Clinical psychology

Clinical psychology is the study in psychology of mental disorders.^[1][2] It is about learning, understanding, diagnosing, treating or preventing these types of illnesses. Clinical psychologists examine the mental functioning of a person and use psychotherapy to treat the disorder. Psychotherapy uses talking instead of medical or physical treatments.^[3]
The first psychological clinic opened in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer.^[4]In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology mainly was about psychological assessment, and not treatment. After World War II, there was a big increase in the numbers of trained clinical psychologists. There are two main educational models - the Ph.D. scientist-practitioner model which looks at research, and the Psy.D. practitioner-scholar model which looks at the treatments. Clinical psychologists are now regarded as experts in psychotherapy.

1. ↑ Kazdin, A. E. (1998). Research design in clinical psychology. Allyn & Bacon.
2. ↑ Barker, C., Pistrang, N., & Elliott, R. (2015). Research methods in clinical psychology: An introduction for students and practitioners. John Wiley & Sons.
3. ↑ Fox, R. (2017). Research in psychotherapy. Routledge.
4. ↑ Witmer L. (1907). Clinical Psychology. The Psychological clinic, 1(1), 1–9.