Paradigms, promises, and the potential of clinical psychology

Both Plaud's and Ilardi and Feldman's articles call for clinical psychology to redefine itself according to a particular paradigm or "unifying framework." This commentary focuses on the nature of clinical psychology as an applied discipline, whether clinical psychology in fact has an urgent need for a unifying framework, and whether radical behaviorism or cognitive neuroscience could provide such a framework. It is concluded that, as an applied field that draws both theory and method from a number of natural and social sciences, clinical psychology is served best by continued development and appropriation of competing scientific viewpoints rather than by fealty to a single perspective or paradigm.     

Closing the Gaps: Developmental Psychopathology as aTraining Model for Clinical Child Psychology

Espouses developmental psychopathology as a framework for training our future leaders due to its emphasis on an ecological, transactional lifespan perspective, as well as interdisciplinary bridging and policy focus. This perspective, used as a framework for questioning and thinking about the complex interplay of psychological and social phenomena, provides a method for closing the gaps in training future psychologists as it allows for the development of niche expertise under an umbrella of the broader, ecological perspective. In an increasingly complex world of shrinking mental health dollars and growing severity of mental health problems for families and youth, clinical psychologists are needed more than ever to solve social problems. The current training paradigms in clinical child psychology programs need redirection and clarification for future psychologists to contribute meaningfully to science, practice, and policy. This article provides background in the history and influence of the developmental psychopathology perspective, as well as future implications for doctoral training programs in clinical psychology.     

An attachment theory perspective on the proposed matrix model

The matrix model (C.R. Snyder & T.R. Elliott, this issue, pp. 1033-1054) advocates an increased grounding of clinical psychology graduate students in theory. The matrix model is theory-based in the ways that it advances this goal. Accordingly, evaluating the matrix model from an extant theoretical perspective should shed light on its applicability and utility as an educational framework. The present attachment theory perspective on the matrix model demonstrates that it meets its stated goals in that it possesses adequate (a) breadth in incorporating theory from across subdisciplines in psychology, and (b) depth in how it facilitates conceptualizing clients and research participants at the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and societal levels. The benefits for incorporating the matrix model in clinical psychology graduate programs are discussed.     

内隐联想测验(IAT)在临床心理学中的应用

本文介绍了内隐联想测验 (IAT)及其在临床心理学研究中的应用。内隐联想测验是比传统自我报告测验更好的一种研究不合理信念的新工具 ,现已在社交焦虑、抑郁与成瘾行为等研究中得到了应用。最后 ,本文讨论了内隐联想测验的局限性与其在临床心理学应用中的前景     

Developmental Theory and the Practice of Clinical Child Psychology

Examined developmental theory and its relevance for the practice of clinical child psychology. Following a brief review of basic principles of developmental psychology and developmental psychopathology, implications of a developmental perspective are explored for the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of childhood disorders. Although it is obvious that many developmental issues confront the clinical child psychologist and that we have learned much about translating developmental theory into clinical practice, we conclude we have a long way to go before we can assert that a true developmental-clinical child interface has been realized.     

Theory and concepts of prevention science as applied to clinical psychology.

This article provides an overview for this special issue on prevention science in clinical psychology. A brief historical perspective on prevention in clinical psychology is presented. An even greater emphasis on prevention in the future is related to changes in the current health-care system and their likely impact on psychological practice as we move into the next century. Conceptual and theoretical models of the prevention enterprise are addressed with a distinction drawn between health promotion and disease prevention in the areas of mental disorders and general physical health. The classification of preventive interventions is discussed and methodological challenges to outcomes research are outlined. The article concludes with a discussion of training and public policy implications and a brief overview of the other articles included in this special issue on prevention science.     

Comparative psychology, a new perspective for the 21st century: up the spiral staircase

This article responds to the continuing obituaries for Comparative Psychology. We understand the field to be a general psychology, a way of understanding the origins of all behavior of all species. We outline a methodological and conceptual foundation for comparative psychology to enter the new millennium-with an anagenetic and dynamic systems perspective. We see an important role to be played by comparative psychologists in managing resources, increasing our activity in social and political issues, and transcending our traditional role as the study of animal behavior to one that makes significant contributions to psychology and humanity by studying relationships between animals and changing environments, and by providing a historical perspective on human evolution.     

