Clinical Psychology reading

July 21, 2009 1:44 PM

My friend is applying for clinical psychology postgraduate study at the end of this year and she would like to make sure she is well read on relevant books (nb. not text books) and blogs etc before the interview. Can anyone reccomend any books, websites or blogs that would be good for my friend to review prior to her interview?
posted by curious zoe to science & nature (3 comments total)

I'm starting a psychology PhD in the fall. While it isn't clinical psych, the folks I talked to at my prospective student weekends who were applying to the clinical program at the same schools told me that their interviews were pretty similar to mine. I read a shitload before my interviews, and while it's always nice to learn more, I was definitely overprepared. I think it's a lot more important to be able to intelligently discuss your own research and how it will mesh with the research of the folks with whom you're applying to work. If your friend is applying for a PsyDoc, feel free to disregard this advice.
posted by solipsophistocracy at 2:25 PM on July 21

I think she should know what research is being done and what is being published from the specific programs she's applying to, and how that relates to her research interests/goals.
posted by kathrineg at 2:25 PM on July 21 [1 favorite]

Current (not clinical) psych grad student agreeing with what the others have said so far. In general, the best things to know when going to interviews are your own research goals and a little bit about the research that the people at the institution are doing (especially the work of those whose interests are most similar to your own, as they are most likely to be your primary advisor).

I'd say in general, the unit of publication in psychology is the peer-reviewed journal article (although certainly, there are books) and that it is probably a better use of your friend's time to read up on articles that are relevant to her interests or articles by professors at the school where she's interviewing than it would be to read unreferreed sources such as blogs, which tend not to carry as much weight in academia.
posted by rebel_rebel at 10:38 PM on July 21