U.S.C.’s Doctoral Program in Clinical-Community Psychology bridges the Psychology subfields of Clinical and Community Psychology. The program is an A.P.A. approved program in Clinical Psychology that has been continuously approved since 1970. Its current synthesis of the two subfields is the result of a merger between the Community and Clinical Psychology degree programs in 1974. The program provides doctoral level training in understanding the causes of psychological well being and unwanted psychological conditions, and in what intervention strategies are needed to promote more positive lives for people. We define health along a broad continuum of mental and physical well being that extends beyond the simple absence of pathology or disease. Our program places a particular focus on understanding the role of environmental influences on psychological well being, in part because of Community Psychology’s focus on the social causes of stress. The goal of the Doctoral Program in Clinical-Community Psychology is to educate doctoral students through a genuine scientist-practitioner model. Our scientist practitioner model provides: (a) scientific training in research and research methods that help inform the planning or delivery of psychosocial interventions and (b) knowledge of how to develop and implement applied practices that are contextually appropriate and grounded in empirical science.

All approaches to psychosocial intervention, regardless of the specific theoretical model, need to recognize the reality of limited resources and accountability for those resources. Psychologists need specific tools to be prepared to succeed in this context. Our program is designed to prepare students to not only succeed, but to become leaders in a new era of psychological research and practice. Our graduates are prepared for careers in academic research, developing/managing psychosocial service programs, evaluating programs, or participating in service programs (service delivery). Students interested in careers in academics or traditional research positions will benefit from working with nationally prominent scholars, early involvement in research activities, excellent research facilities, and rich university-community partnerships. Our training recognizes that doctoral level graduates in Psychology who pursue applied work need to not only understand how to deliver effective psychological services, but also how to function as consultants, supervisors, or administrators. Our program trains students to function in these roles through didactic coursework, practicum courses, departmental assistantships, and community-based assistantships. The Clinical-Community program has a long tradition of preparing students to function at a high professional level in applied settings, and that tradition continues today. Program graduates work in a variety of settings and use a wide range of skills developed in our program: service delivery and research at top-tier medical centers (e.g., Yale School of Medicine); directors of non-profit agencies, state agencies, and mental health centers; researchers at prominent research institutes (e.g., RAND corporation), or operators of their own consulting, research, and evaluation companies.

Several questions arise from the philosophy and goals described above. How does our bridging of Clinical and Community Psychology help to prepare psychologists for making a difference in society? What advantages might this approach have over more traditional Clinical Psychology programs or free standing Community Psychology programs? What specific areas of expertise do our faculty bring to this mission? There are four areas of focus for our program that help to answer these questions.

• A systems perspective. We encourage a systems viewpoint based on understanding individual factors, environmental factors, and their interaction. Examining person-environment fit is an important component of a systems perspective and is part of the philosophical roots of the Community Psychology approach. We teach students to consider multiple levels of analysis in understanding clinical disorders and people’s broader well being. Multiple levels include the individual-level, the small group-level such as family systems, and the large group-level such as institutions and communities. Understanding how this multi-level analysis can be used to plan psychological work is a unique part of our program. Our faculty have expertise in understanding psychological problems at multiple levels, such as how individual-level factors interact within interpersonal or small group contexts (e.g., Follingstad, Kilmann, Prinz, Smith, Swan), or the interaction of community level factors and psychological well being (e.g., Kloos, Van Horn).
• Considering multiple points of intervention. Students in our program are taught to consider multiple stages of intervention, including prevention models, treatment models, health promotion, and maintenance-oriented intervention. A number of our faculty are involved in intervention research testing prevention and treatment programs (e.g., Prinz, Smith) and understanding factors related to mental health maintenance and recovery (e.g., Kloos). Students can also expand their understanding of these issues through our department’s Prevention Science Group, an informal group which meets weekly to discuss current topics and current work in psychology from a prevention perspective.
• Empirical demonstration of effectiveness. A guiding principle of our training is that theoretically grounded and empirically guided intervention work is essential to our field. Researchers should be encouraged to consider the external validity of their research and the potential impact (effect size) that the variables they study have on people’s well being. Psychologists conducting intervention work, regardless of the setting, need to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work at either individual or group levels. This approach to intervention work requires understanding major models for the causes of human behavior, how to translate specific models into interventions, measurement issues (psychometrics), and scientific evaluation work (research methods, statistics, program evaluation).
• Interventions-in-context. Effective psychosocial interventions require not only that one use theoretically grounded, efficacious treatments, but also that one understands how to implement and evaluate these interventions in specific contexts. Understanding human diversity is one part of tailoring intervention work to specific local populations. Our faculty members include researchers studying the impact of issues such as ethnicity, gender, or socioeconomic status on psychological health. Community psychology also provides an important contribution by providing a science of how to consider community-level factors in designing psychosocial programs, and expertise in program evaluation. We have national leaders in developing approaches to program evaluation (e.g., Wandersman), a critical skill for the new era of funding for community programs. Expertise in the dissemination of empirically supported practices into communities is currently a vital area of training for psychology. This dissemination work can be best achieved by those who can synthesize the knowledge bases of Community and Clinical psychology.

