Psychological Testing In Forensic Psychology

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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

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Forensic Clinical Practice

• Criminal Assessments
• Examples
• Fitness to Stand Trial
• Criminal Responsibility (NGRI)
• Psychopathic Personality
• Risk Assessment

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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 clients
  scores with respect to other scores within the
  standardization sample norming samples must be
  representative
• Empirically established reliability and validity

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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

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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

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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

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MMPI-2Validity 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 dont 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

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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)

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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