Clinical Psychology

Essentially, a network of graduate programs
and internships that adhere to the clinical science
model has developed. These programs share ideas,
resources, and training innovations. Further, they
collaborate on projects aimed at increasing grant
funding from governmental agencies, addressing

state licensing requirements for the practice of

psychology, and increasing the visibility of clinical

science programs in undergraduate education. Most

recently, this organization has been a leader in set-

ting up a new accreditation system (PCSAS, http://

http://www.pcsas.org/) that will“brand”clinical science

BOX3-1 Clinical Psychologist Perspective: Richard M. McFall, Ph.D.

Dr. McFall is Professor Emeritus in the Department of

Psychological and Brain Sciences at Indiana University.

He is an expert in the area of interpersonal compe-

tence, and his widely cited research has appeared in

numerous journals and books read by clinical psychol-

ogists. In addition to his research pursuits, Dr. McFall

has taught and trained many clinical psychologists

through his roles as faculty member and director of

clinical training. Finally, Dr. McFall is recognized as

influential in establishing the clinical science model of

training. He served as the president of the Academy of

Psychological Clinical Science from 1995 to 1998. Cur-

rently, he is the Executive Director for a new accredi-

tation system for clinical science programs.

Dr. McFall was kind enough to respond to the

following questions we posed:

What originally got you interested in the field of

clinical psychology?

As an undergraduate at DePauw University, I was an

art major until my junior year, when it occurred to me

to ask my art professor what I might be able to do with

a degree in art. Among other things, he suggested that

I might become an account executive in advertising. He

suggested that I take a psychology course to learn

what motivated people to buy things. So, I went over

to the psychology department. Of course, I had to take

prerequisites (introductory, statistics, experimental,

and so on) before I could take the“good stuff,”and

before I knew it, I was a psychology major. At the start

of my senior year, still intending to go into advertising,

I took a clinical psychology course taught by John

Exner (the world-famous Rorschach expert), devoted

primarily to projective tests. Exner encouraged me to

apply to graduate school in clinical psychology and

gave me a list of prospective graduate programs, all

psychodynamically oriented. As I began filling out

applications, my roommate’s father, who happened to

be a psychologist, visited campus. He suggested that I

apply to Ohio State University (where he got his

degree). I did, more or less as a“backup.”OSU admit-

ted me and offered a generous assistantship—more

than any other program. Being financially independent

and in debt, I accepted OSU’s offer. As it turned out,

the OSU clinical program was one of the best in the

country at the time. It had a very strong scientific

emphasis. I quickly learned that I had entered graduate

school for illusory reasons; however, the research ori-

entation of OSU’s program was compelling, and I soon

developed an interest in clinical psychology as a

science.

Describe what activities you are involved in as a

clinical psychologist.

First and foremost, I have been actively involved in the

profession as a teacher. For most of my career, I taught

Introduction to Clinical Psychology to advanced under-

graduates and Clinical Psychology to first-year gradu-

ate students. My goal in both classes was to teach the

students to think skeptically and critically about the

problems that are the primary focus in clinical psy-

chology. I also taught a clinical practicum for advanced

doctoral students in which we reviewed the empirical

research evidence on the effectiveness of different

methods of treating persons with obsessive-compulsive

disorders (OCD); applied the best of the available

methods to OCD clients in our own clinic; and evalu-

ated the results of our interventions.

I also have been an active researcher. The com-

mon theme of my research is interpersonal compe-

tence—how to define and measure it, how to predict

and promote it, and the factors that lead to incompe-

tence. Competence and psychopathology can be seen

as opposite sides of the same coin. Psychopathology

can be viewed as a lack of competence in one or more

critical areas of functioning. To understand the etiol-

ogy of psychopathology, then, clinical psychologists

might want to understand the nature and origins of

competence. My research draws heavily on the knowl-

edge and methods of psychology as a whole, especially

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