{"id":883,"date":"2019-08-13T19:05:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-13T19:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/researchmethods\/chapter\/science-and-clinical-practice\/"},"modified":"2019-09-19T18:09:24","modified_gmt":"2019-09-19T18:09:24","slug":"science-and-clinical-practice","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/opentextbc.ca\/researchmethods\/chapter\/science-and-clinical-practice\/","title":{"raw":"Science and Clinical Practice","rendered":"Science and Clinical Practice"},"content":{"raw":"
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Learning Objectives<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

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  1. Define the clinical practice of psychology and distinguish it from the science of psychology.<\/li>\r\n \t
  2. Explain how science is relevant to clinical practice.<\/li>\r\n \t
  3. Define the concept of an empirically supported treatment and give some examples.<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nPsychology is the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. But it is also the application of scientific research to \u201chelp people, organizations, and communities function better\u201d (American Psychological Association, 2011)[footnote]American Psychological Association. (2011). About APA<\/em>. Retrieved from http:\/\/www.apa.org\/about[\/footnote]. By far the most common and widely known application is the [pb_glossary id=\"1308\"]clinical\u00a0practice\u00a0of\u00a0psychology[\/pb_glossary]\u2014the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and related problems. Let us use the term\u00a0clinical practice<\/em>\u00a0broadly to refer to the activities of clinical and counseling psychologists, school psychologists, marriage and family therapists, licensed clinical social workers, and others who work with people individually or in small groups to identify and help address their psychological problems. It is important to consider the relationship between scientific research and clinical practice because many students are especially interested in clinical practice, perhaps even as a career.\r\n\r\nThe main point is that psychological disorders and other behavioural problems are part of the natural world. This means that questions about their nature, causes, and consequences are empirically testable and therefore subject to scientific study. As with other questions about human behaviour, we cannot rely on our intuition or common sense for detailed and accurate answers. Consider, for example, that dozens of popular books and thousands of websites claim that adult children of alcoholics have a distinct personality profile, including low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and difficulties with intimacy. Although this sounds plausible, scientific research has demonstrated that adult children of alcoholics are no more likely to have these problems than anybody else (Lilienfeld et al., 2010)[footnote]Lilienfeld, S. O., Lynn, S. J., Ruscio, J., & Beyerstein, B. L. (2010). 50 great myths of popular psychology<\/em>. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.[\/footnote]. Similarly, questions about whether a particular psychotherapy is effective are empirically testable questions that can be answered by scientific research. If a new psychotherapy is an effective treatment for depression, then systematic observation should reveal that depressed people who receive this psychotherapy improve more than a similar group of depressed people who do not receive this psychotherapy (or who receive some alternative treatment). Treatments that have been shown to work in this way are called [pb_glossary id=\"1310\"]empirically\u00a0supported\u00a0treatments[\/pb_glossary].\r\n
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    Empirically Supported Treatments<\/p>\r\n\r\n<\/header>\r\n

    \r\n\r\nAn empirically supported treatment is one that has been studied scientifically and shown to result in greater improvement than no treatment, a placebo, or some alternative treatment. These include many forms of psychotherapy, which can be as effective as standard drug therapies. Among the forms of psychotherapy with strong empirical support are the following:\r\n