Clinical Psychology

Ethical Standards
Competence
BOX3-5:Focus on Professional Issues: Clinicians
Who Participate in Radio Call-In Shows, TV
Talk Shows, or Internet Groups: Are They
Ethical?

Privacy and Confidentiality

Human Relations

CHAPTER SUMMARY

KEY TERMS

WEB SITES OF INTEREST

I

nChapter 2, we reviewed the history and devel-

opment of the field of clinical psychology by

examining important events in the areas of diagno-

sis and assessment, interventions and psychotherapy,

research, and the profession. That review helped us

to appreciate the roots of clinical psychology, as

well as to put current activities in the appropriate

historical context.

In this chapter, we discuss a variety of contem-

porary issues in clinical psychology: What are the best

training models for a clinical psychologist? What is

the best way to ensure professional competence?

What are the issues that currently face clinical psy-

chologists in private practice? How might increasing

health care costs affect the practice of clinical psychol-

ogy? What technological innovations are likely to

affect clinical assessment and intervention? How

should clinical psychology respond to the increasing

diversity of the population it serves? What are the

benefits and the concerns of clinical psychologists

obtaining prescription privileges? What are contem-

porary ethical standards for clinical psychologists?

We begin with one of the most contentious of

these issues: the appropriate training models for

future clinical psychologists.

Models of Training in Clinical Psychology

The Scientist-Practitioner Model

The Training Model. In Chapter 2, we briefly
discussed the landmark conference on graduate
education in clinical psychology held in Boulder,

Colorado, in 1949. Out of this conference arose

the Boulder model, orscientist-practitioner model,of

training. This model represents an attempt to

“marry”science and clinical practice, and it remains

the most popular training model for clinical psy-

chologists even to this day.

It is useful to remember that clinical psychol-

ogy began in universities as a branch of scientific

psychology. It arose within the structure of colleges

of arts and sciences, where teaching, research, and

other scholarly efforts were prominent. During this

era, training in the practice of clinical psychology

did not receive priority. Clinical psychology profes-

sors carried out research and they published their

work. However, their critics (often graduate stu-

dents or clinicians in the field) complained that

much of the research was trivial. Worse, it seemed

to some professors that their own research detracted

from their training of clinical students in the skills of

the profession. Some students complained that they

were learning too much about statistics, theories of

conditioning, or principles of physiological psy-

chology and too little about psychotherapy and

diagnostic testing.

These are the kinds of events and situations that

led to demands for change. TheBoulder model,also

known as the scientist-practitioner model, saw a

profession comprised of skilled practitioners who

could produce their own research as well as con-

sume the research of others. The goal was to create

a profession different from any that had gone

before. The psychological clinician would practice

with skill and sensitivity but would also contribute

to the body of clinical knowledge by understanding

how to translate experience into testable hypotheses

and how to test those hypotheses. The Boulder

vision was of a systematic union between clinical

skill and the logical empiricism of science. To sepa-

rate the practitioner from the source of scientific

knowledge might create someone who passively

60 CHAPTER 3