U. celebrates clinical psych.

In 1896, Psychology Professor Lightner Witmer founded the world's first psychology clinic at Penn. Exactly 100 years later, under the direction of Psychology Professor Robert DeRubeis, Penn hosted a conference honoring the centennial anniversary of clinical psychology. The two-day conference, held at the Movement Theater International last weekend, featured 18 leading contributors to modern clinical psychology. Presenters included Penn Psychology professors Aaron Beck, Tyrone Cannon, Lester Luborsky and Martin Seligman, along with other professors from around the country. The speakers focused on four main issues that will impact clinical psychology in the 20th century: the cognitive process and psychopathology, child development and family issues, severe psychopathology and clinical psychology in a new era. The psychology experts led talks on their research specialties, with two sessions each day. Beck, known as the father of cognitive therapy, discussed how his approach to clinical psychology differs from psychoanalysis. Cognitive therapy attempts to modify a patient's thinking patterns by teaching skills that challenge the patient's overly negative beliefs about himself. Beck also said gradually increasing tasks from small to more demanding assignments have proved to improve a depressed person's negative outlook. Vanderbilt University Professor Judy Garber explored the risk for depression in adolescence. According to Garber, children identified as having high risks for depression usually have lower self-esteem, less cohesive families, abnormally decreased brain activity and at least one depressed parent. Garber also revealed that prevention programs can reduce the risk of adolescent depression. Seligman expanded on the concept of prevention programs by explaining the results from his recent APEX project. This experiment involved two separate studies, one with Penn freshmen and the other with children ages eight to 10 years old. In both studies, subjects that received a combination of preventive cognitive and behavioral techniques showed fewer episodes of depression or anxiety. "What I think we may be able to do -- and my hope for the year 2046 -- is to take the techniques that we have heard about for the last two days that have been successful with dealing with clinical problems when they present full blown and use these techniques preventatively to end the epidemic of depression," he said. Audience members, including professionals and students, said they plan to incorporate the information they gained from the conference into their work and studies. "I did find Beck very interesting." said Afsum Moadeli, a rehabilitation case manager for ReMed Care Facilities. "I work with people who have suffered brain injuries, so I can incorporate Beck's cognitive approach when dealing with these individuals and their families." For students, the conference provided a close look at a future of psychology. "I wanted to get a better perspective of what is going on in psychology," said College senior Jessica Grisham. "I am considering pursuing a career in [it]." And some said they enjoyed the chance to hear first-hand explanations of the concepts they typically read about in texts. "I really enjoyed the opportunity to listen to leaders in the field." said second-year Psychology graduate student Isabelle Rosso. "Beck, Luborsky and Seligman are incredibly influential theorists, and it was really illuminating to hear the research theories expressed through their eyes."