Clinical Psychology Course Research Articles

Computer-Simulated Psychotherapy as an Aid in Teaching Clinical Psychology

Eliza, a widely known computer program that reacts to the user by simulating the responses of a psychotherapist, can be used as a teaching aid in undergraduate clinical psychology courses. Students' interaction with the program can enhance their understanding of interviewing and psychotherapy, the contrasts between clinical interactions controlled by humans and computers, and the role computers may play in the mental health field. The methods for conducting the exercise, for integrating it into the course syllabus, and for evaluating its impact on students are discussed.

Behaviour Therapy – An Autiobiographic View

I have subtitled this address An Autobiographic View; it is also anecdotal and subjective. I find it fascinating to realize that my own autobiography coincides with, and indeed is part of, the history of behaviour therapy and, indeed, of much of clinical psychology as a profession in Britain. Clinical psychology scarcely existed before the Second World War. Even in 1945 the British Psychological Society listed it among terms not entirely meaningless, but too ambiguous for use by the Society. Between the Wars, there had been great resistance to lay encroachment upon medical territory, although there had been a little intellectual testing in mental hospitals by interested academic researchers. At the end of the war, Hans Eysenck came to the Maudsley having done his pioneer factor analytic work on dimensions of personality at Mill Hill. He was keen to establish a clinical psychology course, but was appalled by the existing main models along psychoanalytic lines, both in the United States of America and in the Tavistock Clinic in London. His most important initial recruit was Monte Shapiro, who became head of the clinical course of which I was an early student member and a relatively early staff member. The early emphasis was on assessment mainly by objective standardized tests. Indeed, much of our early intellectual effort went into disputations about the lack of validity of projective tests, such as the Rorschach. We had no real involvement in treatment. Aubrey Lewis, who was the Professor of Psychiatry at the Institute and the dominant figure at the Maudsley Hospital was very much against non-medical participation in therapy.

Evaluation with the Personal Orientation Inventory of a problem-solving approach in teaching an undergraduate psychology course.

A major issue in evaluating innovative teaching methods has been the selection of outcome criteria. With a goal of developing students' process skills, the authors taught a clinical psychology course to undergraduates. To evaluate the course's effectiveness, Shostrom's Personal Orientation Inventory was utilized. There were significant changes in students' scores on 6 of the 12 scales. The implication of utilizing outcome measures consonant with the goals of a particular course was examined.