Why Do Clinical Psychologists Do Research?

The most basic reason clinical psychologists conduct research is to understand mental illness (Pomerantz, 2020).

But, before we delve into the reasoning further, there are several important terms to know when discussing clinical psychological research:

• Treatment outcome refers to how well interventions (or treatments) work. Research in this area explores topics like whether or not a particular type of therapy is effective. In 1951, Hans Eysenck published a review of psychotherapy outcomes that suggested that many forms of therapy were not working or helpful to the patients (Pomerantz, 2020). This was a bombshell in the field that brought with it a lot of attention, generating a wealth of research into useful psychotherapy treatments. Treatment outcome research itself requires an understanding of the following terms (Pomerantz, 2020, pp. 501–505):
  • efficacy: Your textbook defines efficacy as "the success of a particular therapy in a controlled study conducted with clients who were chosen according to particular study criteria."
  • effectiveness: Effectiveness is "the success of a therapy in actual clinical settings in which client problems span a wider range and are not chosen as a result of meeting certain diagnostic criteria."
  • internal validity: Internal validity is "The extent to which the change in the dependent variable is due solely to the change in the independent variable."
  • external validity: External validity is "The generalizability of research results, or the extent to which a particular finding is valid for different settings and populations."

While clinical psychologists primarily conduct research to explore and further understand mental illness, they also research the following subjects (Pomerantz, 2020):

• assessment methods: Clinical psychologists might do research to create and improve assessment measures used with patients. There are many different ways to assess a patient: some measures are used to help diagnose, while some might be used to assess different types of personality or to distinguish between types of psychopathology. The development of these measures is an important type of research that clinicians may do.
• diagnostic issues: Clinical psychological research might explore various ways that mental disorders can be categorized, as well as the criteria necessary for a particular diagnosis.
• professional issues: Clinical psychologists might also conduct research about other psychologists—how they work, what they believe, or what kinds of professional challenges they face in their day-to-day work.
• teaching and training issues: Clinical psychological research related to training might ask questions about the best ways to educate those who are pursuing psychology as a career.