpatient psychiatry (1.8 per 1000 with a counsellor, 1.7 per 1000 without a counsellor). CONCLUSION: Provision of practice counselling in the study was associated with higher referral rates to clinical psychology and no difference in referral rates to outpatient psychiatry. This is in contrast to the hypothesis that counselling reduces the use of secondary care mental health services.     

Applied cognitive psychology: Implications of cognitive psychology for clinical psychology and psychotherapy

Cognitive psychology has made numerous contributions to clinical psychology, and these contributions are considered especially with reference to the anxiety disorders. It is argued that there are four major contributions that can be identified. First, the cognitive approach has led to the development of complex models showing the main cognitive processes and structures of relevance to an understanding of anxiety disorders. Second, controlled laboratory studies permit a more detailed investigation of cognitive biases in anxious patients than generally is feasible in more naturalistic settings. Third, the cognitive approach provides relevant evidence with respect to the issue of whether cognitive biases play a role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Fourth, the enhanced understanding of the anxiety disorders that has arisen from the cognitive approach has had beneficial effects on therapeutic practice in a number of significant ways. In sum, it is claimed that clinical psychology has benefited considerably from cognitive theory and research.     

Applications of statistics to medical science (1) Fundamental concepts

The conceptual framework of statistical tests and statistical inferences are discussed, and the epidemiological background of statistics is briefly reviewed. This study is one of a series in which we survey the basics of statistics and practical methods used in medical statistics. Arguments related to actual statistical analysis procedures will be made in subsequent papers.     

Clinical psychology going forward: the need to promote clinical psychology and to respond to the training crisis

To provide a context for discussing psychology going forward, this article will begin by briefly providing a historical and international context. It will then argue that establishing a database demonstrating the value of our treatments is not enough, and that we also need to promote what we can accomplish. The question will then be posed as to whether the Australian Psychological Society Colleges should be restructured for maximising the potential of clinical psychology, for example, amalgamating some of the Colleges. The need for political action with respect to national health care reform will be discussed including advocacy related to Better Access, and the need to get psychologists into the newly established Medicare Locals and Local Hospital Networks. Finally, the training crisis in clinical psychology will be discussed along with some recommendations for change, of which the one considered to be most important is getting psychology added to the list of currently five professions who can offer Masters Degrees (extended) with graduates able to use the title “Doctor of (field of study).”     

The cognitive neuroscience paradigm: a unifying metatheoretical framework for the science and practice of clinical psychology

The emerging discipline of cognitive neuroscience (CN) enjoins the efforts of cognitive psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, clinical neurologists, neurophilosophers, and many others working collaboratively across traditional disciplinary boundaries to elucidate the manner in which the physical operations of the brain give rise to the vast panoply of human mental and behavioral events. The present article describes the foundational tenets of the CN metatheoretical framework and contends that the CN framework is capable of providing a coherent, unifying scientific paradigm for the discipline of clinical psychology. Clinical psychology's adoption of the CN paradigm would facilitate (a) its consilient linkage with the natural sciences, (b) resolution of long-standing internecine theoretical schisms, and (c) enhanced understanding and treatment of numerous forms of psychopathology. Nevertheless, psychology's historically influential radical behavioral (RB) perspective is not easily reconciled with the CN paradigm. However, unlike CN, RB (a) is not fully consilient with the natural sciences, (b) fails to articulate the proximal causal mechanisms that mediate environment-behavior relations, and (c) engages in "greedy reductionism" in its disavowal of informational levels of complexity in the patterning of neural activity. The article concludes with a discussion of the possibility of theoretical rapprochement between CN and RB.