Name: Anosh Fatima

Seat # EH1971004
Course # 622 (clinical psychology)
Course instructor: Dr. Qudsia Tariq

After world war- I, how did things evolve in the field of clinical psychology ?

The development of clinical psychology as an academic field dates back to the 19th century.
It was Witmer who first introduced the term "clinical psychology" in a 1907 paper. Witmer, a
former student of Wilhelm Wundt, defined clinical psychology as "the study of individuals, by
observation or experimentation, with the intention of promoting change."
World War I introduced a different kind of warfare; deadlier and more mechanized, with machine
guns and poison gas. “Never in the history of mankind have the stresses and strains laid upon the
body and mind been so great or so numerous as in the present war,” (British-Australian
anthropologist Elliott Smith). World War I served as a critical period in the development of the
discipline of psychology. Psychologists' contributions to the war effort, particularly through the
development and administration of intelligence, vocational, and personality tests to Army
recruits and soldiers, resulted in widespread recognition of the specialized expertise and applied
usefulness of psychology. In the years immediately following the end of World War I,
psychologists were found in increasingly diversified work environments, including business,
education, and medicine. During the period of World War I practitioners demonstrated the
usefulness of psychological assessments. In 1917, the American Association of Clinical
Psychology was established, although it was replaced just two years later with the establishment
of the American Psychological Association (APA). Less than two years after the United States
entered World War I, around 1,727,000 would-be soldiers had received a psychological
evaluation, including the first group of intelligence tests, and roughly two percent of entrants
were rejected for psychological concerns. Some of the soldiers being screened, like draftees at
Camp Upton in Long Island, would have filled out a questionnaire of yes-no questions that
Columbia professor Robert Sessions Woodworth created at the behest of the American
Psychological Association. Woodworth had tested out his questionnaire on more than 1000
recruits, but the war ended before he could move on to a broader trial or incorporate the
Psychoneurotic Inventory into the army’s initial psychological exam. Nevertheless, his test made
an impact; it’s the great-grandparent of today’s personality tests. “World War I was actually a
watershed moment” in terms of psychological testing, says Michael Zickar, a professor of
psychology at Bowling Green State University. The idea of applying psychology in a clinical or
quantitative way was still relatively novel, but the widespread use of testing in the army during
and after the war; to assess intelligence, to determine aptitude for different jobs, to weed out the
mentally “unfit”; helped popularize the practice. Other early personality tests, like the 1930
Thurstone Personality Schedule or the 1927 Mental Hygiene Inventory, would often grandfather
in questions from previous tests, like Woodworth’s, which meant that they, too, focused on
negative emotionality. Eventually, personality tests moved beyond a single-minded focus on
neuroticism towards the more multi-dimensional testing we see in both clinical and pop
psychology today. These tests, Zickar says, start “viewing the person in much more of a
complicated lens.” The 1931 Bernreuter Personality Inventory, for example, evaluates a range of
personality traits: neurotic tendency, self-sufficiency, introversion or extroversion and dominance
or submission.
During the First World War, military physicians from the belligerent countries were faced with
soldiers suffering from psychotrauma with often unheard of clinical signs. These varied clinical
presentations took the form of abnormal movements, deaf-mutism, mental confusion, and
delusional disorders. In Anglo-Saxon countries, the term 'shell shock' was used to define these
disorders. The debate on whether the war was responsible for these disorders divided mobilized
neuropsychiatrists. In psychological theories, war is seen as the principal causal factor. In
hystero-pithiatism, developed by Joseph Babinski , trauma was not directly caused by the war. It
was rather due to the unwillingness of the soldier to take part in the war. Permanent suspicion of
malingering resulted in the establishment of a wide range of medical experiments. Many doctors
used aggressive treatment methods to force the soldiers exhibiting war neuroses to return to the
front as quickly as possible. Electrotherapy became the basis of repressive psychotherapy, such
as 'torpillage', which was developed by Clovis Vincent , or psychofaradism, which was
established by Gustave Roussy. Some soldiers refused such treatments, considering them a form
of torture, and were brought before courts-martial. Famous cases raised the question of the rights
of the wounded. Soldiers suffering from psychotrauma, ignored and regarded as malingerers or
deserters, were sentenced to death by the courts-martial. Trials of soldiers or doctors were also
held in Germany and Austria. After the war, psychoneurotics long haunted asylums and
rehabilitation centers. Abuses related to the treatment of the Great War psychoneuroses
nevertheless significantly changed medical concepts, leading to the modern definition of
'posttraumatic stress disorder'.
During World War II, clinical psychologists were called upon to help treat what was then known
as shell shock “war neuroses”, now referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The demand for professionals to treat the many returning veterans in need of care contributed to
the growth of clinical psychology during this period.
While the early focus in clinical psychology had been largely on science and research, graduate
programs began adding additional emphasis on psychotherapy. In clinical psychology Ph.D.
programs, this approach is today referred to as the scientist-practitioner or Boulder Model. Later,
the Doctor of Psychology (Psy.D.) degree option emerged, which placed a greater emphasis on
professional practice rather than research. This practice-oriented doctorate degree in clinical
psychology is known as the practitioner-scholar, or Vail model.

The field has continued to grow tremendously, and the demand for clinical psychologists today
remains strong.