Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology
The Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Theory VI: Basic Science and Clinical Practice
Course # 80103.14424
Spring, 2012
Professor: Paul L. Wachtel, Ph.D.
Email: [email protected]
Day & Time: TBD
Office Hours: By appointment via email
Course Description
This course is designed to serve as a bridge between the general psychology portion of the
curriculum and the clinical practice portion. In the new curriculum, in accordance with APA
guidelines, the basic science courses (biological bases of behavior, social psychology, cognitive
and affective psychology, etc) are separate from the clinical courses and do not have a clinical
focus. I was concerned that such a curricular structure could leave students not really seeing the
relevance of those courses to their clinical training. Therefore, this course has been designed to
explore how the kinds of research findings discussed in these courses can inform your clinical
work and how the experience doing clinical work can more deeply illuminate the meaning and
implications of the research studies you will read in those courses. I believe there are very exciting
possibilities deriving from clinicians’ attention to research that is not originally “clinical” in its
intent but that has important potential implications for what we do as clinicians. The research that
is relevant for the psychotherapist goes well beyond psychotherapy outcome research (and even
psychotherapy process research). It includes as well a wide range of studies that are not focused
on psychotherapy at all but that help us better understand the factors that influence behavior and
experience and are relevant to change in both realms
However, although the primary focus of the course will be on research that was not
conducted with a specifically clinical intent, we will begin with a direct examination of the scientific
foundations of clinical practice and the nature of the evidence for what we do. We will thus begin
with an examination of two chapters from the book Evidence-based practices in mental health:
Debate and dialogue on the fundamental questions, edited by Norcross, Beutler, and Levant. The
book features debates among prominent researchers with quite divergent views regarding the
evidence base for the practice of psychotherapy. We will then, in the following week, read a set of
journal articles that further elaborate and examine these issues.
Most of the readings for the course, however, will derive not from direct concern about
clinical practice but from basic research in areas such as social psychology, social cognition,
cognition and affect, and cognitive and social neuroscience. The reading will be a bit heavier the
first two weeks, because the material is more familiar to clinical students and more directly and
obviously bears on issues of clinical practice. In the following weeks, we will mostly read just a
few papers a week, both so that we can consider in detail the conceptual and methodological issues
that are relevant to understanding and evaluating them and in order to examine closely their
potential implications for clinical practice. We will also look at how observations from the practice
setting suggest modifications in the conclusions drawn in the research laboratory. I anticipate a
very lively exchange and a genuine sense of exploring cutting edge ideas in both directions.
Overall Course Objectives:
The aim is to facilitate you in becoming a true scholar-practitioner and thus both to advance your
skills as a clinician and to enable you to feel more confident and prepared to be a contributor to the
literature.
Assignments and Grades:
Students will alternate in presenting each week’s readings, summarizing the key points, offering
critiques or highlighting potential implications as they see them, and raising questions for the class
to discuss. Each student will present at least twice. It is expected that every student in the class will
participate actively in the discussion, whether presenting that week or not. My aim is for each class
session to consist of stimulating, challenging, and probing examination of a key body of research
and its implications for your clinical practice. (I will, of course, share responsibility for the conduct
of the class with the student presenting and I will especially attempt to contextualize the discussion
by relating the topic under discussion to a broader set of findings and theoretical perspectives) .
Presentations will account for 75% of the grade
Class participation will account for 25% of the grade
Weekly Reading Assignments and Class Topics:
(All readings will be distributed to the class via email)
Week 1: Differing conceptions of evidence-based practice
Stiles, R. B.; Hurst, R. M.; Nelson-Gray, R. Hill, C. E.; Greenberg, L. S., Watson, J. C.,
Borkovec, T. D., Castonguay, L. G., & Hollon, S. D. (2006). What qualifies as research on which
to judge effective practice? In J. C. Norcross, L. E., Beutler, & R. F. Levant (Eds.) Evidencebased practices in mental health: Debate and dialogue on the fundamental questions, (pp. 56-130).
Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association
Chambless, D. L., Crits-Christoph, P., Wampold, B. E., Norcross, J. C., Lambert, M. J., Bohart,
A. C., Beutler, L. E., & Johannsen, B. E. (2006). What should Be validated. In J. C. Norcross, L.
E., Beutler, & R. F. Levant). (Eds.) Evidence-based practices in mental health: Debate and
dialogue on the fundamental questions, (pp. 191-256). Washington, DC, US: American
Psychological Association
Week 2: Further conceptualizations and controversies regarding the appropriate evidence
base for clinical practice
Castonguay, L. G., & Beutler, L. E. (2006). Principles of therapeutic change: A task force on
participants, relationships, and techniques factors. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 62 (6), 631-638.
Kazdin, A. E. (2006). Arbitrary metrics: Implications for identifying evidence-based treatments.
American Psychologist, 61, 42–49.
Kazdin, A. E. (2007). Mediators and mechanisms of change in psychotherapy research. Annual
Review of Clinical Psychology, 3, 1–27.
Kazdin, A. E. (2008). Evidence-based treatment and practice: New opportunities to bridge clinical
research and practice, enhance the knowledge base, and improve patient care. American
Psychologist,63, 146–159.
Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic therapy. American Psychologist, 65, 98–109.
Wachtel, P. L. (2010). Beyond “ESTs”: Problematic assumptions in the pursuit of evidencebased practice. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 27.251-272.
Week 3: Self-knowledge
Brown, J. D. & Dutton, K. A. (1995). Truth and consequences: The costs and benefits of accurate
self-knowledge. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 21(12), 1288-1296
Vazire, S. & Carlson, E. (2010). Self-knowledge of personality: Do people know
themselves? Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4(8), 605-620.
