Training the Next Generation of Clinical Psychological Scientists: A Data-Driven Call to Action - 14 Şubat 2025
The central goal of clinical psychology is to reduce the suffering caused by mental health conditions. Anxiety, depression, psychosis, substance use, personality, and other mental disorders impose an immense burden on global public health and the economy. Tackling this burden will require the development and dissemination of intervention strategies that are more effective, sustainable, and equitable. Clinical psychology is uniquely poised to serve as a transdisciplinary hub for this work. But rising to this challenge requires an honest reckoning with the strengths and weaknesses of current training practices. Building on new data, we identify the most important challenges to training the next generation of clinical scientists. We provide specific recommendations for the spectrum of stakeholders—from funders, accreditors, and universities to program directors, faculty, and students—with an emphasis on sustainable solutions that promote scientific rigor and discovery and enhance the mental health of clinical scientists and the public alike.
Keywords: clinical psychology training, graduate education, mental health, wellbeing
INTRODUCTION
The central goal of clinical psychology is to reduce the suffering caused by mental health conditions. Anxiety, depression, psychosis, substance use, personality, and other mental disorders impose a staggering burden on public health and the economy (CDC 2020, SAMHSA 2019, Vos et al 2020). Addressing this burden will require the development and dissemination of intervention strategies that are more effective, sustainable, and equitable (Mei et al 2020, Uhlhaas et al 2021). Clinical psychology—a field anchored on the deep integration of basic science and clinical practice—is uniquely positioned to serve as a transdisciplinary hub for this research (Baker et al 2008, McFall et al 2015). But rising to this challenge requires an honest reckoning with the strengths and weaknesses of current training practices.
In this review, we marshal a range of new data to identify the most important challenges to training the next generation of clinical psychological scientists. We provide specific recommendations for a broad spectrum of stakeholders, with an emphasis on sustainable solutions that promote scientific rigor and discovery and enhance the mental health and wellbeing of clinical psychologists and the public alike.
How Did We Get Here?
The essayist James Baldwin wrote that “the great force of history comes from the fact that we carry it within us, [and] are unconsciously controlled by it” (Baldwin 1998, p. 722). Here we highlight the historical developments most relevant to understanding contemporary clinical psychology training practices and norms (Benjamin 2005, Levenson 2017, McFall 2006, Pickren 2007).