The meaning of clinical psychology.

Abstract

Clinical Psychology: Its BeginningsCLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY, currently conceived, is one of several divisions of applied psychology and, as such, overlaps upon occasion in content and technique with its elder siblings. But quite like all other subdivisions of applied psychological knowledge, it has for its foundation the scientific methods of experimental and statistical analysis inherited from its laboratory forebears.The profession of clinical psychology is thus one of the newest and, in this troubled age, perhaps one of the most important, of all professions. Some historians (37) mention 1917 as the date of its birth, but this is more correctly its date of "confirmation," marked by the formation of the first professional organization for the study of clinical problems. The real beginnings-omitting the customary reference to Aristotle-are to be found around the time when Lightner Witmer established the first psychological clinic in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania. Brotemarkle's sketch (9) of how this movement grew out of Witmer's early training under Wundt-an unlikely soil for such an applied growthshould be of interest to those concerned with historical origins. McKeen Cattell's work (11) in psychometrics had been in process for ten years before this clinic was founded and one might suspect that his interest in individual differences influenced Witmer's thinking. But we are told that the actual spark came from a challenge by a public school teacher regarding the case of a chronic bad speller! In retrospect, this was clearly a period of great intentions and small means, for it was a decade or more before Guy Whipple, at Cornell, produced tools in the form of a Manual of Mental and Physical Tests and before Binet and Simon started intelligence testing on its long career. The fact that in this remote period people worked without diagnostic instruments at all is less remarkable than that clinicians later worked for thirty years with nothing more than tests of abilities-before adequate tests of personality were created. Thus, although the aim of clinical psychology has been to bring the mentally abnormal back to mental health, the early efforts to provide it with scientifically sound

The Mediating Role of Identification with a Nonprofit Organization in the Relationship Between Competition and Charitable Behaviors

“…Based on Cattell's (1966) scree test criterion, our 16 items were appropriately classified into their three respective factors. The CBehav scale's lowest standardized factor loading was .568, and the average loading was .693 -slightly below the general accepted standard of .700.…”

Lightner Witmer: Little-known founder of clinical psychology.

“…It is assumed, in the title of this article, that Witmer is properly considered the founder of clinical psychology, and this or some similar attribution has been widely accepted by other historians of psychology (Brotemarkle, 1947;Cattell, 1954;Garfield, 1965Garfield, , 1982Korchin, 1983;Louttit, 1949;Misiak & Sexton, 1966;Reuchlin, 1967;Sexton, 1965;Shaffer & Lazarus, 1952). The question, however, is worthy of some discussion.…”

Historical perspectives on psychotherapy.

“…In the United States, we generally attribute the beginnings of our practice to the clinic of Lightner Witmer in 1896 (Cattell 1954). The initial client in that setting was a child with a learning problem (possibly retardation) and the outcome was not a dramatic one (Brotemarkle 1947).…”