“Why am I so stuck?”: A Collaborative/Therapeutic Assessment Case Discussion

Assessors from 3 continents worked together on a single multimethod case study. Their goal was to hold the client at the center and forefront of their attitudes and thinking as each assessor focused on a specific measure or group of measures. The adult client requested a neuropsychological assessment and completed a full battery of cognitive measures as well as the MMPI–2, the Rorschach, and the Wartegg. A basic tenet of collaborative/therapeutic assessment holds that the client is a full partner in the assessment process; he or she is also seen as the final arbiter of the usefulness of the ideas derived. With that in mind, the client worked with the lead assessor to create 6 questions she wished answered by the assessment. Feedback and discussion occurred in a number of ways: through discussion sessions with the lead assessor that included extended inquiry; individualized letters from the other assessors, each addressing her 6 questions; a summary letter from the lead assessor; and a metaphorical, therapeutic story that stressed key findings from the assessment. Results converged powerfully, with similar findings from each assessor. The client stated that she felt heard and understood in the process, even by individuals who she had never met personally.     

Therapeutic Assessment With Children: A Pilot Study of Treatment Acceptability and Outcome

Therapeutic Assessment (TA) with children is a hybrid of psychological assessment and short-term intervention. It uses the ongoing process and results of psychological assessment to enhance parents' understanding of their child and to facilitate change. Clinical reports and single case studies suggest that TA with children is an acceptable and effective brief intervention. However, no aggregate data have been published to support this claim. This pilot study investigated the acceptability and preoutcome–postoutcome of TA with 14 clinically referred children with emotional and behavior problems and their parents. Results indicated high treatment acceptability as well as significantly decreased child symptomatology and enhanced family functioning as reported by children and mothers. In addition, mothers demonstrated a significant increase in positive emotion and a significant decrease in negative emotion pertaining to their children's challenges and future. The findings, although limited due to the design and small sample size, support assertions from published single case studies that TA is possibly an efficacious child and family intervention for children with emotional and behavioral problems and should be studied in a larger, comparison design.     

Changes in older Dutch adults’ role networks after moving

Using the convoy model (R. L. Kahn & T. C. Antonucci, 1980), this study examined the differential impact of relocation, depending on the distance moved, on the size of 3 types of role networks. A total of 890 Dutch nonmovers and 445 movers (aged 55–86 years) were selected from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Results of analyses of variance showed that the neighbor networks changed most after relocation. Long‐distance movers discontinued the largest number of relationships with fellow club members. As expected, moving did not affect coworker networks. The findings show that, consistent with the convoy model, role networks proved to be unstable. Older adults, however, restored their partial networks at the second observation by starting new relationships.     

Similar Processes Despite Divergent Behavior in Two Commonly Used Measures of Risky Decision Making

Performance on complex decision-making tasks may depend on a multitude of processes. Two such tasks, the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), are of particular interest because they are associated with real world risky behavior, including illegal drug use. We used cognitive models to disentangle underlying processes in both tasks. Whereas behavioral measures from the IGT and BART were uncorrelated, cognitive models revealed two reliable cross-task associations. Results suggest that the tasks similarly measure loss aversion and decision-consistency processes, but not necessarily the same learning process. Additionally, substance-using individuals (and especially stimulant users) performed worse on the IGT than healthy controls did, and this pattern could be explained by reduced decision consistency.     

Interpolation and definability in abstract logics

A semantical definition of abstract logics is given. It is shown that the Craig interpolation property implies the Beth definability property, and that the Souslin-Kleene interpolation property implies the weak Beth definability property. An example is given, showing that Beth does not imply Souslin-Kleene.     

The MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales and restraints to innovation, or "what have they done to my song?"

Rogers, Sewell, Harrison, and Jordan (2006/this issue) largely replicate in an independent clinical sample the MMPI-2 Restructured Clinical (RC) Scales developed by Tellegen et al. (2003). Nichols (2006/this issue) raises numerous concerns about the development and utility of the RC Scales, which on close appraisal did not change our view that the scales are well conceived and potentially valuable to researchers and clinicians alike. We present two case studies in which the RC Scales helped clarify complex MMPI-2 (Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) profiles with multiple elevations on the Clinical, Content, Supplementary, and Personality Psychopathology Five (Harkness, McNulty, Ben-Porath, & Graham, 2001) scales. When interpretations refined by the RC Scales were discussed with the clients, each seemed to feel deeply understood. Reservations about instrument innovation can be appreciated as helping to counterbalance change and thereby ensure the MMPI-2's successful ongoing evolution. We discuss specific ways the MMPI-2 community could avoid polarization about the RC Scales.     

How psychological assessment taught me compassion and firmness

In this article, I reflect on 2 specific assessment experiences and how they helped me grow as a person and as a psychologist. I believe that practicing assessment creates opportunities for personal growth in assessors because (a) to truly understand difficult clients, we must find personal versions of their psychological dilemmas in ourselves, which we might otherwise never be called on to face, and (b) to be effective as assessors, we must say difficult things to clients in plain nonjudgmental language, which forces us to develop courage and wisdom.