Psychological Testing In Forensic Psychology

1. Psychological Testing In Forensic Psychology Emily Cripps Clinical Psychology Ph.D. Student, University of Waterloo Law and Mental Health Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

2. Forensic Clinical Practice Criminal Assessments Examples: • Fitness to Stand Trial • Criminal Responsibility (NGRI) • Psychopathic Personality • Risk Assessment

3. Psychological Testing Important Features of Psychological Tests • Standardized administration and scoring procedures • To ensure objectivity • Tests results are interpreted with respect to a normative sample, allowing us to rank a client’s scores with respect to other scores within the standardization sample; norming samples must be representative • Empirically established reliability and validity

4. Reliability • Reliability refers to the consistency of measurement Types of Reliability • Test-Retest reliability • Consistency across different assessment points • Inter-rater reliability • Consistency across different raters

5. Validity • Validity is concerned with the accuracy of measurement • does the test measure what it is supposed to? • Types of Validity • Content Validity • Test items are a representative sample of the content areas you wish to assess • Predictive Validity • The test accurately predicts the behaviour in question

6. Tests of Psychopathology • Allow a clinician to assess a wider range of symptoms than in an interview • Allow for quantification of the severity of a problem • Have specifically defined clinical or diagnostic ranges; scores within the clinical range are significantly higher or different than the mean of the standardization sample

19. MMPI-2:Validity Scales • Fake Good: • Lie-Scale: Assess the extent to which the test taker refuses to admit to a series common everyday problems or slight moral failings which statistically almost every one is willing to admit • Fake Bad: • Assess the degree to which the test taker endorses a series of items which statistically are very rarely endorsed • These items are generally of the sort that legitimate patients don’t endorse or only endorse in small numbers • Consistency: • assess the extent to which the test taker responds to items of similar content in the same way

20. Risk Assessment • Clinical Prediction • Predicting recidivism based on idiosyncratic clinical judgment • Actuarial Prediction • Predicting recidivism by inputting information (usually stable, historical information) into statistical formulas derived from research • Actuarial method more effective than clinical method • Usually includes static variables (e.g., # of previous offences, history of behavioural problems at school); newer measures incorporating dynamic/changeable variables (e.g., few social supports, employment difficulties, not perceiving oneself as at risk)

21. Phallometric Testing • Assesses assessing sexual interests, such as pedophilia • Measures changes in penile blood flow • Stimuli are auditory and/or visual stimuli • Auditory • Consensual and nonconsensual sexual encounters • Children, pubescents and adults • Visual • Children, pubescents and adults