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Introduction to clinical psycholgy, Lecture notes of Clinical Psychology

Geetanjali UniversityClinical Psychology

An overview of clinical psychology, its characteristics, specific skills of clinical psychologists, and its ancient roots. It also discusses the different perspectives in clinical psychology, including the psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, humanistic-existential, and community-cultural perspectives. The document also highlights the contributions of the community-cultural perspective in reaching people whose needs have been ignored by other perspectives.

Typology: Lecture notes

2021/2022

Available from 09/23/2022

bhumika-prajapati
bhumika-prajapati 🇮🇳

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Introduction to Clinical Psychology
– The field of clinical psychology integrates science, theory and practice to understand
, predict and alleviate maladjustment ,disability and discomfort as well as to
promotes human adaption , adjustment and personal development.
– Clinical psychology focuses on intellectual, emotional ,biological, psychological ,
social and behavioural aspects of human functioning across the life span , in varying
cultures at all socioeconomic levels.
Characteristics-
– Clinical psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology.
– Psychology is the branch of science that is devoted to studying and understanding
behavior.
– As a subdiscipline pf psychology, clinical psychology is inspired by the values and
assumptions of science.
– A couple of assumptions of science that are important in understanding clinical
psychology are determinism and empiricism.
– Determinism – is the assumptions that all events have causes and these causes are
potentially knowable.
– Empiricism- is the assumption that science concern itself with events that are
observable and measured.
– There is a strong emphasis upon research in clinical psychology but not all clinical
psychologists conduct research.
Specific Skills of Clinical Psychologists-
Clinical psychologists have a whole host of specific skills that they employ in their work,
including:
– Ability to perform research and collect data to enhance the understanding of clinical
psychology.
– Consulting with a variety of other behavioral and health professionals and
organizations about violence, suicide, and severe mental distress.
– Possessing extensive knowledge of mental illness and how to diagnose and treat it.
– Understanding the broad expanse of mental health issues and how they may occur
at any age.
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Introduction to Clinical Psychology

  • The field of clinical psychology integrates science, theory and practice to understand , predict and alleviate maladjustment ,disability and discomfort as well as to promotes human adaption , adjustment and personal development.
  • Clinical psychology focuses on intellectual, emotional ,biological , psychological , social and behavioural aspects of human functioning across the life span , in varying cultures at all socioeconomic levels. Characteristics-
  • Clinical psychology is a subdiscipline of psychology.
  • Psychology is the branch of science that is devoted to studying and understanding behavior.
  • As a subdiscipline pf psychology, clinical psychology is inspired by the values and assumptions of science.
  • A couple of assumptions of science that are important in understanding clinical psychology are determinism and empiricism.
  • Determinism – is the assumptions that all events have causes and these causes are potentially knowable.
  • Empiricism- is the assumption that science concern itself with events that are observable and measured.
  • There is a strong emphasis upon research in clinical psychology but not all clinical psychologists conduct research. Specific Skills of Clinical Psychologists- Clinical psychologists have a whole host of specific skills that they employ in their work, including:
  • Ability to perform research and collect data to enhance the understanding of clinical psychology.
  • Consulting with a variety of other behavioral and health professionals and organizations about violence, suicide, and severe mental distress.
  • Possessing extensive knowledge of mental illness and how to diagnose and treat it.
  • Understanding the broad expanse of mental health issues and how they may occur at any age.

Ancient Roots –

  • Lightner Witmer founded the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896, and that is the year most scholars recognize as the birth of clinical psychology.
  • First, as clinical psychology is a discipline involved in studying and treating mental disorder, it is worth noting that awareness of mental illness, as distinct from physical illness, can be dated as far back as 2100 B.C. to the ancient Babylonians (Brems, Thevenin, & Routh, 1991).
  • In fact, most ancient cultures, including those in South and Central America as well as the ancient Hebrews, recognized and attempted to treat mental disorders. Typically , mental illness was viewed from a religious perspective , and treatments such as prayer, wearing of amulets, or religious rituals were used.
  • However, that despite the religious lens through which psychological disorders were viewed, some ancient writings suggest recognition of psychological factors and treatment. For example, foreshadowing Freud, ancient Hebrew scholars viewed dreams as expressions of unacceptable wishes and recommended unrestrained communication about one's worries and troubles.
  • Western cultures traditionally trace the roots of medicine and philosophy to the ancient.
  • Writings of Hippocrates (c. 446-377 B.C.), who hypothesized that psychopathology resulted from imbalances in one or more of the four bodily humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile, and phlegm.
  • An excess of black bile, for example, was considered to be the source of melancholy (depression).
  • Phrenitis was use to describe the condition in which a person had a high fever and talked nonsense. The condition cleared when the fever subsided.
  • Mania described the person who was acutely agitated in the absence of fever.
  • Hysteria was used to describe women who presented with vague or difficult-to- understand bodily complaints
  • Paranoia described the person whose thinking was bizarre in the absence of fever. Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Laying the Groundwork for Clinical Psychology
  • In the eighteenth and particularly the nineteenth centuries important social and scientific developments set the stage for the birth of clinical psychology.
  • Four areas that laid the foundation for clinical psychology were improved :
  1. understanding of mental disorders,

 Insisted to keep the cell clean and double bread ration was distributed to them 3 times a day.

