Project Psychology: Using Psychological Models and Techniques to Create a Successful Project

Clinical psychology is an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development.

The field began in with the opening of the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania by Lightner Witmer. In the first half of the 20th century, clinical psychology focused on psychological assessment, with little attention given to treatment. This changed after the s when World War II resulted in the need for a large increase in the number of trained clinicians.

Since that time, three main educational models have developed in the USA—the Ph. Clinical Science model heavily focused on research , [4] the Ph. In the UK and the Republic of Ireland the Clinical Psychology Doctorate falls between the latter two of these models, whilst in much of mainland Europe the training is at masters level and predominantly psychotherapeutic. Clinical psychologists are expert in providing psychotherapy, and generally train within four primary theoretical orientations— psychodynamic , humanistic , cognitive behavioral therapy CBT , and systems or family therapy.

Other popular treatments at that time included the study of the shape of the face physiognomy and Mesmer's treatment for mental conditions using magnets mesmerism. Spiritualism and Phineas Quimby 's "mental healing" were also popular. While the scientific community eventually came to reject all of these methods for treating mental illness, academic psychologists also were not concerned with serious forms of mental illness.

The study of mental illness was already being done in the developing fields of psychiatry and neurology within the asylum movement. By the second half of the s, the scientific study of psychology was becoming well established in university laboratories. Although there were a few scattered voices calling for an applied psychology, the general field looked down upon this idea and insisted on "pure" science as the only respectable practice.

His successful treatment was soon to lead to Witmer's opening of the first psychological clinic at Penn in , dedicated to helping children with learning disabilities.

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Even as clinical psychology was growing, working with issues of serious mental distress remained the domain of psychiatrists and neurologists. Psychologists' reputation as assessment experts became solidified during World War I with the development of two intelligence tests, Army Alpha and Army Beta testing verbal and nonverbal skills, respectively , which could be used with large groups of recruits.

The field began to organize under the name "clinical psychology" in with the founding of the American Association of Clinical Psychology. This only lasted until , after which the American Psychological Association founded by G. Stanley Hall in developed a section on Clinical Psychology, which offered certification until Psychological societies and associations in other English-speaking countries developed similar divisions, including in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. When World War II broke out, the military once again called upon clinical psychologists.

As soldiers began to return from combat, psychologists started to notice symptoms of psychological trauma labeled "shell shock" eventually to be termed posttraumatic stress disorder that were best treated as soon as possible. As a consequence, the U. WWII helped bring dramatic changes to clinical psychology, not just in America but internationally as well. Graduate education in psychology began adding psychotherapy to the science and research focus based on the scientist-practitioner model , known today as the Boulder Model , for Ph.

By the s, psychotherapy had become embedded within clinical psychology, but for many the Ph. There was a growing argument that said the field of psychology in the U. The concept of a practice-oriented degree was debated in and narrowly gained approval for a pilot program at the University of Illinois starting in The first program explicitly based on the Psy. Since the s, clinical psychology has continued growing into a robust profession and academic field of study.

Although the exact number of practicing clinical psychologists is unknown, it is estimated that between and , the number in the U. One important field is health psychology , the fastest-growing employment setting for clinical psychologists in the past decade. Clinical psychologists engage in a wide range of activities. Some focus solely on research into the assessment , treatment , or cause of mental illness and related conditions. Some teach, whether in a medical school or hospital setting, or in an academic department e.

The majority of clinical psychologists engage in some form of clinical practice, with professional services including psychological assessment, provision of psychotherapy, development and administration of clinical programs, and forensics e. In clinical practice, clinical psychologists may work with individuals, couples, families, or groups in a variety of settings, including private practices, hospitals, mental health organizations, schools, businesses, and non-profit agencies.

Clinical psychologists who provide clinical services may also choose to specialize. Some specializations are codified and credentialed by regulatory agencies within the country of practice. The length of training differs across the world, ranging from four years plus post-Bachelors supervised practice [23] to a doctorate of three to six years which combines clinical placement. A smaller number of schools offer accredited programs in clinical psychology resulting in a Masters degree , which usually take two to three years post-Bachelors. Entry into these programs is highly competitive, and requires at least a three-year undergraduate degree in psychology plus some form of experience, usually in either the NHS as an Assistant Psychologist or in academia as a Research Assistant.

