Mission

The Academy’s broad mission is to advance clinical science. “Clinical science” is defined as a psychological science directed at the promotion of adaptive functioning; at the assessment, understanding, amelioration, and prevention of human problems in behavior, affect, cognition or health; and at the application of knowledge in ways consistent with scientific evidence. The Academy’s emphasis on the term “science” underscores its commitment to empirical approaches to evaluating the validity and utility of testable hypotheses and to advancing knowledge by this method. A more complete discussion of the clinical science training model and its relation to other models of training can be found in a chapter titled, Clinical Science Model by Richard McFall, Teresa Treat, and Robert Simons (2015). This chapter appeared in The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology (edited by Robin Cautin and Scott Lilienfeld).

The Academy sees the development and application of clinical science as ongoing and dynamic processes, and is committed to facilitating the evolution of clinical science. Toward that end, it has established five specific goals:

1. Training:
   To foster the training of students for careers in clinical science research, who skillfully will produce and apply scientific knowledge.
2. Research and Theory:
   To advance the full range of clinical science research and theory and their integration with other relevant sciences.
3. Resources and Opportunities:
   To foster the development of, and access to, resources and opportunities for training, research, funding, and careers in clinical science.
4. Application:
   To foster the broad application of clinical science to human problems in responsible and innovative ways.
5. Dissemination:
   To foster the timely dissemination of clinical science to policy-making groups, psychologists and other scientists, practitioners, and consumers.