Blackwell Reference Online

Extract

Professional issues in clinical psychology include topics related to the research and practice activities of the professional discipline; its ethics, education and training; and associated concerns of credentialing and licensing, legal considerations, and accreditation. These issues are often discussed in the published literature without the benefit of a research framework. This literature includes, for example, anecdotal descriptions of the impact of managed care on clinical practice, logical and case analyses of ethical codes of conduct, or descriptions of specialty training programs or experiences. Fortunately, however, a vast amount of empirical research has also been conducted in order to establish a database for understanding systematically what clinical psychologists do, how they function as clinicians and scientists, what they believe, and what guides their behavior. Although both types of literature are useful, in this chapter we will focus on how researchers in clinical psychology empirically investigate training issues, clinical practice, research activities, professional ethics, and other related topics. Clinical researchers investigate professional issues to gain an understanding of what is happening in the professional field, to examine problems and successes, and to validate ways for the profession to perform its functions better. The methodologies are similar across ... log in or subscribe to read full text