Sometimes it is remedial; other times it is ori-
ented toward prevention. Consulting, regardless of
the setting in which it occurs or the particular pur-
pose it has, is a significant activity of many clinical
psychologists today. We will discuss consultation in
more detail in Chapter 16.
Administration. It has been said half jokingly that
no one in clinical psychology enjoys administrative
work except masochists or those with obsessive-
compulsive personalities. Nevertheless, nearly every
clinical psychologist spends time on administrative
tasks. For example, client records must be main-
tained, those infernal effort reports must be filled
out each month, and research projects must be
cleared by committees set up to safeguard the rights
of human subjects. Clinical psychologists who work
for agencies or institutions will likely serve on several
committees: personnel, research, patient rights, or
even the committee to select films for the patients’
Friday night movies.
Some really hardy souls become full-time
administrators. They do so for many reasons. Some-
times they are drafted by colleagues who regard
them as skillful in human relations. Others may
grow a bit weary of therapy or assessment and
want a change. Or maybe they have the fantasy
that administration is the route to power and
wealth. In any event, good administrators are the
ones who keep their organization running
smoothly and efficiently. Being sensitive to the
needs and problems of people in the organization
and having the patience to sometimes suffer in
silence are useful attributes of the good administra-
tor. The ability to communicate well with those
under supervision is also important, as is a knack
for selecting the right people for the right jobs.
It would be difficult to list all the sorts of
administrative posts held by clinical psychologists.
However, here are a few examples: head of a uni-
versity psychology department, director of a Veter-
ans Administration clinic, vice president of a
consulting firm, director of the clinical training pro-
gram, director of the psychological clinic in a
university psychology department, chief psycholo-
gist in a state hospital, and director of a regional
crisis center.Employment Sites
Where are clinical psychologists employed? Data
from the previously noted surveys will again help
answer this question. The results pertaining to work
settings from these surveys are shown in Table 1-2.
It is evident that private practice has grown steadily
over the years and is now clearly the most frequent
employment setting for clinical psychologists. Uni-
versity settings are the second most common
employment sites, with medical schools a distant
third. Although not shown in Table 1-2, the data
from Norcross et al. (1997b) indicate that of those
clinical psychologists whose primary job is that of a
full-time university professor, 59% are engaged in
some part-time form of private practice or supervi-
sion. From Tables 1-1 and 1-2, the diversity of both
activities and work settings is very obvious. This is
also evident in the increase over time in the num-
bers in the“Other”category in Table 1-2. This
diversity is illustrated in the background and activi-
ties of the hypothetical clinician described in the
next section.A Week in the Life of Dr. Karen C
Karen C. began her undergraduate career in jour-
nalism. However, following a course in general
psychology, she decided to switch to psychology.
After fulfilling the usual requirements for a psy-
chology major (courses in psychobiology, statistics,
cognitive psychology, history and systems, person-
ality, social psychology, etc.), she applied to
11 graduate schools. With a strong grade point
average and an equally strong set of scores on the
Graduate Record Examination, she was accepted
by 4 schools. She chose a large midwestern state
university and later did her internship at a local
state hospital.CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION 17