Week 4: Self-deception
Mele, A. R. Self-deception and emotion (2000). Consciousness & Emotion, 1(1), 115-137.
Green, J. D., Sedikides, C., & Gregg, A. (2008). Forgotten but not gone: The recall and
recognition of self-threatening memories. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 44(3),
547-561
Week 5: Self-concept and self-awareness
Phillips, A. G. & Silvia, P. J. (2005). Self-awareness and the emotional consequences of selfdiscrepancies. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31(5), 703-713.
Swann, W. B., Chang-Schneider, C., & Larsen McClarty, K. (2007) Do people's self-views
matter? Self-concept and self-esteem in everyday life. American Psychologist, 62(2), 84-94.
Kwang, N. & Swann, W. B. (2010). Do people embrace praise even when they feel unworthy? A
review of critical tests of self-enhancement versus self-verification. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 14(3), 263-280.
Week 6: Embodied cognition
Wilson, M. (2002). Six views of embodied cognition. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 9(4),
625-636.
Forgas, J. P. (2002). Feeling and doing: Affective influences on interpersonal behavior.
Psychological Inquiry. 13(1), 1-28.
Forgas, J. P. (1998). On being happy and mistaken: Mood effects on the fundamental attribution
error. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75(2), 318-33.
Week 7: Automaticity and its implications
Bargh, J. A. & Ferguson, M. J. (2000). Beyond behaviorism: on the automaticity of higher mental
processes. Psychological Bulletin. Special Issue: Psychology in the 21st Century, 126(6), 925-945
Chartrand, T. L. & Bargh, J. A. (2002). Nonconscious motivations: Their activation, operation,
and consequences. In A. Tesser, D. A. Stapel, A. Diederik & J. V. Wood (Eds); Self and
motivation: Emerging psychological perspectives, (pp. 13-41). Washington, DC, US: American
Psychological Association.
Fazio, R. H. (2001). On the automatic activation of associated evaluations: An overview.
Cognition and Emotion, 15(2), 115-141.
Week 8: Socially situated cognition
Smith, E. R. & Semin, G. R. (2004). Socially situated cognition: Cognition in its social context. In
M. P. Zanna (2004) (Ed.) . Advances in experimental social psychology, Vol. 36. (pp. 53-117).
San Diego, CA, US: Elsevier Academic Press.
Banaji, M. R., Lemm, K. M., & Carpenter, S. J. (2001). The social unconscious. In A. Tesser &
N. Schwartz (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intraindividual processes (pp.
134-158). Oxford, UK: Blackwell Publisher.
Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (2007). The implicit association test at age 7: A
methodological and conceptual review. In J. A. Bargh (Ed.), Social psychology and the
unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes. (pp. 265-292). New York, NY, US:
Psychology Press.
Week 9: Mood contagion and the chameleon effect
Neumann, R. & Strack, F. (2000). "Mood contagion": The automatic transfer of mood between
persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(2), 211-223.
Chartrand, T. L. & Bargh, J. A. (1999). The chameleon effect: The perception–behavior link and
social interaction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76(6), 893-910.
Lakin, J. L., Jefferis, V. E., Cheng, C. M., Chartrand, T. L (2003). The chameleon effect as social
glue: Evidence for the evolutionary significance of nonconscious mimicry. Journal of Nonverbal
Behavior, 27(3), 145-162.
Week 10: Social neuroscience
Cacioppo, J. T., Berntson, G. G., Sheridan, J. F., & McClintock, M. K (2000). Multilevel
integrative analyses of human behavior: Social neuroscience and the complementing nature of
social and biological approaches. Psychological Bulletin. Special Issue: Psychology in the 21st
Century, 126(6), 829-843.
Cacioppo, J. T. (2002). Social neuroscience: Understanding the pieces fosters understanding the
whole and vice versa. American Psychologist, 57(11), 819-831.
Week 11: Reflectivity, impulsivity, and affect regulation
Strack, F. & Deutsch , R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior.
Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220-247.
Williams, L. E., Bargh, J. A. Nocera, C. C. & Gray, J. R. (2009). The unconscious regulation of
emotion: Nonconscious reappraisal goals modulate emotional reactivity. Emotion, 9(6), 847-854.
Week 12: Relationship and context
Reis, H. T., Collins, W. A. & Berscheid, E. (2000). The relationship context of human behavior
and development. Psychological Bulletin. Special Issue: Psychology in the 21st Century, 126(6),
844-872.
Week 13: Nonverbal affective cues
Sternglanz, R. W. & DePaulo, B. M. (2004). Reading nonverbal cues to emotions: The advantages
and liabilities of relationship closeness. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 28(4), Special issue:
Interpersonal Sensitivity, Part II. pp. 245-266.
Week 14: Self-in-relationship: Interactionism
Kenrick, D. T., Maner, J. K., Butner, J., Li, N. P., Becker, D. V. (2002). Dynamical evolutionary
psychology: Mapping the domains of the new interactionist paradigm.; Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 6(4), 347-356.
Leary, M. R. (2002). When selves collide: The nature of the self and the dynamics of interpersonal
relationships. In A. Tesser, D. A. Stapel, A. Diederik & J. V. Wood (Eds); Self and motivation:
Emerging psychological perspectives, (pp. 119-145). Washington, DC, US: American
Psychological Association,
Week 15: Transference and the relational self
Andersen. S. M. & Chen, S. (2002). The relational self: An interpersonal social-cognitive theory.
Psychological Review, 109(4), 619-645.