Re-envisioning the training and practice of clinical psychologists: preserving science and research orientations in the face of change

We argue for preservation of an expectation of psychologists that approach human problems from an evidence-based perspective. Acquisition of the requisite knowledge, skills, and practical experience require access to resources outside of graduate psychology programs. Whether adhering to a scientist-practitioner or practitioner-scholar model, psychologists must be "scientifically literate." Deficiencies are noted in the training of scientist-practitioner psychologists for the conduct of clinical trials and the dissemination and sustained implementation of evidence-based interventions.     

Perspectives on education and training in clinical psychology: integrating reactions

Reacting to the conceptual matrix of C.R. Snyder and T.R. Elliott as described in their article, "Twenty-First Century Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology: A Four Level Matrix Model" (this issue, pp. 1033-1054), a perspective is provided through the roles of a clinical training director and a clinical child and pediatric psychologist. Changing the direction of clinical psychology is complicated but the subfield of pediatric psychology demonstrates how such changes can be integrated with a focus on healthy development and promotion of strengths, on policy and public health concerns, and on program evaluation.     

The Role of Empirically Supported Treatments in Evidence-Based Psychological Practice: A Canadian Perspective

This article offers a Canadian perspective on the empirically supported psychological treatments initiative. As a context for the comments, we begin with an overview of the structure of professional psychology in Canada and comments regarding the logical fit of an evidence-based approach to practice within Canadian professional psychology. The history and recommendations of the Task Force on Empirically Supported Treatments commissioned by the Clinical Psychology Section (CSP) of the Canadian Psychological Association are outlined. Two themes are identified in the recommendations of the Canadian Task Force: an encouragement of collaboration among various professional, regulatory, and accreditation bodies in promoting evidence-based psychological practice, and an approach to dissemination that explicitly recognizes the complexities of clinical practice and the limitations of existing empirical knowledge. The commentary ends with discussion of the current CSP report, with particular attention to similarities and differences between the approach outlined here and the recommendations of the Canadian Task Force.     

The Science of Dialectical Behavior Therapy

Scheel's critique (this issue) of the empirical support for dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) should be of considerable benefit to DBT research. Too often in the history of clinical psychology there has been an excessive embracing of a particular clinical perspective. Scheel's critique is at times itself excessive, but the need for dismantling research to pinpoint the most effective and necessary features of DBT is well established. Nevertheless, as Scheel states, "DBT should not be held to a research standard higher than other treatments for the same condition, and at this time it meets and probably exceeds those criteria."     

Extending Training in Multicultural Competencies to Include Individuals Identifying as Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual: Key Choice Points for Clinical Psychology Training Programs

Traditional models of multicultural training for professional psychology have focused primarily on racial and ethnic minorities and have not included competencies focused on individuals identifying as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB), despite documented evidence of health disparities for sexual minorities. Ways to adapt models based on Sue's (1992) 3 × 3 competencies (attitudes and beliefs, knowledge, and skills across the dimensions of awareness of one's own cultural influences and biases, understanding the client perspective, and appropriate interventions for an individual client) for LGB health are described. This includes the addition of an action/advocacy dimension. Six key choice points for clinical psychology training programs adding LGB competency to a multicultural competency training component are outlined. Potential challenges and solutions for expanding multicultural training are discussed.     

Elements of a psychology of human diversity

Despite new movements in psychology that are supportive of human diversity, there is no general framework for relating significant social-psychological markers like gender, race, age, sexual orientation, and other aspects of human diversity to theory, research, and action in community psychology. This article reviews four perspectives that can contribute to a general psychology of human diversity: the population-specific psychologies (e.g., Asian-American psychology, the psychology of women, African-American psychology), sociopolitical perspectives (emphasizing historical, economic, and systems analysis and the dynamics of oppression), cross-cultural psychology (emphasizing culture, and inter- as well as intragroup methods), and ecological psychology (emphasizing the dynamics of specific settings and the people in them). Using tenets of social constructionist philosophy and an emphasis on social equity and cultural relativism to create a value stance, the relevant concepts from each perspective are discussed. The implications of this emerging diversity-conscious worldview for research, action, and theory in community psychology are also considered.     

