Clinical psychology is a relatively new discipline (Hersen & Walker, 1998, p. vii), while the discipline can be traced back to the last days of the 19th century, the differentiation between the activity of academia and profession only coming during the Second World War. worldwide, for those who wanted an alternative to the study of scientific behavior different from what medicine and psychiatry as such could offer, in the first moments clinical psychology emphasized tests, which is why clinical psychologists came to be assimilated as men in the tests, who only carried out few verbal psychotherapeutic interventions and this under the supervision of a doctor. It was necessary to wait for more psychologists to emerge so that the profession as such had a certain autonomy, which arises with the various currents of study of psychology; brief psychotherapies and other therapies were also developed during those years.
It was the great advances in the understanding of the brain and the psychosocial factors involved in illness and well-being that contributed to the emergence of two large subareas within clinical psychology: clinical neuropsychology and clinical health psychology, with their great contributions to the area.
In this PsychologyOnline article we discover everything about general aspects of clinical psychologytake note!
Introduction to clinical psychology
Clinical psychologists today are considered to be responsible for the diagnosis and treatment of various psychological problems (“Psychology,” 2009), that is, an applied and at the same time scientific way of treating and studying behavior and mental processes, but this time in a clinical area and solving day-to-day problems, problems such as evaluation, treatment, implementation of psychotherapies and research among the vast breadth of applications that the discipline allows.
The clinical psychologists Currently, they are understood as researchers applied to practice who study and treat mental and behavioral problems, also those who are considered more serious, work with people with various problems and various disorders, psychotherapy and psychological evaluation are two tools of the most mentioned by clinical psychologists.
Although it is true that clinical psychology in most cases acts in an interdisciplinary manner together with the psychiatrist, the general practitioner, the counselor or social worker among others, it is a discipline by its own extension, which also uses the contributions of other areas of psychology such as social psychology for example.
Clinical psychologists integrate science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing and improving psychological dysfunctions and promote subjective well-being and correct personal development. For example, with respect to social psychology, and I mention it as an example of multidisciplinary work and how clinical psychology adapts and makes use of research from other areas of psychology, there is now a broad bridge of investigative interaction between psychology clinical and social psychology, with work in each area influencing work in another (“social and clinical psychology,” (Hersen & Walker, 1998, p. 298), this tells us a lot since the understanding of normal or abnormal states in The human being is not just an aspect of one area but of all of them together, but it is in clinical psychology, where the application of research and knowledge obtained by other areas of psychology are put into practice, when the clinical psychologist makes use of from psychometrics to make evaluations, from psychotherapies or treatments to treat problems, from the observation and understanding of cases for research, this is where the point of focus is approached in the search for those mutual aspects that can improve or contribute. to the improvement of the lifestyle of human beings.
Definition of clinical psychology
The concept of Human nature as a resistant set of capacities and mechanisms capable of even observing and reflecting on understandable and easy-to-use principles in their correct functions, it is basic to understanding the assumptions on which clinical psychology rests (Brugger, 2008), and in the understanding of human nature. , its mechanisms of action, its functions, this is where the main interest of clinical psychology lies and the focus point for any clinician who wishes to fully understand all the clinical and behavioral implications in humans.
The human being is a complex conglomerate of different parts working together to keep the human being alive, from a series of basic functions that could be called instinctive such as complex reproduction to much more complex functions such as cognitive functions, for example. , which involve aspects such as reasoning and logic, in addition to memory and perception.
clinical psychology the area with the largest number of practitioners in the science of psychology, it is also one of the largest research areas of all areas, given its nature of being a curious and complex mix between science, clinical practice, research and art of service clinical psychology is an essential part of modern mental health teams, and even more so, whether in multidisciplinary or unidisciplinary practice, clinical psychology plays a profound role in treatment, counseling, research, application of psychotherapies and measurement tests, as well as in the investigation of behavior in normal as well as abnormal environments.
While is true that psychopathology It is the area that most generally deals with abnormal psychology, its implications, its causes. Clinical psychology also makes great contributions, in that it is clinical psychologists who are with people who suffer from disorders on a daily basis, who apply the investigations of psychopathology and at the same time they also promote their own research both with and without a clinical vision.
Clinical psychology is a focus point for behavior since it is in clinical environments where people with the largest conglomerate of problems meet in situations associated with well-being, health and stress, functional points of all psychology, since psychology focuses on the study, understanding and the treatment of the mind and behavior associated with well-being and health and who better than clinical psychologists to be close to this objective that is simplified in their daily practice, with a wide range of patients who suffer from small disorders from the day by day, to more serious situations that require deep interventions to be treated.
Let us remember that in the present day field of mental health, clinicians are involved with disturbed behaviors of all kinds, severity and duration (Korchin, 1976, p. 83), this tells us the abnormal aspects that are observed and studied closely. In order to once again obtain a concept of normality and well-being in the individual, in general the terms of normality and abnormality are variable terms, but they can be understood and studied objectively and even in the majority of cases intervened with due care. possible reservations towards a change, that is the promise and interest that drives me to the study and clinical application of the knowledge that psychology with all its areas provides us as tools for practice and research.
General analysis of clinical psychology
Clinical psychology can be defined after the study of its variables as the discipline that uses the principles and knowledge of general psychology to evaluate and understand individual behavior, to make recommendations regarding it, or to engage in activities designed to contribute to behavior modification and behavioral research, within the regularity and predictability of individual behavior (Hadley , 1958, p. 6), this is a definition that, if we do not define it as clinical, could well be applied to any other specialized area of psychology, since all areas that tend toward specialization make use of the principles and knowledge that general psychology has already contributed in its research, in any case psychology is concerned with the study of behavior in general, while in the clinical field it emphasizes the study of individual behavior as they perform their functions in the context of their entire life.
Each clinical psychologist and counselor must consider each individual and unique problem, the method used by the clinician must maintain that individuality, behavior is the result of the interaction of the individual with his environment, so that there are external forces coming from the environment that induce their behavior, but there are also forces that come from themselves that also induce certain behavior and that are individual.
In general, Psychology is concerned with understanding, predicting and eventually controlling behaviorin the field of clinical psychology, emphasizes understanding and evaluating individual behavior in order to contribute to its modification or possible control.
The discovery of empirical relationships and principles in each field of research depends on a common methodology. To be sure, clinical psychology has its own techniques for making observations and measurements. These techniques, as well as a special vocabulary and class of problems, distinguish clinical psychology from other disciplines (Shaffer & Lazarus, 1952, p. 32), the kinds of variables studied by clinicians differ from those of physicians and the tools used as well, but the aspect that holds the sciences together is the general method. that allows us to generate more knowledge, we must know that there are major aspects that differentiate clinical psychology and the measurement of individual personality from other disciplines, but we must also know that evaluations and tests, interviews and the particular measurement instruments that They belong to clinical psychology and have been adapted to other situations and practical applications.
Clinical psychologists make a unique and valuable contribution to the service of individuals, groups and society in general. By combining scientific and applied skills, clinical psychologists are able to practice, evaluate their practice, and develop new methods and standards of practice. (Vallis & Howes, 1996), these days are when the clinical skills of psychologists have to be valued even more, nowadays when health care is expensive for states as well as for individuals, and when Given the countless number of health problems, more and more are demanded…