Discussing research/clinical interests in statement of purpose

[Member03326588]

At the personal statement stage of applications, eek!

For scientist-practitioner oriented Clinical Psych PhD programs, how much should research/clinical interested be mentioned?

I have heard a lot of people say to focus on research, research, research, and completely take out anything about clinical interests. My concern with doing that is, since the schools I am applying to mention that they train students in a balanced way, admissions committees might think that I am only interested in research and not in seeing clients/creating educational programs and might believe there is no fit.

So I guess, in a shorter statement, do clinical interests need to be addressed at all for these types of programs?

Thanks!

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[Neuropsych2be]

At the personal statement stage of applications, eek!

For scientist-practitioner oriented Clinical Psych PhD programs, how much should research/clinical interested be mentioned?

I have heard a lot of people say to focus on research, research, research, and completely take out anything about clinical interests. My concern with doing that is, since the schools I am applying to mention that they train students in a balanced way, admissions committees might think that I am only interested in research and not in seeing clients/creating educational programs and might believe there is no fit.

So I guess, in a shorter statement, do clinical interests need to be addressed at all for these types of programs?

Thanks!

My opinion is that the science/practice and clinical research divide that psychologists are perpetually whining about is mainly an illusory dialectic If you have a clinical interest, I would say by default you also have a research interest in the same area. I mean realistically how do you separate the two? If you have a clinical interest in a particular area then surely there is a research interest as well. I have an interest in PTSD treatment and also the research on the neurophysiological basis for PTSD. Because I have an interest in Carl Jung, I have research interests in the area of dreams and sand-tray therapy. My varied clinical interests and research interests go hand in hand. Do yourself a favour and list your clinical interests as research interests even if you are not enamored by the idea of research in a particular field. Even if your interests are as a consumer of research rather than a producer of research,you still have interests.

 

[Member03326588]

My opinion is that the science/practice and clinical research divide that psychologists are perpetually whining about is mainly an illusory dialectic If you have a clinical interest, I would say by default you also have a research interest in the same area. I mean realistically how do you separate the two? If you have a clinical interest in a particular area then surely there is a research interest as well. I have an interest in PTSD treatment and also the research on the neurophysiological basis for PTSD. Because I have an interest in Carl Jung, I have research interests in the area of dreams and sand-tray therapy. My varied clinical interests and research interests go hand in hand. Do yourself a favour and list your clinical interests as research interests even if you are not enamored by the idea of research in a particular field. Even if your interests are as a consumer of research rather than a producer of research,you still have interests.

Thanks for your input. My research interests are well-defined, and when asked what I want to do in the future I say that I want to do research and teach, because that's what I honestly want to do.

Because my research interests involve educational programs and possibly therapy for my population of interest, I also want to create/improve educational programs or be a clinician. - But would saying this lead others to think that I might stray off and only want to be a clinician? (A friend expressed interest in conducting therapy, and in his interview a professor was concerned that he might only want to be a clinician in the future.)

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Thanks for your input. My research interests are well-defined, and when asked what I want to do in the future I say that I want to do research and teach, because that's what I honestly want to do.

Because my research interests involve educational programs and possibly therapy for my population of interest, I also want to create/improve educational programs or be a clinician. - But would saying this lead others to think that I might stray off and only want to be a clinician? (A friend expressed interest in conducting therapy, and in his interview a professor was concerned that he might only want to be a clinician in the future.)

Different faculty will likely read your SOP in entirely different ways despite what you say, so try not to worry TOO much about how one specific person might take or understand it. As Neuropsych2be mentioned, clinical and research interests often go hand-in-hand and are intimately-linked. Thus, you could focus on how your research would inform your desired (if any) area of clinical work, how your clinical work would feed into and promote your research, etc.