Clinical psychology
Clinical psychology is the branch of psychology that assesses and treats mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders using psychological methods.
Psychological assessment: The systematic use of interviews, tests, observation, and records to understand psychological functioning. Assessment helps clinicians describe difficulties, guide treatment, and evaluate change.
Psychopathology: The study of psychological disorders, including their symptoms, causes, and development. It supplies concepts for understanding the problems clinical psychology addresses.
Psychiatry: The medical specialty concerned with diagnosing, treating, and preventing mental disorders. Psychiatrists are physicians and can prescribe medication; clinical psychologists generally train in psychological assessment and treatment.
Lightner Witmer: An American psychologist who founded the first psychological clinic in 1896 at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinic helped establish psychology's direct role in assessing and treating individual problems.
Medical model of mental disorder: An approach that understands mental disorders as conditions comparable to medical diseases, often emphasizing diagnosis and treatment. Its strengths and limits remain contested in psychological assessment and care.
Psychotherapy: A set of psychological treatments that use structured conversation and other methods to address distress and behavior. Psychotherapy is a central way clinical psychologists treat psychological difficulties.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: The American Psychiatric Association's classification and diagnostic manual for mental disorders. Its criteria are one common framework for clinical diagnosis in the United States.
Counseling psychology: A psychology specialty focused on helping people manage life challenges, distress, and developmental concerns. It overlaps with clinical psychology but has a distinct professional history and typical emphasis.
University of Pennsylvania Psychological Clinic: A clinic founded by Lightner Witmer in 1896 to apply psychology to children's learning and behavior problems. It became an early institutional model for clinical psychology.
Dimensional models of mental disorders: Frameworks that describe psychological problems along continuous dimensions rather than as separate categories. They challenge the categorical diagnoses often used in clinical practice.