Assignment: Discuss Trends in Psychology

Assignment: Discuss Trends in Psychology

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For this assignment, you will review 3 scholarly journal articles related to the unified psychology perspective. 

Use attached articles please.

The scholarly journal articles will be within the last 5 years.

Search the South University Online Library databases. Other sources, such as textbooks, Wikipedia, and other online sources will not be accepted. Read and analyze each of the articles and create a synopsis.

In your synopsis, make sure to include:

• A summary of each of the journal articles.
• Your thoughts and perspectives regarding the concepts covered in each of the journal articles.

Leaving Behind Our Preparadigmatic Past: Professional Psychology as a Unified Clinical Science

Timothy P. Melchert Marquette University

The behavioral and neurosciences have made remarkable progress recently in advancing the scientific understanding of human psychology. Though research in many areas is still in its early stages, knowledge of many psychological processes is now firmly grounded in exper- imental tests of falsifiable theories and supports a unified, paradigmatic understanding of human psychology that is thoroughly consistent with the rest of the natural sciences. This new body of knowledge poses critical questions for professional psychology, which still often relies on the traditional theoretical orientations and other preparadigmatic practices for guiding important aspects of clinical education and practice. This article argues that profes- sional psychology needs to systematically transition to theoretical frameworks and a curric- ulum that are based on an integrated scientific understanding of human psychology. Doing so would be of historic importance for the field and would result in major changes to profes- sional psychology education and practice. It would also allow the field to emerge as a true clinical science.

Keywords: professional psychology, clinical science, biopsychosocial, evidence-based practice

The behavioral and neurosciences have made remarkable progress in the past couple decades. Major advances have been made in understanding a wide range of phenomena, from epigenetics and neural plasticity to the nature of cog- nition, emotion, consciousness, moral reasoning, social be- havior, and culture. Indeed, so much has been learned about human psychology recently that current explanations of many psychological mechanisms and processes are mark- edly different from those considered current just a genera- tion ago.

At the same time that the scientific understanding of psychology was surging forward, however, professional psychology (PP) went through a particularly challenging period. There has always been competition and divisiveness between the theoretical camps in the field, but the serious- ness of the conflicts increased in the 1990s. The movement to establish empirically validated treatments was highly contentious and the divisiveness surrounding recovered memories of child sexual abuse was some of the most serious ever in the history of psychology (Loftus & Davis, 2006). Many leading psychologists were concerned that the conflicts and divisions had become so serious that the field might not be able to continue as a single discipline (e.g.,

Benjamin, 2001; Staats, 2005; Sternberg, 2005). The role of psychologists, counselors, social workers, and other mental health therapists in providing behavioral health care also declined from the 1990s to the 2000s while the proportion of clients with mental health problems treated by psychia- trists and general medical practitioners increased (Wang et al., 2006).

Professional psychology has made substantial progress in working through several of these issues over the past de- cade. Contemporary research tends to use stronger designs, measurements, and statistical analyses than what were used in the past, and there is less controversy regarding published research findings as a result. Widespread consensus has also developed regarding the need to apply evidence-based prac- tice guidelines when providing behavioral health care (American Psychological Association [APA] Presidential Task Force on Evidence-Based Practice, 2006). These and other developments have helped rein in issues that might have led to significant controversy in the past, and several observers have noted that conflict and divisiveness in the field have declined generally (e.g., Goodheart & Carter, 2008).

Beyond these trends, there is also a more fundamental change taking place. Recent research on human behavior has advanced so significantly that the current scientific understanding of human psychology is now fundamentally different from many of the standard approaches PP tradi- tionally used to understand human development, function- ing, and behavior change. For example, PP education has

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Timothy P. Melchert, Department of Counselor Education and Counseling Psychol- ogy, 168F Schroeder Complex, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI 53201. E-mail: [email protected]

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