Throughout history there has been many perspectives on what mental illness is and how to treat it. These mental illness perspectives set the scene for the development of clinical psychology, which did not become a specialty within psychology until the late 1800’s. Clinical psychology focuses on understanding, assessing, and treating behavioral and psychological disorders and problems (Plante, 2011). According to Plante (2011), “clinical psychology uses what is known about the principles of human behavior to help people with the numerous troubles and concerns they experience during the course of life in their relationships, emotions, and physical selves” (p. 5). Scientific research continues to evolve clinical psychology and its treatment methods
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and through out the Middle Ages until William Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. Prior to Wundt’s laboratory, mental illnesses were credited to supernatural and magical reasons before psychology was founded as a field. The ancient Greeks considered gods to be the cause of both health and illness and mind and body were closely interconnected (Pante, 2011). It was believed that spiritual factors, results of sin, and demons were the cause for disease and insanity during the Middle Ages (Plante, 2011). These beliefs were diluted during the rise of physical and medical interests during the Renaissance, resulting in biomedical reductionism (Plante, 2011). Which led to the idea of studying and using scientific observation and experimentation on different diseases including mental illness (Plante, …show more content…
Applied and basic research enables clinical psychology to answer questions in regard to human behavior, treatment, and diagnosis of psychological disorders and problems (Plante, 2011). The goal of clinical research is to assist and improve the lives of others by using scientific methods to conduct various activities such as experiments (Plante, 2011). There are many different approaches to carrying out research, which include, quasi-experimental, between group, within group, correlational, epidemiological, cross-sectional, and longitudinal designs as well as case studies (Plante, 2011). These different research designs can be conducted in different settings from universities to private practices in order to gather the information (Plante,
and through out the Middle Ages until William Wundt opened the first psychological laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. Prior to Wundt’s laboratory, mental illnesses were credited to supernatural and magical reasons before psychology was founded as a field. The ancient Greeks considered gods to be the cause of both health and illness and mind and body were closely interconnected (Pante, 2011). It was believed that spiritual factors, results of sin, and demons were the cause for disease and insanity during the Middle Ages (Plante, 2011). These beliefs were diluted during the rise of physical and medical interests during the Renaissance, resulting in biomedical reductionism (Plante, 2011). Which led to the idea of studying and using scientific observation and experimentation on different diseases including mental illness (Plante, …show more content…
Applied and basic research enables clinical psychology to answer questions in regard to human behavior, treatment, and diagnosis of psychological disorders and problems (Plante, 2011). The goal of clinical research is to assist and improve the lives of others by using scientific methods to conduct various activities such as experiments (Plante, 2011). There are many different approaches to carrying out research, which include, quasi-experimental, between group, within group, correlational, epidemiological, cross-sectional, and longitudinal designs as well as case studies (Plante, 2011). These different research designs can be conducted in different settings from universities to private practices in order to gather the information (Plante,