outofhere said:
Speaking of the difference in education- I have always wondered what psychologists are taught in Ph.D. school- it seems like they are taught a lot about research techniques, various theories, and they also have some long term therapy work? Maybe someone can enlighten me.
Excellent question! I've been on here a lot to talk about my positive interdisciplinary experiences. But that is one area of frustration for me - that my colleagues in psychiatry don't always understand what our training consists of. It's not a huge problem, but one I've found that sometimes hinders communication (like the time someone tried to define axis IV for me - when I was an intern).
In any case, there's a lot of variability, but there are also some commonalities. We receive in-depth training in psychopathology - inlcuding theorized etiological models (usu. from a biopsychosocial perspective, with particular emphasis on the "psychosocial"), course and outcome characteristics, predictors of course, and assessment and treatment. We are trained to approach all of these areas from an empirical perspective - our accumulation of knowledge in each these areas is typically achieved through a crticial review of the the research literature. For example, there were very few books that I was required to buy as a grad student. Almost all of my required reading came from journal articles.
In addition, we take advanced statistics coursework (e.g., SEM, multilevel modeling, etc.), and specific coursework on research methodology. We are required to conduct our own independent research (minimally the master's thesis and dissertation) and to publish within our specialty areas. We are also required to take coursework outside of clinical psychology - in areas such as biopsych, cognitive psych, and social psych, as mandated by APA. Several psych grad students also spend a lot of time teaching undergrads.
Finally, we receive applied training. We learn measurement theory and test construction, in addition to being trained to conduct structured (e.g., inelligence, personality) and unstructured clinical assessment. We also receive supervision and training in psychotherapy - with some exceptions, most clinical psych grad students start to see psychotherapy patients during their second year of training, and carry their own caseload throughout the remainder of training. We see psychotherapy patients in a variety of settings - university clinics, hospitals, community mental health centers, etc. Although some programs emphasize certain therapy models, most will provide supervision in a variety of approaches (dynamic, humanistic, CBT, IPT, CBASP, DBT, ACT, couples and family, etc.)
The description above is pretty generic - there are certain areas that students can sub-specialize in such as neuropsych and health psychology. In these cases, training might look different.
Anyway, I'm not writing all of this to say "we know more than you" - but rather, I thought I might just clarify what it is that we do know (which, as already said, is partly the same and partly different than what you all know!).
🙂
or "quantify" 