  • Wiliam Tuke
  • He was a wealthy tea merchant who in 1791 began to investigate the state of English asylums for mentally ill.
  • Patients were allowed to stroll the grounds freely.
  • The moral movement was short lived, due to various factors:
  • Severely disturbed as well as poorly educated immigrant patients.
  • Lack of motivation
  • Enormous size of institution Perspective of clinical psychology-
  • The clinical psychologist can be described in terms of his training, techniques he uses , problems he deals with, client he serves , setting in which he works, social issues he confronts.
  • Many other psychologists are as much as concerned with personality , assessments of personality , working of many facets of psychological functioning, such as:  CognitionAggressionConscienceFantasy  Phenomena of psychopathology, interpersonal behaviour, group process, learning and development, common property of all psychologists.  Clinicians are concerned with understanding and helping individuals in psychological distress.  In psychology, the term “clinical assessment ” is used inclusively regardless of the procedures involved provided that its aim is the understanding of the individual sufferer. Clinical Interventions-
  • The Psychodynamic Perspective

The psychodynamic perspective is based on the idea that thoughts and emotions are important causes of behavior. Freud and Psychoanalysis Freud developed psycho analysis, a method in which the patient recaptures forgotten memories without the use of hypnosis.

  • The two most basic assumptions of Freud's theories of personality are psychic determinism and the conscious-unconscious dimension.
  • The latter includes three levels of consciousness: the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.
  • Freud's theory placed great emphasis on the first 5 years of life. During this period he thought that the libido, or basic human drives, was focused on a series of specific erogenous zones or sources of pleasure.
  • Freud also placed great emphasis on the concept of anxiety and on the use of defense mechanisms to ward off anxiety. He believed the most important of the defense mechanisms was repression.
  • His theory divided the mental world into three structures-the id, the ego, and the superego.
  • Freud also placed great emphasis on the concept of anxiety and on the use of defense mechanisms to ward off anxiety.
  • He believed the most important of the defense mechanisms was repression.
  • His theory divided the mental world into three structures-the id, the ego, and the superego. More recent approaches to Psychoanalysis-
  • Psychoanalytic theory has been modified by many late theorists.
  • Jung emphasized that in addition to the effect of earlier events in a person's life, the inheritance of a collective unconscious was an important influence on behavior.
  • Erikson developed a theory in which he described a series of psychosocial stages of development over the entire life cycle and further developed the approach of ego psychology.
  • Object relations theory was developed by psychoanalysts such as Klein.
  • Kohut developed a theory of self-psychology.
  • If our ideas about ourselves, and what we should expect of our selves and others, are unrealistic, we may live our lives in such a way that undesirable outcomes are inevitable.
  • For Beck, maladaptive behavior results from dysfunctional cognitions, highly idiosyncratic schemata that are not consistent with reality.
  • Cognitive Therapies Beck focuses on helping clients maladaptive thoughts with more effective coping techniques. His work initially focused on depression but now also focuses on problems with anxiety as the major symptom. Rational-emotive therapy, developed by Ellis, is based o idea that behavior is more a function of belief systems thin actual conditions. The therapist's role is to explain, demonstrate and assist the client in practicing more productive ways of thinking. The Humanistic-Existential Perspective-
  • The humanistic perspective assumes that in every person there is an active striving toward self actualization. Rogers emphasized the importance of the self-image.
  • He believed a primary role of the therapist was the total acceptance of the client as a person of worth. The Community-Cultural Perspective-
  • The community-cultural perspective directs attention to the roles played by community-wide factors (for example, poverty) and cultural diversity in maladaptive behavior.
  • Community psychologists focus on the failure of social support systems as the cause of maladaptation.
  • They emphasize preventive intervention-such as special programs in schools-and programs for specific groups that are at high risk because they need help in solving problems of living.
  • Contributions of the Community-Cultural Perspective Social, economic, and cultural factors play roles in emotional expression and maladaptive behavior.
  • Community psychology has been influential in reaching people whose needs have been ignored by the other perspectives, which focus more on treating the individual instead of changing the environment. How best to provide support in the community setting is still a que that needs extensive research.

An Interactional Approach-

  • All of the perspectives make contributions to identifying personal vulnerabilities and factors in resilience that relate to maladaptive behavior, its prevention, and its treatment. In an interactional approach an important issue is how these factors combine with stressful life experiences to produce the various types of maladaptive behavior. Psychometric and dynamic tradition perspective of clinical psychology-
  • Clinical Psychometrics is defined as a discipline that deals with the definition and measurement of clinical constructs. It focuses on the theory of measurement, the construction and validation of psychological measures, and their application in the assessment of individual differences.
  • Psychodynamic theory is an approach to psychology that studies the psychological forces underlying human behavior, feelings, and emotions, and how they may relate to early childhood experience. This theory is especially interested in the dynamic relations between conscious and unconscious motivation, and asserts that behavior is the product of underlying conflicts over which people often have little awareness. People with problems: human problems and clinical interventions-
  • CLINICAL ISSUES - The aspects that should be taken into consideration when performing clinical interventions with older adults called clinical issues.
  • In applied psychology, interventions are actions performed to bring about change in people. A wide range of intervention strategies exist and they are directed towards various types of issues. Most generally, it means any activities used to modify behavior, emotional state, or feelings.
  • People pursue counseling and therapy for a variety of reasons. Some may enter therapy to address major life changes, such as divorce, and others may seek help in managing mental health conditions, like depression.
  • Many people seek counseling because they have identified specific goals or issues that they wish to work on. Others may be encouraged by family, friends, or medical professionals to seek help, and in some cases, a person may be mandated to attend therapy as part of a court ruling or by a parent or guardian. Need and demand-
  • In most branches of social work which require counselling services, psychologists are much in demand. ... With sufficient awareness about the importance of emotional

Conclusion-

  • The field of clinical psychology integrates science, theory and practice to understand , predict and alleviate maladjustment ,disability and discomfort as well as to promotes human adaption , adjustment and personal development.