Psychology: A reality check
Nature, vol. 461, no. 7266, 2009, pp. 847
Abstract
During the past 20 years, science has made great strides in directions that could support clinical psychology—in neuroimaging, for example, as well as molecular and behavioral genetics, and cognitive neuroscience. Numerous psychological interventions have been proved to be both effective and relatively cheap. Yet many psychologists continue to use unproven therapies that have no clear outcome measures—including, in extreme cases, such highly suspect regimens as ‘dolphin-assisted therapy’. The situation has created tensions within the American Psychological Association (APA), the body that accredits the courses leading to qualification for a clinical psychologist to practice in the United States and Canada. The APA requires that such courses have a scientific component, but it does not require that science be as central as some members would like. In frustration, representatives of some two-dozen top research-focused graduate-training programs grouped together in 1994 to form the Academy of Psychological Clinical Science (APCS), with a mission to promote scientific psychology.
Quotes from this work
Anyone reading Sigmund Freud’s original works might well be seduced by the beauty of his prose, the elegance of his arguments and the acuity of his intuition. But those with a grounding in science will also be shocked by the abandon with which he elaborated his theories on the basis of essentially no empirical evidence.