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Examination of Clinical Psychology

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Examination of Clinical Psychology
Steven Billingsley
University of Phoenix
PSY 480
Cindy Fouhy
02/01/14

Examination of Clinical Psychology Clinical psychology is an area of psychology which seeks to find and understand the various behavioral problems humans possess, and the possible psychological problems and disorders. “According to the APA, clinical psychology attempts to use the principles of psychology to better understand, predict, and alleviate intellectual, emotional, biological, psychological, social, and behavioral aspects of human functioning (APA, 2009a)”(Plante, 2011, pg. 5). For one to gain a better understanding of clinical psychology, the history and evolving nature of clinical psychology must be discussed, the role of research and statistics must be explained, and the differences between clinical psychology and other mental health professions must be discussed. The items listed will be addressed and examined throughout this paper.
History of Clinical Psychology In the later part of the 1800’s, psychology was being discovered in several laboratories in different universities. The field of psychology was insisting and leaning more on pure science as the main practice, but a former student of Wilhelm Wundt, named Lightner Witmer, made an impact and changed that view on psychology (Pickren, 2009). Lightner Whitmer in charge of the psychology department in the University of Pennsylvania. Whitmer began to work with a boy who had problems with spelling, and developed a program of tutoring which became a success in helping the boy. The success from the tutoring program Whitmer developed, lead to the event of Whitmer opening a psychological clinic in 1896, which was the first that had opened during that time (Pickren, 2009). Whitmer’s psychological clinic was focused on the children who suffered from various learning disabilities. The term

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