psychologists in 1994–1995; and finally, Norcross et
al. (2005) surveyed 694 clinical psychologists in
- The results of these five surveys are presented
in Table 1-1 and Table 1-2.
From Table 1-1, it is apparent that psychother-
apy of one sort or another is the most frequently
engaged in activity and occupies the most time, as
it has in all the cited surveys from 1973 to 2003.
Diagnosis and assessment also continue as major
activities. Research activity has grown over the
years (to around 14% of the 2003 respondents’
time), which is a bit surprising in light of the
fact that 39% of the 2003 sample was employed
full-time in private practice. Still, it is important to
note that some clinical psychologists never publish a
research paper and that only 10–15% of all clinicians
produce 40–50% of all the work published by clini-
cal psychologists (Norcross et al., 1989b, 1997b).
Teaching is another relatively common activity
among clinical psychologists. Unfortunately, the
time devoted to administration remains significant,
perhaps reflecting the bureaucracy that is so prevalent
in modern society. Let us now take a closer look at
the six activities represented in Table 1-1.
Therapy/Intervention. It is clear from Table 1-1
that therapy is the activity that most frequently
engages the typical clinical psychologist’s efforts and
to which the most time is devoted. Many people
have an image of the therapy situation as one in
which the client lies on a couch while the therapist,
bearded and mysterious, sits behind with notepad
and furrowed brow. Actually, therapy comes in
many different sizes and shapes. A few (but very
few!) therapists still use a couch, but more often,
the client sits face-to-face across from the therapist.
In most cases, therapy involves a one-to-one rela-
tionship, but today, couple’s therapy, family therapy,
parent training, and group therapy are also very com-
mon. For example, a group of six or eight clients, all
having trouble with alcohol use, may meet together
with a therapist to work on their problems. Or a
psychologist may meet with a child’s parents to dis-
cuss ways that reinforcements in the home may
reduce the child’s disruptive behavior. Finally, sizable
proportions of therapists are women, not men. This
gender disparity among therapists is likely to con-
tinue for some time, given that over 70% of clinical
psychology graduate students each year are women.Psychotherapy remains one of the major activities of clinical psychologists.
Michael Newman/PhotoEditCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION 13