Our program can be used to develop a variety of unique areas of expertise in the field of Psychology. Areas of content emphasis within our program are listed below, along with examples of specific faculty work in these areas. Faculty members often contribute to more than one of these areas through their teaching and research, and the faculty lists below within each area are not meant to be exclusionary. Students’ interests also typically intersect with more than one of these areas.

• Children, adolescents, and families. This area within our program encompasses both health promotion among youths and family and developmental psychopathology. Thus, students learn about the developmental course of adaptive and maladaptive behavior as children mature into young adults. Students learn about factors that enhance well being, the precursors of psychological problems, and sources of resiliency. This area of work recognizes the goal of early intervention to prevent or reverse the precursors of psychological problems before the problem becomes more resistant to change. Although a range of biological, psychological, and social factors are important for child development, family functioning and the immediate social environment are considered potent areas for intervention. Students also can learn about assessment and therapeutic intervention techniques for children and their families that are developmentally appropriate. In addition to the faculty within the Psychology Department, U.S.C.’s Research Consortium on Children and Families (RCCF) provides a campus-wide network of researchers interested in understanding children’s well being, especially within the context of family influences. Examples of expertise that our faculty contribute to this area include:
  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, prevention of substance use problems in adolescence (Flory)
  • Depression and internalizing disorders in children, adolescents, and young adults (Hankin)
  • Children’s coping, externalizing behavior problems, parenting interventions (Prinz)
  • Psychological effects of chronic health conditions in children (Schatz)
  • Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, prevention of substance use problems in adolescence (Smith)
  • Community-level risk and protective factors for adolescents (Van Horn)
  • Health psychology, promotion of healthy eating and physical activity in youths (Wilson)
• Community-level process and intervention. This focus area teaches students about how social systems impact quality of life in communities, and how community-level change can be used to enhance the well being and productivity of groups of people. Students are taught methods for creating change and empowering others to create change in social systems through initiatives such as developing new programs, encouraging program adoption/participation, evaluating programs to improve their effectiveness, and creating policy change. Group-level interventions are valued for their potential to have a widespread and lasting impact. Understanding the science of how to enact such interventions is important for the future well being and mental health of our nation. Our faculty have a range of expertise that contributes to this area, including:
  • Community mental health services, promoting adaptive functioning in community settings (Kloos)
  • Community-level parenting skills interventions (Prinz)
  • Community-level risk and protective factors for adolescents (Van Horn)
  • Bridging science and practice for community-oriented interventions (Wandersman)

• Health, behavior, and diversity. This focus area develops the student’s understanding of health issues in relation to issues of race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status, and other dimensions of diversity. The area of focus highlights factors that create health disparities (including both individual and system-level challenges), the coping techniques that have helped some to remain resilient in the face of stress, and ways of reducing health disparities at the individual, family, and community levels. We have a particular focus on the African American experience in relation to health issues, in part because of the history and current ethnic make-up of South Carolina. National studies of physical and mental health care in the U.S. have shown that disparities exist in the health care system and that African Americans, in comparison to comparable White citizens, have poorer health in a range of areas regardless of income or insurance coverage. Societal factors are important for creating these disparities, including factors such as bias and discrimination. Although there is great diversity among African Americans, African Americans are as a group disproportionately affected by adverse events such as stress related to ethnic minority status, crime, and economic disadvantage. These sources of stress can impact general well being beyond the increased risk for physical disease or experiencing psychological syndromes. Our faculty members have a range of interests that organize around these core issues, including:
  • Stress and cardiovascular disease in African-Americans, Health Psychology (Armstead)
  • Social context of trauma, counseling interventions for African American women (Greer)
  • Gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic issues in violence against women (Swan)
  • Depression and related mental health issues in African-Americans (Walker)