Clinical Psychology Career Paper

We all know psychology is the study of the mind and its mental state, but it is actually so much more. Psychology has many fields and specialties, some with take many years and continuing education. One of the fields is clinical psychology, according to the American Psychological Association (2015), is the psychological specialty that provides continuing and comprehensive mental and behavioral health care for individuals and families. Clinical psychology has been around since the end of the ninetieth century and early twentieth century and is one of the most popular specialties of psychology. It uses research, science, and experiments throughout its diagnosis. To understand clinical psychology one must first understand the history and requirements

The first would be to obtain a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology. One will learn the basic principles and theories, which will help a student in the right direction for this field. Although it is not necessary to have a Bachelor’s degree to be accepted into graduate school it can still help to be accepted into these programs. With this degree one is not able to go straight into clinical psychology, this curriculum is made to take the basic classes, such as, liberal arts, humanities, and the psychology classes. While doing a Bachelor’s in psychology there are tests one will have to take for grad school, the GRE and the M.A.T., and there may be more for certain schools and programs that the student would have to check with their chosen

Here a student will focus more on the clinical aspect of their studies. According to gradschools.com (2015), it can take one to two years to complete. The coursework can be different from school to school but many try to focus on the same common core courses. Some of the main classes will be statistics, child psychology, and psychotherapy. After completing a Master’s program one can choose to start work in clinical psychology, but many choose to go for their Doctorate degree. It can take anywhere from up to four to seven years to earn a Doctorate degree depending on which degree one wishes to pursue. There are three different degrees that a student can earn, a PhD, PsyD, or an EdD. According to collegeatlas.org (2015), it takes longer to earn a PhD and may require a one to two year supervised internship for