It is not unusual for applicants to apply several times before being accepted onto a training course as only about one-fifth of applicants are accepted each year. Those who successfully complete clinical psychology doctoral degrees are eligible to apply for registration with the HPC as a clinical psychologist. The practice of clinical psychology requires a license in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and many other countries. Although each of the U. Many states require other examinations in addition to the EPPP, such as a jurisprudence i.

The HPC is the statutory regulator for practitioner psychologists in the U. As such, the results of such assessments are usually used to create generalized impressions rather than diagnoses in service to informing treatment planning.

Methods include formal testing measures, interviews, reviewing past records, clinical observation, and physical examination. There exist hundreds of various assessment tools, although only a few have been shown to have both high validity i. These measures generally fall within one of several categories, including the following:. After assessment, clinical psychologists may provide a diagnostic impression.

Both are nosological systems that largely assume categorical disorders diagnosed through the application of sets of criteria including symptoms and signs. Several new models are being discussed, including a "dimensional model" based on empirically validated models of human differences such as the five factor model of personality [30] [31] and a "psychosocial model", which would take changing, intersubjective states into greater account. Clinical psychologists do not tend to diagnose, but rather use formulation —an individualized map of the difficulties that the patient or client faces, encompassing predisposing, precipitating and perpetuating maintaining factors.

Clinical assessment can be characterized as a prediction problem where the purpose of assessment is to make inferences predictions about past, present, or future behavior. Once observations have been collected e. One way is to combine the data in an algorithmic , or "mechanical" fashion.

Project Psychology: Using Psychological Models and Techniques to Create a Successful Project

Mechanical prediction does not preclude any type of data from being combined; it can incorporate clinical judgments, properly coded, in the algorithm. That is, it will make exactly the same prediction for exactly the same data every time. Clinical prediction, on the other hand, does not guarantee this, as it depends on the decision-making processes of the clinician making the judgment, their current state of mind, and knowledge base.

What has come to be called the "clinical versus statistical prediction" debate was first described in detail in by Paul Meehl , [35] where he explored the claim that mechanical formal, algorithmic methods of data combination could outperform clinical e. Meehl concluded that mechanical modes of combination performed as well or better than clinical modes.

Psychotherapy involves a formal relationship between professional and client—usually an individual, couple, family, or small group—that employs a set of procedures intended to form a therapeutic alliance, explore the nature of psychological problems, and encourage new ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving. Clinicians have a wide range of individual interventions to draw from, often guided by their training—for example, a cognitive behavioral therapy CBT clinician might use worksheets to record distressing cognitions, a psychoanalyst might encourage free association , while a psychologist trained in Gestalt techniques might focus on immediate interactions between client and therapist.

Clinical psychologists generally seek to base their work on research evidence and outcome studies as well as on trained clinical judgment. Although there are literally dozens of recognized therapeutic orientations, their differences can often be categorized on two dimensions: The methods used are also different in regards to the population being served as well as the context and nature of the problem.

Therapy will look very different between, say, a traumatized child, a depressed but high-functioning adult, a group of people recovering from substance dependence, and a ward of the state suffering from terrifying delusions. Other elements that play a critical role in the process of psychotherapy include the environment, culture, age, cognitive functioning, motivation, and duration i.

Many clinical psychologists are integrative or eclectic and draw from the evidence base across different models of therapy in an integrative way, rather than using a single specific model. In the UK, clinical psychologists have to show competence in at least two models of therapy, including CBT, to gain their doctorate.

The British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology has been vocal about the need to follow the evidence base rather than being wedded to a single model of therapy. In the USA, intervention applications and research are dominated in training and practice by essentially four major schools of practice: The psychodynamic perspective developed out of the psychoanalysis of Sigmund Freud.

The core object of psychoanalysis is to make the unconscious conscious—to make the client aware of his or her own primal drives namely those relating to sex and aggression and the various defenses used to keep them in check. Major variations on Freudian psychoanalysis practiced today include self psychology , ego psychology , and object relations theory. These general orientations now fall under the umbrella term psychodynamic psychology , with common themes including examination of transference and defenses, an appreciation of the power of the unconscious, and a focus on how early developments in childhood have shaped the client's current psychological state.

