Activities:

1. Speak to a professor outside of the psychology department from philosophy, history, sociology, anthropology, or classics to see what they feel influences our current view of human behavior.

2. Choose one of the original sources mentioned in the chapter to get a view of how behavior was described and understood many years ago.

Although clinical psychology did not become a specialty within psychology until 1896, the many different perspectives in understanding, assessing, and treating emotional and behavioral problems during the preceding centuries set the stage for the development of clinical psychology. Understanding the influences of biological, psychological, and social factors in the development and maintenance of problem behavior and emotional distress evolved over many years. Each generation grappled with trying to best understand the influences of various factors on behavior. As more and more scientific discoveries were revealed, theories about the relative importance of biological, psychological, and social factors on behavior and emotions were altered to accommodate the most up-to-date discoveries and thinking. However, historical events, influential people, and social perspectives influenced past and current thinking about topics of interest to clinical psychology.

Clinical psychology has come a long way since Witmer founded the specialty by opening the first psychological clinic in 1886. It is hard to imagine that about 50 years ago there were no psychology licensing laws in any state and no comprehensive clinical psychology training guidelines, accreditation standards, or models of training in USA. Furthermore, it is astonishing that 50 years ago, clinical psychologists were often not allowed to conduct psychotherapy since it was the exclusive domain of psychiatrists. Today, clinical psychology is a thriving field, utilizing the integrated resources of numerous perspectives and interventions. Clinical psychology is now practiced in a wide variety of hospitals, clinics, businesses, educational settings, among other locations.

I. Setting the Stage: Early Conception of Mental Illness: Mind and Body Paradigms

A. The Greeks

B. The Middle Ages

C. The Renaissance

D. The 19th Century

E. The Birth of Psychology

II. The Founding of Clinical Psychology: Lightmer Witmer and the University of Pennsylvania

A. The Influence of Binet's Intelligence Test

B. The Influence of the Mental Health and Child Guidance Movement

C. The Influence of Sigmund Freud in America

D. The American Psychological Association and Early Clinical Psychology

E. The Influence of World War I

F. Clinical Psychology Between World Wars I and II

1. Psychological Testing

2. Psychotherapy

3. Training

4. Organizational Split and New Publications

III. The Influence of World War II

IV. Clinical Psychology After World War II

A. The Veterans Administration

B. Training

C. The Boulder Conference

D. Post-Boulder Conference Events

V. The Rise of Alternatives to the Psychodynamic Approach

A. The Behavioral Approach

B. The Cognitive Approach

C. The Humanistic Approach

D. The Family Systems Approach

E. Psychotropic Medication

F. The Community Mental Health Movement

G. The Integrative Approaches

H. The Biopsychosocial Approach

VI. A New Training Model Emerges: The Vail Model and Professional Schools of Psychology

A. The Vail Conference

B. Salt Lake City Conference

C. Additional Conferences

D. Michigan Conference on Postdoctoral Training

VII. Present History