Experimental Psychopathology and Clinical Psychology: An Integrative Model to Guide Clinical Science and Practice

Abstract

Experimental psychopathology has elucidated mechanisms underlying various forms of psychopathology and has contributed to the continuous updating and generation of mechanistically-focused and evidence-based psychological treatments. Clinical psychology is an applied field of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders and behavioral problems. Despite the notable commonality in their focus upon psychological dysfunction, conceptual frameworks that guide their integration are surprisingly scarce. Clinical science and practice would benefit greatly from the combined strengths of each discipline. In this review, we begin by defining experimental psychopathology and clinical psychology, we present arguments for greater integration between them, and we propose a model to guide the integration of experimental psychopathology-informed science into clinical practice, illustrating the relevance of the model by drawing upon the seminal research on fear conditioning and extinction and other experimental paradigms.