Humanistic psychology was developed in the s in reaction to both behaviorism and psychoanalysis, largely due to the person-centered therapy of Carl Rogers often referred to as Rogerian Therapy and existential psychology developed by Viktor Frankl and Rollo May.

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From , Hans-Werner Gessmann integrated the ideas of humanistic psychology into group psychotherapy as humanistic psychodrama. The mission of the humanistic psychologist is to help the individual employ these resources via the therapeutic relationship. Cognitive behavioral therapy CBT developed from the combination of cognitive therapy and rational emotive behavior therapy , both of which grew out of cognitive psychology and behaviorism. CBT is based on the theory that how we think cognition , how we feel emotion , and how we act behavior are related and interact together in complex ways.

In this perspective, certain dysfunctional ways of interpreting and appraising the world often through schemas or beliefs can contribute to emotional distress or result in behavioral problems. The object of many cognitive behavioral therapies is to discover and identify the biased, dysfunctional ways of relating or reacting and through different methodologies help clients transcend these in ways that will lead to increased well-being. Modified approaches that fall into the category of CBT have also developed, including dialectic behavior therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

Behavior therapy is a rich tradition. It is well researched with a strong evidence base. Its roots are in behaviorism. In behavior therapy, environmental events predict the way we think and feel. Our behavior sets up conditions for the environment to feedback back on it. Sometimes the feedback leads the behavior to increase- reinforcement and sometimes the behavior decreases- punishment.

Oftentimes behavior therapists are called applied behavior analysts or behavioral health counselors. They have studied many areas from developmental disabilities to depression and anxiety disorders. In the area of mental health and addictions a recent article looked at APA's list for well established and promising practices and found a considerable number of them based on the principles of operant and respondent conditioning. In addition, multiple intervention programs have come from this tradition including community reinforcement approach for treating addictions, acceptance and commitment therapy , functional analytic psychotherapy , including dialectic behavior therapy and behavioral activation.

In addition, specific techniques such as contingency management and exposure therapy have come from this tradition. Systems or family therapy works with couples and families, and emphasizes family relationships as an important factor in psychological health.

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The central focus tends to be on interpersonal dynamics, especially in terms of how change in one person will affect the entire system. Goals can include improving communication, establishing healthy roles, creating alternative narratives, and addressing problematic behaviors.

There exist dozens of recognized schools or orientations of psychotherapy—the list below represents a few influential orientations not given above.

Counseling psychology - Wikipedia

Although they all have some typical set of techniques practitioners employ, they are generally better known for providing a framework of theory and philosophy that guides a therapist in his or her working with a client. In the last couple of decades, there has been a growing movement to integrate the various therapeutic approaches, especially with an increased understanding of cultural, gender, spiritual, and sexual-orientation issues. Clinical psychologists are beginning to look at the various strengths and weaknesses of each orientation while also working with related fields, such as neuroscience , behavioral genetics , evolutionary biology , and psychopharmacology.

The result is a growing practice of eclecticism, with psychologists learning various systems and the most efficacious methods of therapy with the intent to provide the best solution for any given problem. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Why do carefully planned projects fail? Projects are affected, for good or ill, by the humans who undertake them. If the plan fails to take account of the psychology of managing people and the psychology of managing change there may be trouble ahead.

Sharon De Mascia's Project Psychology uses human behaviour and emerging psychological models to provide an insight into the Why do carefully planned projects fail? Sharon De Mascia's Project Psychology uses human behaviour and emerging psychological models to provide an insight into the successful management of people in projects. By selecting the right team, facilitating a common vision and by gaining a psychological understanding of how the team and the project stakeholders interact together, a project manager improves the chance of a successful outcome.

Whether you are looking to set up and manage a new project or working to develop the competence and maturity of your organization's project management capability, Project Psychology will provide you with insights and tools for making sense of the people involved and for managing them to best effect. Published April 8th by Routledge first published January 1st To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up. To ask other readers questions about Project Psychology , please sign up.

Lists with This Book. This book is not yet featured on Listopia. One of my favorite books. John rated it it was amazing May 17,