Training and Consultation in Psychological Assessment With Professional Psychologists: Suggestions for Enhancing the Profession and Individual Practices

Once central to the identity and practice of clinical psychology, psychological assessment (PA) is currently more limited in professional practice and generally less emphasized in graduate training programs than in the past. Performance-based personality tests especially are taught and used less, even though scientific evidence of their utility and validity has never been stronger. We review research on training in PA and discuss challenges that contributed to its decreased popularity. We then review continuing education requirements for ethical practice in PA and recommend that PA should be reconceptualized as a specialty best practiced by psychologists who have the resources and time to maintain competency. We offer recommendations about how professional organizations concerned with PA can promote its practice and how individual expert clinicians can assist. We conclude by describing a collaborative model for providing group consultation in PA to practicing psychologists. If implemented widely, this model could help promote PA and raise its standard of practice.     

Considerations and Strategies for Enhancing the Supervision and Training of Foreign-Born Spanish-Speaking Supervisees

Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy - Efforts to train clinicians proficient in the delivery of Spanish services have expanded in response to the mental health needs of the growing Spanish...     

Psychological Assessment of Catatonic Schizophrenia

Probably due to the rarity of the disorder and the general inability of catatonic patients to cooperate with standardized assessment, no data exist documenting the psychological features associated with catatonic schizophrenia that may appear on psychological tests. This study utilized standard assessment techniques to examine clinical hypotheses regarding the psychogenic correlates of catatonic conditions from the performance of one man on psychological tests. In accordance with previous theory, test findings indicated frequent constriction, rigidity, and negativism in conjunction with compulsive traits. Experiences of cognitive and self-fragmentation were juxtaposed with a formal, mechanistic body ego; disorganization and discontinuity were countered with attempts at self-cohesion. Depressed feelings and human interest were apparent, although interpersonal relatedness was frequently characterized by an avoidant, distancing style.     

关于人类基因组解读计划的某些思考

基因组图谱的完成 ,仅仅是测定了 30亿个核苷酸的排列顺序 ,随后更主要的、更艰巨的工作是解读、破译这些基因的结构与功能 ,以及基因之间的相互关系与调控作用 ,也即是要解读基因编译的蛋白质清单。人类基因组图谱的测序工作 ,仅仅是了解人类基因的共性 ,对于人与人之间的基因差异以及基因变异的研究 ,发现变异的疾病基因 ,通过分析这些特定的变异基因来诊断疾病或预测疾病的发生 ,将是今后更艰巨的任务。1　基因功能问题人类究竟有多少基因 ,开始认为有 10万个基因 ,后来一度估计有 14万个 ,当人们测定了基因组序列后 ,最后认为有 3万多个…     

Actions and Events: Some Semantical Considerations

Since the publication of Davidson's influential article 'The Logical Form of Action Sentences', semantical considerations are widely thought to support the doctrine that actions are events. I shall argue that the semantics of action sentences do not imply that actions are events. This will involve defending a negative claim and a positive claim, as well as a proposal for how to formalize action sentences. The negative claim is that the semantics of action sentences do not require that we think of actions as events, even if these sentences are best formalized in the manner that Davidson himself favours . The positive claim is that the simplest way of formalizing actions sentences which captures all and only licit inferences requires quantification only , over the results of actions. If this is right, then the argument from semantics evaporates, and the claim that actions are events needs to be freshly argued for – or against.     

Causality and Contingency: Some Conceptual Considerations

The Psychological Record - The logical features of causality (necessary connection, succession, and contiguity) are examined in regard to respondent and operant behaviors. It is emphasized that...     

Counseling the Aging: Some Practical Considerations

Although counseling older individuals requires the use of basic helping skills, other complementary phases of working with this special population must be addressed. This article outlines the multiple-loss aspect of the aging individual's environment and suggests some specific strategies for assisting these persons to realize their ongoing potential and residual personal strength.     

Lesbianism: Some Developmental and Psychodynamic Considerations

In order to further our understanding of lesbianism the newer ideas of female development and of sexual object choice must be integrated into psychoanalytic theory. This includes such concepts as primary femininity, the girl's primary wish for a baby, and female genital sensations leading to a gradual understanding of female anatomy. Ties to each parent develop in tandem, not sequentially. Boys and girls have different attachment and separation experiences. Genital release, a major organizer of male psychological development, may not be as important as intimacy in the girl's development. Multitudes of environmental influences play a role in establishing gender identity, gender role and sexual object choice. Nature and nurture interact. Homosexuality and psychopathology are not connected and psychodynamics is not the same as etiology. A case presentation focuses on the role of aggression in female development. The importance of ambivalence is considered in its impact on maternal identification and sexual object choice.     

