Pluralistic Professional Education: A Modular Curriculum in Clinical Psychology

Abstract

We describe a pluralistic sumiculum fo~r doctoral education in clinical psychology. Two successful curricular innovations are highlighted. First, the usual courses in p~~ychopathology, psychological assessment, and intervention are (offered as 5-week moduks. Each module covers a subtopic within the broader area (e. g., introduction to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality lnventory m an assessment module and depression as a psychopathology module). Second, students are introduced to alternative psychotherapeutic approaches in practicum courses that integrate didactic yterial with supervised practice in a particular approach.

The state of the art.

“…Psychotherapy research has often seemed to be based on a medical model or a drug metaphor (Sdes & Shapiro, 1989) that stresses objectivity and seeks linear causeeffect relationships. As Koss and Shiang put it,…”

“…The invitation to write this review arrived just after the end of a five‐week graduate‐level seminar introducing psychotherapy research (cf. Stiles et al, 1992), for which we and our classmates read parts of the new Handbook . Our syllabus began with three questions: (1) Does psychotherapy work?…”