Clinical Psychology

move toward creating a proper person–environ-
ment fit rather than changing the affected people
so that they will fit the appropriate environment
as determined by majority values.

Blaming the Victim. Particularly illustrative of
the notions that have given rise to the strategy of
social intervention is the contrast between blaming
the victim and blaming the system. In a highly
influential book, Ryan (1971) argued that society
sees the economically disadvantaged, school drop-
outs, drug addicts, or the unemployed as individual
failures whose healing will require remedial reading

programs, drug counseling, and so on. According to

Ryan, society misses the real message, which is bad

social environments. Their problems are not clini-

cal; they are community-social.

Why are we so prone to place responsibility on

individuals who are disadvantaged rather than on

society or the environment? Caplan and Nelson

(1973) cite several reasons:

■ Such explanations free the government and

cultural institutions from blame.

■ Institutions, therefore, cannot be held respon-

sible for“solving”the problem.

essentially the same elements. I was asked questions

about why I chose the programs; about how I saw

the labs as a good fit given my interests; and about

personal strengths and weakness. The toughest ques-

tion I was asked:“given unlimited resources how

would you specifically address your research ques-

tions/interests?”Lastly, (and consistently), I was

asked what questions I had for my interviewers. It is

important that you have a set of questions that you

wouldliketoaskoftheprogramstowhichyouare

applying, questions that are not already on a Web site

or in a guide.

Looking back, what activities or experiences were

most important in preparing you for your graduate

school program?

I would say that my varied research experiences

(including an independent research project and

asummerinternshipwithNIDA)andadvanced

coursework best prepared me for my program

because of the skills they afforded me—askillset

I was able to carry to both my master’s and now

doctoral programs.

Any additional hints for applying to graduate school in

clinical psychology?

Do Your Research. Consider applying to graduate

school your first graduate research experience. Read

the Web site of the programs in which you are inter-

ested. Familiarize yourself with the work of potential

mentors. Learn about research other faculty at those

programs are doing. Talk to current students. Your

application process will be go much more smoothly if

do your due diligence.

Tell us about the work you have conducted while in

graduate school.

Currently, I am working on my master’s thesis, which is

an experiment designed to assess African American

college students’emotional responses to discrimination

and the potential protective effects of racial identity.

I am very excited about this work, as it will be among

the first to attempt to understand the impact of

exposure to a specific race-related event on African

Americans’psychological well-being in the laboratory

setting, which could contribute to the importance of

studying discrimination in context.

Shawn C.T. Jones

Shawn Jones

COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY 475