CPB Classic: Clinical Psychologists and the Scientist-Practitioner Divide

"Perhaps if you participated in some research studies over at the university, I might understand you better."

From April 2013:


The Boulder Model on who should become a clinical psychologist


Who is the "right kind of person" to become a clinical psychologist? Are you more interested in people than in things? Do you read great literature?


Unspeakable, Unbearable, Horrible Truth


What good are the data drawn from empirical research studies? Maybe only clinical data matters.


WHAT'S THE QUESTION ABOUT YOUR FIELD THAT YOU DREAD BEING ASKED?


Apparently, research psychologists dread being mistaken for clinicians. Well, same to you, buddy. I hate it when I tell people that I'm a psychologist and then they instantly assume that I spend all my time conducting useless studies and publishing worthless research.


Uh-oh, I'm still annoyed by something I read on the Internet...


"Much has been said about the hazards of people practicing psychology who do not have adequate scientific training, who do not consistently demonstrate the habits of mind associated with the scientist. However, not enough is said about the converse hazard: research psychologists who know about scientific methods but who lack understanding about people, who lack what James Bugenthal (1987) called, "the normal sensitivity that all of us have in relating to others, but...carried to a greater than normal acuity" (p. 11)."


So why did you become a clinical psychologist?


Probably because, in part, I watched this episode of M*A*S*H at a tender age (most likely when I was 10). It's available on Netflix -- Season 7, The Billfold Syndrome.