The paper examines the history and the evolution of clinical psychology, the role of research and statistics in psychology and differences between the discipline and other professions associated with mental healthcare. Clinical psychology has evolved since its foundation to provide effective systems of evaluations. As such, with continuing testing and evaluations of the result, it has enabled clinical psychologists to conduct assessments tests that provide appropriate treatments for mentally ill patients.

History of clinical psychology

The foundation of the new discipline of clinical psychology was laid during late 1800s and 1900s, a period when the scientists were interested in the study of the human mind. One of the first formally a scholar of the clinical psychology was Sir Francis Galton whose work influenced other researchers. He studied individual differences among a group of people and identified certain characteristics such as differences in aptitude and mental ability. The knowledge of the new discipline started spreading and within a few years, the first psychology laboratory was constructed in Germany by Wilhelm Wundt while William James started the first psychology laboratory in United States. Initially, efforts to carry out diagnosis turned out to be crude, but later there were development of early systems that made it easier to measure the mental ability. By 1896, the first psychological clinical was established by Lightner Witmer and invented the term clinical psychology (Plante, 2011).

Sigmund Freud, the founding father of psychoanalytical therapy, created the approach of psychotherapeutic treatment. He described the significances of unconscious processes and drives that that occurs in early childhood experiences with the aim of giving an insight of the behavioral development of an individual in adulthood and contribution to the psychology. He inspired his students such as Carl Jung and Alfred Adler, who further advanced the discipline to examine behaviorism and client-centered therapy. The field of psychology exists today since it was mostly applied for mental health professional and psychological test during the two world wars. United States was in great need to identify the mental fitness of its soldiers during World War I and II. The clinical psychology produced successful results in the assessment of early intelligences and personality tests in an operation that was referred to as Army Alpha and Army Beta. During the World War II, a window of opportunity opened for clinical psychologists as soldiers who were returning from the war were suffering from trauma-related psychological problems and the psychiatrist resources were not enough to provide adequate services. As a result, the clinical psychologists were called upon to apply the psychotherapy to the soldiers, raising their reputation and earning themselves a professional identity in the field of clinical psychology (Plante, 2011).

Evolution of clinical psychology

After the World War II, clinical psychology continued to evolve in the field of intervention and assessment. As the old systems of intelligence and personality tests were revised, there was testing and development of new assessment. The evolution of clinical psychology surfaced in 1950, after publication Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Health Disorders (DSM), a comprehensive system of diagnosis that was very essential in the field of mental health profession. There have been several revisions made on the DSM over the years. However, there have been misrepresentations on the early editions due to flawed descriptions containing vague symptoms and misdiagnosis of the patients. In addition, the clinicians have been in disagreement on whether the symptoms described in the early edition are present or absent in a given patient or not. In order to resolve the shortcoming, the editions were further revised and established with greater reliability. As such, the development of DSM reached the fourth edition in year 2011, and the fifth edition has been released in 2013 (Wallace & Gach, 2010).

The role of research in clinical psychology

Research is a source of foundation of knowledge needed by the psychologist to understand their phenomena of interest such as mental health, psychopathology, and how the physical disease relates with mental health. Another role of research is to provide a body of evidence that acts as a framework for clinical practice. Research provides the clinicians with empirically validated methods of evaluation of people and their problems and also the method of prevention and treatment based on empirical findings. In addition, the psychological tests and assessments done on patients are based on research findings in order for them to be reliable and valid for implementation. Clinical psychologists are often confronted with situations in which they do not have an immediate solution for the treatment of the patients. Nevertheless, research is used to identify interventions which are more applicable than the treatment, or are more reliable forms of treatment than the old formal methods. Research also concepts for new applications into other fields related to clinical psychology such as biology and social sciences with an attempt to study the behavioral characteristics shown by patients having psychological problems (Tuma, 2013).

Role of statistics in clinical psychology

Statistic is useful when evaluating new insights into human behavior by investigating data on therapies, medication and making inferences on the most effective forms of interventions for the patients. In addition, statistics is an important component of improving evaluative measures and tests. For instance, the discipline has been used to evaluate projective tests such as those that were done by Rorschach inkblot. The results of the evaluations are compared with cohorts of new clinical psychologists at a statistical confidence interval with the aim of improving the test results and making them more effective for psychological assessments. In addition, statistics helps to interpret a large volume of information in the form of data so that it can be meaningful. Furthermore, psychologists can organize data in a way that is easy to understand by use of pie charts and graphs. Descriptive statistics helps to describe accurately a lot of information in an understandable way (Richard & Huprich, 2011).

Difference between clinical psychology and other mental health professions

Clinical psychology and psychiatry

One of the simplest differences is that a psychologist specializes in the field of psychology while psychiatry has a degree in medicine. Psychologists are trained to use cognitive behavioral therapy in counseling patients and usually practice as social workers while psychiatrists are physicians who apply particular training to carry out diagnosis and to treat mental illnesses. Another distinguishing characteristic is that psychiatrists can prescribe medicine for patients while psychologists can not, although there has been a move to give the leverage to those who has post-doctorate masters degree (Plante, 2011).

Clinical psychology and social work

Although the social workers can be found in many mental health care providers and provide psychotherapy to individuals, couples and families, they specialize more on biopsychosocial parts of the problem. They focus more on consideration of psychological, biological and social factors in the victim’s environment that could be affecting the well-being of the individual. On the other hand, a clinical psychologist applies scientific study and assessment to relieve distress based on psychological problems for the well-being of the patient’s development (Plante, 2011).

Clinical psychology and school psychology

The clinical psychology is professionalism in which clinicians work directly with mental patients and spend time assessing, diagnosing and giving appropriate treatments sessions and therapies. On the other hand, a school of psychology requires a four years undergraduate degree to earn a license to treat mental ill patients. The school of psychology works directly the school to conduct an assessment on the needs of the students and create education plans for them. In addition, the school of psychology offers private practices and consultancy services for the school and businesses (Plante, 2011).

Conclusion

A history of clinical psychology has an important role in our education system. Psychotherapy makes important contributions to the evaluation and assessment of clinical psychology tests for specific types of treatments. The remarkable progress of the development of editions of psychological therapy will soon result to closely a complete mapping of the brain circuitry. As a result, the test and hypothesis applied in clinical psychology will eventually lead to the development of the link between genetics and behavior, hence providing an effective treatment to psychologically related problems (Plante, 2011).

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