The creation of specific professional competences based on the clinical psychological method and centred on the capabilities, knowledge and professional skills that are needed for developing effective relations between Psychologists, clients and customers, is the focus of the 2nd cycle degree course n Clinical Psychology. This degree is also the doorway for university master courses, specific training programmes and clinical specialisations.
Based upon the grounding they have acquired during the first cycle course, students will acquire, through class specific activities, advanced competences in General and Physiological Psychology, Social and Industrial Psychology, as well as in Dynamic and Clinical Psychology.
These subjects will be accompanied by other integrative and related educational activities (Theoretical Philosophy, General Psychology, Psychobiology and Physiological Psychology Psychometrics, Psychology of Development and Education, Social Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology, Dynamic Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Sociology of Cultural and Communication Processes, Legal Sociology, Sociology of Deviance and Social Change), aiming at completing the professional profile through the study in depth of advanced, specialist and current issues in the Psychology sector, coherently with the labour market needs.
The teaching methodology is based upon the integration between frontal teaching and interactive and practical educational methods (role playing, clinical case study, simulations, educational practices, laboratories).
Students may, in particular, participate in elaboration groups upon professional identity, representing the first personal educational experience aiming at the acquisition of awareness on the importance of relationship as the main working and intervention tool in clinical psychology.
There are 12 examinations , 6 in the first year, 5 in the second one, and 1 elective educational activity, worth 9 credits.
The course also includes 4 credits for stage activities and 10 credits for further training developing useful skills for entering the labour market.
Stage activities are not supervised by a psychologist, therefore they cannot be considered as professional practice, as for Europsy certification providing for Psychologists training a five-year university path followed by one year of professional practical training.
The specific educational objectives of this course are:
- Up-to-date knowledge of the principal theories explaining the normal psychological functioning and psychopathological disease (particular attention will be paid to the complex model of self evaluation and of psychopathology in its individual conscious and unconscious, family, socio-anthropological traits; complexity will be also investigated through the study of the coexistence of mental, cultural, biological and relational factors in the development of psychic life and of its pathology);
- Knowledge of the clinical-psychological intervention methods in terms of capability of providing therapeutical indications, of carrying out studies on the effectiveness and applicability of interventions in various care contexts;
- The capability of carrying out clinical-psychological evaluation and support interviews and of writing clinical reports for an appropriate communication with colleagues and other professionals (e.g. social workers, psychiatrists, practitioners, etc...);
- Knowledge of the typical research methods of clinical psychology, bases upon the outcome, process and setting evaluation.