Cancer Risk Assessment Using Genetic Panel Testing: Considerations for Clinical Application

With the completion of the Human Genome Project and the development of high throughput technologies, such as next-generation sequencing, the use of multiplex genetic testing, in which multiple genes are sequenced simultaneously to test for one or more conditions, is growing rapidly. Reflecting underlying heterogeneity where a broad range of genes confer risks for one or more cancers, the development of genetic cancer panels to assess these risks represents just one example of how multiplex testing is being applied clinically. There are a number of issues and challenges to consider when conducting genetic testing for cancer risk assessment, and these issues become exceedingly more complex when moving from the traditional single-gene approach to panel testing. Here, we address the practical considerations for clinical use of panel testing for breast, ovarian, and colon cancers, including the benefits, limitations and challenges, genetic counseling issues, and management guidelines.     

Administration and Environment Considerations in Computer-Based Sports-Concussion Assessment

Computer-based testing has become a vital tool for the assessment of sport-related concussion (SRC). An increasing number of papers have been published on this topic, focusing on subjects such as the purpose and validity of baseline testing, the performance of special populations on computer-based tests, the psychometric properties of different computerized neurocognitive tools, and considerations for valid and reliable administration of these tools. The current paper describes several considerations regarding computerized test design, input and output devices, and testing environment that should be described explicitly when administering computer-based cognitive testing, regardless of whether the assessment is used for clinical or research purposes. The paper also reviews the conclusions of recent literature (2007–2013) using computer-based testing for the assessment of SRC, with special attention to the methods used in these studies. We also present an appendix checklist for clinicians and researchers that may be helpful in ensuring proper attention to factors that could influence the reliability and validity of computer-based cognitive testing. We believe that explicit attention to these technological factors may lead to the development of standards for the development and implementation of computer-based tests. Such standards have the potential to enhance the accuracy and utility of computer-based tests in SRC.     

Three Approaches to the Disjunction Between Psychological Measurement and Psychological Persons: Methodological and Ethical Considerations

In this paper, we take forward Schwarz’s (2009) disjunction between measurement-apparatus-questionnaire and measurement-apparatus-man to examine how the crisis in contemporary psychology is related to assumptions about two sets of connections in research: connections between research tools, research behaviours, and psychological phenomena; and connections between researchers and researchees. By setting up a research problem with methodological and ethical implications, we describe three approaches that involve different assumptions and research activities in relation to the ways each makes these connections: Disassociated, Conventionally Connected and Persons in Dialogue Approaches. We argue that a Persons in Dialogue Approach is the most appropriate approach for a 21st Century psychology in crisis.     

Psychological Assessment of an Artist and Impostor

A Rorschach record and a narrative poem are examined to determine how imagination expresses the psychological trauma of being exposed as an impostor. The subject had been trained as a medical corpsman and deceived people under the grandiose fantasy of being a doctor. The role of the impostor physician is seen as an imaginative identity that was designed with an adaptive purpose. A Jungian analysis of his suicide attempt and the Rorschach suggest that the impostor role was a masculine compensatory fantasy that served as a counterforce to negative maternal imagery, linked to death, that is present in his imagination.     

心理测验在人才测评中的应用

本文探讨了心理测验在人才测评中应用价值和存在的问题,讨论了科学的人才测评与心理测验的关系,期望可以科学的把心理测验应用到人才测评工作中,提高人才测评的有效性和可靠性。     

Psychological Assessment in Japan in These Decades

On recense dans cet article les méthodes et les centres d'intérêt de l'évaluation psychologique au Japon. Quatre rubriques ont été retenues: (1) le développement des aptitudes et la construction des échelles; (2) la personnalité et les comparaispns interculturelles; (3) la motivation et la mesure des attitudes, et (4) les relations humaines.
Research on means and modes of psychological assessment in Japan are reviewed here. This research is treated under four sections: (1) scale construction and ability development, (2) personality measurement and cross-cultural comparison, (3) motivation and attitude measurement, and (4) human relations.