Jack of all trades, master of none?: an alternative to clinical psychology's market-driven mission creep.
The authors C.R. Snyder and T.R. Elliott of this special issue's target article, "Twenty-First Century Graduate Education in Clinical Psychology: A Four Level Matrix Model" (this issue, pp. 1033-1054), are right that scientific distinctions should sometimes be de-emphasized in service of understanding the larger scientific vision. However, they take their combining too far, arrogating unto clinical psychology elements best left to their original scholarly disciplines. Snyder and Elliott simply present the next logical step in clinical psychology's longstanding tradition of "mission creep," broadening its focus to encompass new potential markets. Instead, the keeping and sharpening of disciplinary and subdisciplinary boundaries might best serve clinical psychology. The emphasis would shift from mission creep to building links with complementary disciplines and subdisciplines, to tackle issues that require true interdisciplinary scholarship.
Heesacker
Martin
M
Department of Psychology, University of Florida Gainesville, FL 32611-2250, USA. heesack@ufl.edu
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