Clinical Psychology
Early clinical psychology
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| Lightner Witmer , the father of modern clinical psychology. |
By the second half of the 1800s, the scientific study of psychology was becoming well established in university laboratories. Although there were a few scattered voices calling for an applied psychology, the general field looked down upon this idea and insisted on "pure" science as the only respectable practice. This changed when Lightner Witmer (1867–1956), a past student of Wundt and head of the psychology department at the University of Pennsylvania , agreed to treat a young boy who had trouble with spelling. His successful treatment was soon to lead to Witmer's opening of the first psychological clinic at Penn in 1896, dedicated to helping children with learning disabilities . Ten years later in 1907, Witmer was to found the first journal of this new field, The Psychological Clinic , where he coined the term "clinical psychology", defined as "the study of individuals, by observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change". The field was slow to follow Witmer's example, but by 1914, there were 26 similar clinics in the US
Even as clinical psychology was growing, working with issues of serious mental distress remained the domain of psychiatrists and neurologists However, clinical psychologists continued to make inroads into this area due to their increasing skill at psychological assessment . Psychologists' reputation as assessment experts became solidified during World War I with the development of two intelligence tests, Army Alpha and Army Beta (testing verbal and nonverbal skills, respectively), which could be used with large groups of recruits. Due in large part to the success of these tests, assessment was to become the core discipline of clinical psychology for the next quarter century, when another war would propel the field into treatment.
- Clinical Psychology
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