Examination of Clinical Psychology Paper

Examinations of Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the part of psychology that deals with evaluating and treating mental sickness, unusual behavior, and other types of unstable or unbalanced illnesses. This line of psychology combines the science of psychology and the treatment of severe individual problems. Prior to becoming part of the psychology field with science and philosophies, the roots of psychology are dated back to ancient civilizations. Many people had signs of mental illnesses which were thought to be from evil forces possessing the human body which required horrible fatal cures like trephining and exorcism (Foerschner, 2010). There was a Greek philosopher named Hippocrates, who developed a theory that if a person had a mental illness, then it was because of an occurrence in their brain that is some sort of ailment (Foesrschner, 2010). Soon other philosophers like Aristotle and Plato developed their own theories as well. These theories were all unfounded because of lack of scientific examining and reasoning that didn’t come till many years later. Over the centuries the evolving of clinical psychology came more to light when despite the support from the American Psychology Association, that Witmer proposed ideas of applying psychological principles to the individual’s ailment that would give a sort of view of the psyche has on the physical body. It really wasn’t until WWI & WWII when soldiers benefited from clinical psychology with tests and evaluations. Then psychologists were able to treat these soldiers from problems they faced from the trauma of war.

Role of research

There are many mental illnesses in the world with each having its primary characteristics. Thankfully, there has been significant advancements in research and science that have allowed for more discoveries of these abnormalities. Even though there are no blood tests to determine these diagnoses, psychologists must rely on interviewing the patient and using modern research for help. Different types of psychology branches get their primary evidence from research and testing. Research is crucial because it is used to gather data that is relevant to getting the correct answers to what’s and why’s of human behavior, and also for treatments and preventions (Roger & Stone, 2016). With the help of science, clinical psychology has progressed from researching to actual testing and applying some type of treatment to show what might be most effective.

Role of Statistics

One of the most challenging features of psychology is determining how diseases, disorders, and other problems should be categorized. By using advanced statistical analysis, experts can determine which symptoms seem to belong together. Statistics act as a division of applying mathematics and consists of univariate and multivariate procedures. The univariate examination is one of the simplest forms of statistical analysis, and can be inferential or descriptive and involves only one variable. Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics surrounding the simultaneous observation and examination of more than one variable outcome. Psychologists use both univariate and multivariate procedures to discover the relationships between two or more variables, acquire the test statistic or extract factors. Also, statistical information is gathered up through the processing of a treatment plan and then analyzed to decide if there is going to be data that is reliable for use in the future. Statistics help the way for further research that is going to be counted on as dependable for use in treatment procedures and the use of medicine (Plante, 2011).

Differences between clinical psychology and other mental health professions

Clinical psychology substantially goes beyond