The Boulder Model: History, rationale, and critique.

Abstract

Although the current philosophy of education in clinical psychology allows for the existence oj a program of training clinical psychologists who primarily want to be practitioners in conjunction with the more traditional scientist-practitioner (Boulder Model) program, departments of psychology have been reticent to adopt two-track programs. Indeed, the controversy as to the heuristic value of the scientist-practitioner program versus the practitioner program continues. The criticism of the Boulder Model is that the rationale for requiring clinical psychology students to learn to do research as well as train to be clinicians was spurious; the Boulder Model trains students as researchers, a role that is incompatible with their interests and abilities. The history of the development of the Boulder Model was reviewed as were the data regarding the personality traits, interests, and abilities of people interested in research versus service work. These data indicate that the objections of the critics are well-founded.Most of us would agree that the scientist-practitioner model has not only served us well but has been enormously successful. (Strickland, 1983, p. 25) This assessment was made by the current president of the Division of Clinical Psychology. Strickland is not alone in her praise of the Boulder Model. Indeed, ever since the Boulder Conference (Raimy, 1950), when psychology gave public support for the scientist-practitioner model of training in clinical psychology, there have been many others who have expressed a similar positive sentiment-for example, the par-

Deltakerbaner i psykologutdanningen – en femårs oppfølging av psykologistudenter

“…Psykologutdanningene i Norge følger alle en SPmodell som innebaerer å skolere studentene i bå de forskning og anvendt psykologi, og der psykologene etter endt utdanning skal vaere i stand til bå de å utføre vitenskapelig arbeid og å ha en god klinisk kompetanse. Et sentralt prinsipp er at den vitenskapelige kunnskapsbasen i psykologi skal komme først og utgjøre et fundament som forsker-og praktikerutdanningen bygger på (Frank, 1984;Baker & Benjamin, 2000;Belar & Perry, 1992). Modellen danner grunnlaget for en rekke psykologutdanninger internasjonalt og er gjenstand for bå de diskusjon og til dels motstand.…”

Research Activity in British Clinical Psychology Training Staff: Do We Lead by Example?

“…Within nursing, it has been argued that the two roles are opposing, whereby 'practitioner' involves being caring and compassionate and intuitive, while the 'researcher' role requires objectivity and rationality (Hicks, 1999). A similar argument has been made within clinical psychology (Franck, 1984). Gender identity may also relate to that of researcher (Hicks, 1999).…”

Behavior Therapy and Modelo Latinoamérica; Assembling and Demarcating Psychology in Colombia

“…Similar ideas of effectiveness had also been promoted by the APA through the Boulder model in 1945 (Frank, 1984) and Vail model in 1973 (Donn et al, 2000). In those models, scientific-practitioners psychologists should design effective interventions using psychological scientific knowledge to solve different problems in professional spaces.…”