Noise in the System: Redefining Clinical Psychology Phenomena
Abstract
Recent efforts in neuroscientific research are redefining the nature of clinical psychological phenomena. Therefore, as an area of scientific inquiry, clinical psychology must realign its boundaries with neighboring disciplines. In this regard, noise, a term originating from information theory, has the potential of becoming a magnet concept guiding the formulation of major trends in the relationship between physiological and psychological explanations for clinical phenomena and human behavior. To explore the effects that noise reinterpretations of clinical phenomena may have on clinical psychological thinking, the concepts of self-concept and culture are used. Numerous consequences of the expected transcendence of the physiological over the psychological in explaining human behavior are foreseen. Feasible future directions for scientific clinical psychology in light of these developments are offered