Prevention and harm reduction for chemical dependency: a process perspective.

Clinical psychology is often on the periphery of treatment and prevention efforts to stop substance abuse and dependence. This article describes the current status of prevention research and practice, outlines a process perspective on the initiation and cessation of drug use and abuse, and offers some new ideas about how psychology can and should become involved in the prevention of chemical dependency. Psychologists are faced with the precursors and consequences of chemical dependency on a daily basis. With improved training and increased awareness, and aided by a process perspective, psychology and psychologists can play an important role in preventing the onset of chemical dependency, creating early interventions to stop the process of initiation, and becoming more involved in treatment and harm-reduction efforts. Psychologists have the basic training and the biopsychosocial orientation that could make them effective agents for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of chemical dependency.     

Psychology in a medical school: A personal account of a department's 35-year history

In 1911 John Broadus Watson and Shepard Ivory Franz proposed that the teaching of psychology was as essential to the education of medical students as were anatomy, pharmacology, surgery, and the other basic and clinical sciences. Today, our country's 126 medical schools each employ an average of some 35 full-time faculty psychologists; 6 have established full-fledged departments of psychology that are comparable (administratively) to departments that include faculty from the more traditional basic and clinical sciences. Thirty-five years ago (in 1957) the University of Oregon Medical School was the first medical school to create a department of Medical Psychology. The present writer was hired that year to chair that newly established department and has served continuously in that capacity since then. This Presidential Address to the APA Division of the History of Psychology offers the writer's personal perspective on the history and development of that department during its first 35 years of existence.     

The Clinical Implications of Attachment Theory

The work of John Bowlby, although influential in developmental psychology and social psychiatry, has had relatively little impact within his parent discipline of psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The paper traces Bowlby's relationship with the British Psychoanalytic Society, contrasting his ideas with those of Klein. Drawing on recent findings in developmental psychology stimulated by Attachment Theory, it outlines the clinical relevance of the concepts of the secure base and narrative, and reviews notions of defence and the Oedipal situation from the attachment perspective. Attachment Theory is not a new 'school' of psychotherapy but addresses principles which underlie all effective therapies. An extended case study is described illustrating these points.     

Transdisciplinary work with psychology from a population health perspective: an illustration

One of the important implications of a population health perspective in public health is an increase in the need for transdisciplinary ways of working. The Community Health Research Unit (CHRU) is presented as an example of an environment where psychology and psychologists work with other disciplines to conduct applied research in population health. Research activities were examined to identify how the disciplines collaborate and to provide evidence of successful interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches which incorporate health psychology. The strengths and challenges of multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary approaches were examined through a poll of CHRU members. Further, members' views about the contributions of psychology to their work were gathered. Issues of working with different disciplines in a transdisciplinary approach are highlighted and future directions are suggested.     

积极心理学——高校心理健康教育的新视角

目的 探讨积极心理学与心理健康教育相结合的必要性,提倡两者的结合.方法 查阅文献,对消极心理学影响下高校心理健康教育的误区及积极心理学的研究成果进行比较分析.结果 积极心理学与高校心理健康教育的结合具有现实的必要性和理论上的可能性.结论 积极心理学是高校心理健康教育开展的新视角,开展积极的心理健康教育具有很大的应用前景.     

应激的多视角解析

应激与人的健康有着重要的关系,它也成为当代心理学研究中最为广泛的主题之一。从19世纪下半叶到整个20世纪,人们分别从生理、社会和心理等方面解释、发展和研究应激概念及其理论。生理学的角度强迫生理反应,社会学的角度强调外在的要求和应激源,而心理学的角度则强调个体如何评价外在要求。