The Boulder Model Revisited

Abstract

If we can differentiate the Boulder philosophy (that is, the intent of the participants at the 1949 Boulder Conference on training in clinical psychology) from the Boulder-model program (that is, the actual program of education which materialized), we would have to agree with Raimy who in 1984 suggests that the Boulder program (that is, the program the participants at the Boulder Conference hoped would materialize) has never been actualized. The philosophy of the Boulder program was that clinical work in psychology should be based on scientific data and that the clinical psychologist should be expected to do research to contribute to the corpus of ideas in clinical psychology. In Frank's recent essays the training of the clinical psychologist for research was discussed; in this essay, the degree to which clinical training is based on scientific data and the data of basic psychology, is discussed. The conclusion is drawn that the foundation of clinical work by psychologists is not basic psychology. The influence of this observation on clinical training was discussed and recommendations made to modify the current clinical programs so that the Boulder philosophy might actually be actualized.