Clinical Psychology Should Not Be Taken Lightly

*Major Depression: persistent depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life.

Depression is a common mental disorder, characterized by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, feelings of tiredness, and poor concentration. Depression can be long-lasting or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual’s ability to function at work or school or cope with daily

The gap between scientist and practitioner seems to be increasing due to the increase in unsubstantiated treatment techniques. This increase contributes to be one of the primary concerns for clinical psychology because these unsubstantiated treatment techniques are being implemented in practices when they lack scientific research. In the majority of these cases, these questionable treatments or practices lack critical evaluation. Additionally, self-help programs that produce books, manuals, and audiotapes (or even talk show hosts on television) promise solutions or offer advice to complex life problems without proper scientific validation. The issues and concerns with these emerging questionable practices branches into the psychological assessment and diagnosis of a patient as well. While statistical formulas are superior to clinical judgment, most practitioners continue to use their sole judgment and interpretations based on assessment instruments that are questionable from a scientific perspective. While some of these questionable practices may actually be effective, the claimant is responsible for the burden of proof. However; in other cases, these questionable cases can be ineffective and produce harm to clinical patients.

Depression is a serious medical illness and psychiatric condition that involves the brain. Roughly twenty million Americans in the United States suffer from depression every year (11 Facts About Depression.) Depression is a persistent condition that interferes with everyday life and afflicts a person with an overwhelming emotional state of mind. In today’s day and age, depression is more aggressive than taking it’s toll on many Americans: men, women, teenagers, and even children. For many people, depression is caused by abuse, medications, conflict, death or loss, genetics etc. There are many aspects of depression and they could affect one’s thoughts and actions more than anyone could imagine. When defining depression one would talk about what it is, the causes of depression, signs and symptoms, who and what it effects, and possible treatment options.

My academic, personal, and job experiences have propelled me to pursue a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology. Through joining the Minority Biomedical Research Support- Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (MBRS-RISE) program, taking psychology courses, and working as a behavioral interventionist, I have acquired work and research experience needed to pursue a graduate degree. My immediate goal is to pursue a Master’s degree in clinical psychology with emphasis on the adolescent population. My future goal is to obtain a Doctorate of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology, work in academia and eventually conduct research. I intend to improve the quality of life of individuals with mental disabilities by dispelling the stigma within this population, and promoting early identification and effective treatment. It is my desire to work with a group of like minded individuals, mentors, and faculty to achieve the common goal of improving the quality of life of the people within our communities.

Clinical psychology is a broad science that involves psychologists ensuring the mental well-being of a patient. Its focus is diagnosing, treating, and if possible, averting psychological disorders. The field of clinical psychology applies to every demographic from young children to the elderly, families or individuals, and one’s socioeconomic status is not a factor in whether he or she should receive treatment. Clinical psychology deals with a broad range of specialties, including individuals who have been diagnosed with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder or those who are coping with personal issues, such as being fired from his or her place of employment or going through a divorce. Psychologists in this field offer

Major depression — is an uncompromising manifestation that is affecting to perform an individual 's daily activity such as sleep, eat, exercise, work, and other leisure activities. The occurrences could be once or more than once of a person 's lifelong (NIMH, n.d.).

The examination of clinical psychology increases from Sigmund Freud to Greek philosophy as well as contemporary psychology that gathers information from science, ideas, and other jurisdictions. The exploration of science moves forward and alters clinical mediations as empirically grounded proof backing up the ethics which psychologist in the clinical field treat human trials. However, significant differences occur among clinical psychologists and other psychological sciences, each enhances the best eminence of life for and from the social spirit (James & James, 1991).

It is common to not completely understand the difference between psychiatry and psychology. To clear up the confusion, psychology is the study of the functions of the human brain, while psychiatry is the study and diagnosis of mental disorders. Mental disorders are “a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and that is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom” (The New Definition of a Mental Disorder). With this knowledge given and the stereotypes that is often prevailed, (Some examples of said stereotypes are that a psychiatrist would

Clinical psychology is a branch of the psychology discipline that is concerned with applying the principles of psychology within a mental health setting. The aims of clinical psychology are to promote both emotional and physical health and to help individuals attain an acceptable quality of life (Plante, 2011). To achieve this, it is of high importance to continually conduct new research into areas which help expand our knowledge of diagnoses, symptoms and treatment in order to create and revise theories for different debilitating conditions. Research can be conducted for both academic and applied purposes, with two aims: to investigate efficacy (ability for beneficial change) or to investigate effectiveness (how well a treatment works in

There is no doubt that clinical psychologists have an enormous amount of responsibility, and in order to be an effective clinician, one must acquire a certain set of skills. Yet still today, individuals are being accepted into postgraduate training programs for clinical psychology, without these skills being accurately measured. Similarly, some individuals may be being wrongfully rejected due to universities measuring irrelevant skills. This issue is heightened by the attrition rate in clinical psychology, which is one of the highest in graduate study areas (Hirschberg & Itkin, 1978). Consequently, these limitations in the selection process can have a significant impact on patient outcomes in the future.

What is Clinical Psychology? It is the branch of psychology that emphasizes on the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric problems of a person. In this field, you get to correlate with complex human problems. Dealing with mental illness can specify even to psychological disorders, which are a “harmful dysfunction” in which behavior is judged to be: atypical, disturbing, maladaptive, and unjustifiable (Fahoum, 2017). Psychological disorders can be broken down into two classes, neurotic and psychotic. Neurotic is usually distressing, but it is when one thinks rationally and function socially, while psychotic is when a person loses connect with reality and experiences irrational ideas and distorted

Clinical Psychology is mainly focusing on assessment, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental disorders. It often works in a medical setting. However, Clinical psychologists are not doctors as they cannot provide medicine service for patients. Beside mental health, clinical psychologists also have to deal with other fields like children's mental health, adult mental health,

Clinical psychologist are often treating people with mental illness and patients who suffer from severe psychiatric disorders. Clinical psychologist are involved with helping people with abnormal behavior and who may be suffering from psychological distress. Patients are often individualized by psychological, biological and social factors of their case. Clinical psychologist work very close with their patients to help assess and diagnose which psychological disorder they are suffering from.

I would define psychology as the science of behavior and mind. A simple definition because psychology is a huge field that does not only study humans but also animals especially mammals. Psychology is a science that tries to understand how humans and animal’s brains work, the reason they do things the way they do, understanding and treating mental disorders and the emotions they feel and share with each other. Psychology studies both the conscious and unconscious mind. I would love psychology to be seen as the science it truly is, in schools and in the outside world since in universities it falls under liberal arts when it should be with the hard sciences.