Examination of Clinical Psychology
PSY/480

Examination of Clinical Psychology
Clinical psychology is a profession that focuses on helping individuals with various troubles and concerns they experience during their relationships, emotions, and physical selves. One example of what a clinical psychologist can do is to see if a child has a learning disability or an attention problem that might contribute to poor school performance by using intellectual and educational tests (Plante, 2011). In this paper, the history of clinical psychology will be examined as well as its role of research and statistics. In addition, clinical psychology will be furthered examined and how it differs from other mental professions such as social work, psychiatry, and school psychology.
The field of clinical psychology was founded in 1896 by Lightner Witmer (1867–1956) who opened the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1888, Witmer completed his undergraduate studies and earned his PhD in psychology at the University of Leipzig (Plante, 2011). Further he returned to the University of Pennsylvania to become director of their psychology laboratory. He applied his principles of human behavior to help a student that was not performing well in school and as a result, found out he had trouble in spelling, reading, and memory, and recommended tutoring, which later proved to be a successful intervention (Plante, 2011). He focused on assisting children with primarily school-related difficulties and challenges.
Today, many of the principles that Witmer developed in his psychological clinic continue to be used such as providing a diagnostic evaluation before offering treatment procedures and services. Later the military helped psychologists look more into clinical psychogoly. The military sought the help of clinical psychologists when soldiers would return with what