Dr. in their research oriented clinical psychology program.

Dr. Richard McFall, previously an art major, fell unto the path of psychology during his junior year as an undergraduate at DePauw University.  Fully intending on going into advertising, Dr. McFall initially only enrolled in psychology courses as a way to further his possible future success within the field.  Eventually, he was directed towards a career in clinical psychology on a whim and before he knew it, he was looking into graduate programs of the same subject.  He ended up at Ohio State University after graduating from DePauw and took an interest in their research oriented clinical psychology program.  Now, after having published many different works, he is employed as a Professor of Psychology at Indiana University and has been involved in multiple administrative roles, teaching students to look at the field with a skeptical and critical eye and educating individuals on the science pertained to clinical psychology.  He is also actively involved in research revolving around interpersonal competence and has played a role in the research of several other significant and specific clinical problems with an overall goal to “build better theoretical and quantitative models of clinically relevant phenomena” (Kuther, 108).  When asked what he sees in the future for the clinical psychology field, Dr. McFall states a strong opinion regarding the lack of doctoral-level clinical psychologists being hired as health care providers because it is essentially more cost efficient to hire master-level social workers – even if they lack the research and science-based knowledge of the Ph.D. program graduates. As a clinical psychologist, McFall’s focus is primarily on the science of the subject.  He mentions this several times throughout the short profile, eventually getting at that the main objective of doctoral programs is to prepare students to become the most competent and capable research clinical scientists possible.  As stated in his manifesto, discussed in class.  He mentions, as a cardinal principle, that psychology from a scientific perspective is the only legitimate form of the career.  McFall states, “Only those clinical training programs that have maintained and strengthened the Ph.D.’s traditional focus on scientific research training are preparing their students for a viable future…” (Kuther, 108).  In other words, Ph.D. level programs are the only acceptable doctorate programs for successful psychologists.McFall describes himself as a teacher to all levels of college students, an active researcher of competence and psychopathology, and an administrator involved in many service roles within the community.  McFall teaches Introduction to Clinical Psychology and Clinical Psychology courses, as well as a clinical based course of study.  This clinical based course is directed to students interested in applying his theories at a Ph.D. level as teachers or clinicians, dealing with treating obsessive-compulsive disorders in an environment where his students can learn from it.  He believes in the importance of effective empirical research and using it in his practices to come up with a clinical judgement, rather than solely using intuition.