Foundations of Professional Psychology: The End of Theoretical Orientations and the Emergence of the Biopsychosocial Approach

Recent advances in the scientific understanding of the human mind and brain along with the emphases on evidence-based practice and competency-based education are creating increasing pressures to update some of the traditional approaches to structuring and organizing education and practice in the field. There have also been many calls in recent years for a unified approach to conceptualizing professional practice in psychology. This book examines whether there exists a unified conceptual framework for the field that is firmly based on current scientific understanding regarding human development and functioning, that applies across all the clinical populations and practice areas within the field, and that would also help integrate professional psychology more fully into health care and the sciences generally.

Presents a unified science-based conceptual framework for professional psychologyProvides an overview of the whole treatment process as informed by a biopsychosocial approach, from intake through outcomes assessmentAvoids highly technical language so that students and practitioners from across the field can follow the discussion

1. The Need for a Unified Conceptual Framework in Professional Psychology 2. Professional Psychology as a Health Care Profession 3. The Public We Serve: Their Mental Health Needs and Sociocultural and Medical Circumstances 4. Resolving Conceptual and Theoretical Confusion in Professional Psychology 5. The Biopsychosocial Approach: General Systems, Nonlinear Dynamical Systems, and Complexity Theory 6. Ethical Foundations of Professional Practice 7. A Unified Theoretical Framework 8. Assessment 9. Treatment Planning 10. Treatment 11. Outcomes Assessment 12. Prevention and Public Health Perspective on Mental Health 13. Implications for Professional Psychology Education and Practice