Stephen E. Finn

Psychological testing and psychological assessment. A review of evidence and issues.

This article summarizes evidence and issues associated with psychological assessment. Data from more than 125 meta-analyses on test validity and 800 samples examining multimethod assessment suggest 4 general conclusions: (a) Psychological test validity is strong and compelling, (b) psychological test validity is comparable to medical test validity, (c) distinct assessment methods provide unique sources of information, and (d) clinicians who rely exclusively on interviews are prone to incomplete understandings. Following principles for optimal nomothetic research, the authors suggest that a multimethod assessment battery provides a structured means for skilled clinicians to maximize the validity of individualized assessments. Future investigations should move beyond an examination of test scales to focus more on the role of psychologists who use tests as helpful tools to furnish patients and referral sources with professional consultation.

Information-Gathering and Therapeutic Models of Assessment: Complementary Paradigms

The authors reviewed the other articles in the special section and commented on the use of psychological assessment to plan treatment. They call this view of assessment the information-gathering paradigm, because the goal is to collect data that will aid in communication and decision making about clients. This contrasts with the therapeutic model of assessment, in which the major goal is to produce positive change in clients. The authors summarized evidence of the efficacy of assessment as a brief therapy and discussed its possible therapeutic mechanisms. The information-gathering and therapeutic models of assessment are complementary rather than mutually exclusive, and both speak to the utility of assessment. The current crisis in the clinical use of psychological assessment may be due in part to an overemphasis on the information-gathering model.

Therapeutic effects of providing MMPI-2 test feedback to college students awaiting therapy.

This study investigated the benefits of sharing Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2) test results verbally with clients. Ss were randomly selected from a college counseling centers waiting list: 32 received test feedback according to a collaborative model developed by Finn (1990) and 29 received only examiner attention. Groups did not differ on age, sex, days between examiner contact, and initial levels of distress and self-esteem

Binge eating and associated habit patterns within college student and identified bulimic populations

The purpose of this study was to assess commonalities in binge eating and other problem behavior patterns in male and female college students, and in a group of women diagnosed as bulimic. Both males and females in the college student group reported a substantial frequency of eating an excessive amount of food in a relatively short period of time. A family history of substance abuse was significantly related to reported binge behavior for college females, but not for college males. Marked similarities were found among the college and clinical group women in the emotional antecedents and consequents of the eating binge, and in the foods consumed. The males reported a significantly greater proportion of positive affect after a binge episode. A general pattern of impulse-control problems was reported by a significant number of the clinically identified bulimic group.

How therapeutic assessment became humanistic

Abstract Therapeutic Assessment is a semi‐structured form of collaborative psychological assessment that grew out of efforts to make psychological assessment a positive and beneficial experience for clients. Although we developed this approach without being highly informed about humanistic psychology, gradually our work with clients led us toward more humanistic techniques and principles. We describe some of these techniques and their relationship to the efficacy of Therapeutic Assessment. This article describes the links between Therapeutic Assessment and humanistic psychology, detailing how humanistic practices were gradually incorporated into the methods of Therapeutic Assessment and highlighting those aspects that are clearly compatible with humanistic principles.

Assessment Feedback With Parents and Preadolescent Children: A Collaborative Approach

Psychologists routinely provide feedback to parents (and sometimes children) after conducting psychological assessments of children. The authors review the literature on sharing feedback from child assessments. They then present a rationale, grounded in the theory and principles of collaborative assessment, for why it is useful to discuss assessment results with parents and children. Citing available research evidence, they propose a conceptual framework for understanding the potential therapeutic impact of feedback. Next, they present detailed guidelines—illustrated with case examples from a research project and an independent assessment practice—for how to prepare for and give oral and written feedback to parents and children. The authors encourage assessment professionals to consider the insights and techniques derived from collaborative assessment when providing feedback.

Why Won't My Parents Help Me? : Therapeutic Assessment of a Child and Her Family

We present a case study of a childs psychological assessment using the methods of Therapeutic Assessment (TA). The case illustrates how TA can help assessors understand the process and structure of a family by highlighting how maladaptive family processes and interactions impact a childs development. It also illustrates how TA with a child can serve as a family intervention. In this case, it became apparent that the childs social difficulties were significant, not minor as initially reported by the parents, and were rooted in an insecure attachment, underlying depression, an idiosyncratic view of the world, and longing for attention, all of which were hidden or expressed in grandiose, expansive, and off-putting behaviors. In addition, the familial hierarchy was inverted; the parents felt ineffective and the child felt too powerful, leading to enhanced anxiety for the child. Intervention throughout, punctuated by the family session and feedback sessions, allowed the parents to develop a new “story” about their child and for the child to experience a new sense of safety. Following the TA, the parents and child indicated high satisfaction, enhanced family functioning, and decreased child symptomatology. Subsequent family therapy sessions allowed the family to further implement the interventions introduced in the TA.

Providing Psychological Assessment Feedback to Children Through Individualized Fables

We present an extensive rationale for why it is important that children receive feedback from a psychological assessment and how feedback can be provided in a developmentally appropriate and therapeutic way. We propose providing such feedback to children through individualized, original fables that are based on the assessment findings and tailored to the emotional capacities of the child and family. Stories and fables have long been utilized in psychotherapy with children but are fairly new in assessment. We review the history of fables and provide a rationale for the benefits of using them as a way to share assessment findings with children. A case study is used to illustrate how to develop a fable from test data, information provided from parents, and one’s empathic understanding of a child. We then outline and illustrate a method—using the same case study—for presenting the fable to the child and parents together. Finally, we briefly provide four additional examples of fable construction. We hope that psychologists will be inspired to consider using fables to provide assessment feedback to children and their parents.

Therapeutic assessment promotes treatment readiness but does not affect symptom change in patients with personality disorders: Findings from a randomized clinical trial

The field of clinical personality assessment is lacking in published empirical evidence regarding its treatment and clinical utility. This article reports on a randomized controlled clinical trial (N = 74) allocating patients awaiting treatment in a specialized clinic for personality disorders to either 4 sessions of (a) therapeutic assessment (TA) or (b) a structured goal-focused pretreatment intervention (GFPTI). In terms of short-term outcome, TA demonstrated superior ability to raise outcome expectancies and patient perceptions of progress toward treatment (Cohens d = 0.65 and 0.56, respectively) and yielded higher satisfaction (d = 0.68). Moreover, patients reported marginally stronger alliance to the TA clinicians than to GFPT clinicians (d = 0.46), even though therapists perceived the alliance as equally positive in both groups. No differences in symptomatic ratings were observed. Results are discussed with reference to treatment utility in this particular patient group.

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–2s successful ongoing evolution. We discuss specific ways the MMPI–2 community could avoid polarization about the RC Scales.