Problem

Question description

Clinical psychology as a profession is relatively new. Although human beings have been thinking about disturbances in behavior for thousands of years, it is only within the last 75 years that clinical psychology emerged as a unique specialization within psychology. During the years following World War II, psychologists working with mentally ill, developmentally disabled, and other disadvantaged populations began to think about how best to train people to work with these types of clients. The so-called Boulder model became the centerpiece of clinical psychology professional training following its inception in the early 1950s.

Think about your clinical psychology program of study. Courses include Psychological Assessment, Advanced Psychopathology, Psychopharmacology, and many more. There is a strong focus on research throughout your program of study, which is emphasized by the concluding dissertation. Your program of study follows the scholar-practitioner model. How is this different from the Boulder model or scientist-practitioner model? The answer lies mainly in emphasis of how the science of psychology informs practice. The Boulder model, or scientist-practitioner model, became the centerpiece of professional psychology training following its inception in the early 1950s. More recent models, such as the scholar-practitioner model, have emerged for training psychologists, including clinical psychologists. These models share a common goal of producing practitioners who are prepared to study, assess, and intervene with individual, systemic, and societal problems and challenges.

With these thoughts in mind:

Provide strengths and limitations of the training models in professional psychology (scientist-practitioner model and scholar-practitioner model). Explain why you chose a scholar-practitioner program and how this choice impacts your professional development.