A reassessment of clinical psychology as an applied science

This paper advocates discarding the notion of clinical psychology as an applied science, with its emphasis upon the use of prevalidated procedures of assessment and treatment. The grounds are that, in scientific principle, there is no difference between practical clinical work and research. Each aims at maximizing the accuracy of our ideas about psychological dysfunctions and their manipulation, both therapeutic and experimental. They differ in: their general purpose; and the greater accuracy of research. One should therefore think in terms of a scientific approach to practical clinical psychology, conceptualizing it as a branch of psychological science. In assessment, the research finding of the relative specificity of psychological responses leads to describing and explaining each patient's particular psychological dysfunctions; using information-seeking interviews supplemented by the few validated procedures, and seeking guidance from general psychological and interview research and from general scientific method. In treatment, the main consequence is the development, in the course of clinical work, of therapies which: derive from general psychological and clinical research; are dysfunction-oriented; are critically eclectic; monitor outcome; and evaluate therapists' behaviour. Finally, the scientific approach requires evaluation studies of both assessment and treatment.