Clinical Science at the University of Michigan: Since 1948, the Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program at the University of Michigan has been integral to the mission of the Psychology Department and the University. The program in Clinical Science is committed to training doctoral clinical psychologists who will pursue careers that advance translational knowledge for the promotion of well-being and the reduction of mental illness. The program views clinical practice as an applied science and aspires to contribute to the foundation of evidence that guides ethical and effective psychological services. Our program offers rigorous training in interdisciplinary research methods, teaching, statistics, clinical and research ethics, evidence-based assessment and treatment, developmental psychopathology, cognitive and affective neuroscience, resilience and coping, and individual and cultural diversity. Our program recognizes clinical training as a core component in the development of clinical scientists and we believe that clinical practice and service facilitates and informs clinical science. Thus, we strive to provide excellent clinical training that integrates science and practice through assessment, case conceptualization, prevention, and intervention. Strengths and research areas of our program faculty currently include cognitive and affective neuroscience, health psychology, developmental psychopathology, risk and resilience, and cross-cultural investigations of clinical problems. These approaches span traditional diagnoses including addictive, affective, anxiety, personality, and disruptive behavior disorders. We encourage the multilevel integration of biological, psychological, familial, and developmental approaches. Several faculty members' interests overlap with more than one of these domains. As a result, our program recognizes these intellectual priorities as one means for organizing our collective activities and for determining how best to allocate attention and resources toward our stated training aims and goals. Given the interdisciplinary nature of research in the clinical area, our intellectual priorities also fuel ready and enduring collaborations with other faculty and researchers both in the Department of Psychology and beyond. Indeed, the University of Michigan is justifiably proud of, and nationally recognized for, its commitment to inter- and cross-disciplinary collaboration. For our program faculty, this includes intersections with other departmental areas (e.g., cognitive psychology, developmental psychology), other departments (e.g., Psychiatry, Public Health, Pediatrics), and other campus institutes and centers (e.g., the Depression Center, Michigan Institute for Clinical and Health Research, Institute for Social Research). What binds our activities together is our shared commitment — distinctive in the University — to studying, preventing, and treating psychopathology and producing highly trained clinical scientists who will effectively apply a variety of research methods to pressing problems in the assessment and treatment of psychopathology.
