Review about Examination of Clinical Psychology

When a student is entering into psychology, there are many venues he or she will have to look into. Will he or she decide to become a Social Worker, a Psychologist, a Psychiatrist or a Clinical Psychologist? First the student will need to do some research to see what each branch of Psychology has to offer and determine if he or she will have the stamina to be the best at his or her chosen path.If a student chooses to go into Clinical Psychology as their chosen career, he or she will need to look into the history and evolving the nature of Clinical Psychology, then explain the role of research and statistics in Clinical Psychology, finally the student will need to know the differences between Clinical Psychology, and other mental health professions including social work, psychiatry, and school psychology.History and Evolving Nature of Clinical Psychology When deciding if Clinical Psychology is the field and profession that a student will choose and follow, he or she will first look into what the history and evolving nature of Clinical Psychology. Looking into the history of Clinical Psychology one will see that Clinical Psychology has been around since the early times beginning in 2500-500 BC (Jones, 2004) until today. In the early years there was a belief that mental illness and any physical illness could be treated by herbs and reasoning (Jones.

004).The history and evolving of Clinical Psychology began to sharpen into the belief of the body being one, St Thomas Aquinas believed that scientific thinking would and could explain illness of either mental or physical form (Witmer, 1907-1908). Like anything else, there is always a shift of thinking and people who feel there are other ways of looking at something, this was seen with Paracelsus who in 1490 thought that mental illness was due to the ovements of the sun, stars, and planets and therefore this was to blame for the behavioral changes exhibited in people (Plante, 2011). After Paracelsus and his rationalization, the realm shifted until in 1745, in France Pinel developed a way of looking into mental illness and this was through humane moral therapy (Jones, 2004), in doing so, Pinel led the way for Dorothy Dix to realize that there was mental illness in America and therefore she was beneficial in bringing humane morale therapy here (Jones, 2004).As the years go on, Clinical Psychology has developed into being an evolving therapy that has many benefits for treating mental illness, and is well known around the world today. There are other fields of psychology that are used to treat mental illness and these are social work, psychiatry and school psychology, but the listed fields are each different from Clinical Psychology in one way or another.

Differences between other Therapies and Clinical Psychology As mentioned before, there are other types of therapies used to treat mental illness, the first being social work, which is considered to be a patient advocate, where he or she treat the whole family, and the underlying issues of the family, the schooling is a lot less invasive and therefore as some may say the social worker is like a paid babysitter for the client (Witmer, 1907-1908).The next area of treatment is psychiatry with psychiatry there is more schooling than a social worker because they are basically an Medical Doctor and there training focuses more on medication as a solution for solving the issue than trying to treat the person (Jones. 2004). The training is performed in a hospital or in a medical center compared to a social worker performing the work in group homes or clinics.

Another area of psychology is that of a school psychologist that typically work in elementary or secondary schools utilizing cognitive testing to possible tutoring the clients with a focus on learning disabilities like ADHD and they are working on obtaining or maintain a their PhD (Plante, 2011). With clinical psychology there are more dedicated to humanitarian concerns that focus on helping individuals, families, couples and organizations achieve happier more effective and healthier lives.As we look at all the forms of psychology we can see that each one tries to focus on one aspect either internally or externally in one way or another when dealing with the clients. One area that a person may look into deciding if Clinical Psychology Is for them, is if he or she is strong in doing research and statistics.

The reason for this is that research and statistics play a vital role in the shaping of his or her career. Research and Statistics in Clinical PsychologyThe role of research and statistics when dealing with clinical psychology is no different than any other field of medicine. When looking at statistics you first have to see what organization or field performed the research to come up with the stats (Witmer, 1907-1908). As with any area that is looking at statistics when making decisions the numbers can always be manipulated to the interest of the party that wants the figures.

When the statistics are calculated from a third party that has no interest in how the numbers prevail than the stats can actually be used.Unfortunately, most of the time the research is sponsored by the party that has the greatest interest and so the figures will be in there favor. This is one of the reasons no one can agree on the best way to treat a patient. One area wants to put the client on medication and see if adjusting the amounts and dose will correct the problem compared to another area of study that believes you need to treat the person and the whole family externally. ConclusionIn conclusion, we have examined the history and evolution of Clinical Psychology, from the early era of BC where the use of herbs and reasoning were used to treat mental and physical illness (Jones, 2004) until the present, we have looked into how research and statistics have a major role being played in Clinical Psychology with charts, and how there is a difference between social work, psychiatry, and school psychology been broken down in more specific fields of study and one of the most common is clinical psychology which focuses on the study of humanitarian concerns and not medicine primarily.

As medicine became more advanced doctors would look at research and statistics when trying to treat the client focusing on the overall population and not the individual client. So, as a student in the field of psychology the primary focus is to know what field you want to work and focus your study on that general area and work off it.