Implementation of Trauma-informed Best Practices for International Criminal Investigations Conducted by the United Nations Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da ’esh/ISIL (UNITAD)
This article describes the development and implementation of a trauma-informed investigative approach that could be used with traumatized populations in the aftermath of gross human rights violations. It also reviews the psychological dangers of not using a trauma -informed approach in investigations of mass atrocities, outlines UNITAD’s trauma-informed interview approach, and presents UNITAD’s plans to train future cohorts of investigators in the use of these techniques. (Source: Psychological Injury and Law)
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - July 11, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
From Subjective Cognitive Decline to Mild Cognitive Impairment to Dementia: Clinical and Capacity Assessment Considerations
AbstractMild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a prevalent condition with major implications for both society as a whole and on an individual level. The progression from MCI to dementia as part of the Alzheimer ’s continuum has been widely studied. This progression is considered as an intermediate clinical stage from normal aging for many individuals before meeting full criteria for dementia. The identification of predictive factors continues to be studied with evidence suggesting that early prevention, rather than treatment per se, is the current most productive focus of research. However, comorbid old-age related condition...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - July 2, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Using Quantitative and Qualitative Rorschach Data within a Multi-Method, Forensic Assessment of Dissociative Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
AbstractThis case study demonstrates the procedures and the complementary function and contribution of the Rorschach within a multi-method forensic mental health evaluation. This particular case addressed the state of mind of a perpetrator and related traumatic reactions and the possibility of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) associated with violent attacks involving rape. The verbatim Rorschach record contained repeated and troubled images of splitting and ripping, and of transitions from cooperative and pleasing to darkness and evil representations, that likely reflected the individual ’s distressed perception of h...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - June 2, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
First Do No Harm: Ethical Issues in Pathologizing Normal Variations in Behavior and Functioning
AbstractThere has been an increase in receipt of academic accommodations and growing disparities in who receives them. In the present study, we examine how decisions about diagnosis, impairment, and disability are made in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and learning disorder. Using the concept of medicalization, we present evidence that psychologists making diagnoses and disability determinations often over-pathologize everyday behaviors and experiences. We focus on the base rates of current and retrospective symptom reports, inaccuracies in self-reported impairment, misinterpretation of cognitive and psychoeducat...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - June 1, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Symptom and Performance Validity Assessment: European Trends in Research and Practice
AbstractThis is a short editorial to the special issue of Psychological Injury and Law. The first of the articles of this issue (Merten et al., Symptom and performance validity assessment in European countries: an update, in this issue) was conceived as the proper introduction. The collection contains eight contributions from authors doing their research in eight different countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland), using a variety of approaches (review and empirical articles, social security and criminal background, etc.). They describe major research trends and th...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - May 6, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
A Survey of Practices and Beliefs of Italian Psychologists Regarding Malingering and Symptom Validity Assessment
AbstractA few years ago, an article describing the current status of Symptom Validity Assessment (SVA) practices and beliefs in European countries reported that there was little research activity in Italy (Merten et al.,2013). The same article also highlighted that Italian practitioners were less inclined to use Symptom Validity Tests (SVTs) and Performance Validity Tests (PVTs) in their assessments, compared with their colleagues from other major European countries. Considering that several articles on malingering and SVA have been published by Italian authors in recent years, we concluded that an update of the practices ...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - April 19, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Provision of Extended Assessment Time in Post-secondary Settings: a Review of the Literature and Proposed Guidelines for Practice
AbstractAlthough extended time for tests and examinations is the most commonly requested and provided accommodation in post-secondary institutions, best practice guidelines from existing research are rarely translated into practice. Thus, a review of the literature was undertaken to examine support for granting additional assessment time to persons in specific disability categories. Based on this review, no more than 25% additional time is supported for students with learning disabilities, and even then, only when their documented area of functional impairment overlaps with assessment task requirements. No research support...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 25, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Objectivity or Advocacy? The Ethics of the Scout Mindset in Psychoeducational Assessment
AbstractPsychologists often act as advocates when conducting diagnostic evaluations, using their reports as a way to assist clients in achieving their goals. At times, this comes at the expense of objectivity. The “soldier” and “scout” mindsets are useful metaphors for biased and unbiased reasoning, respectively, and they apply well to the practice of conducting psychological evaluations. Psychologists face several strong incentives for adopting a soldier mindset, but these can lead to unethical pract ices. Cultivating a scout mindset of actively open-minded thinking, in which a wide variety of assessment data are ...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 23, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Can the Rorschach be Administered Remotely? A Review of Options and a Pilot Study Using a Newly Developed R-PAS App
AbstractThe ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has required psychologists to adopt measures like physical distancing and mask wearing, though other safety procedures such as travel restrictions or prohibitions on in-person practice and research have fostered the use of tele-health tools. In this article, we review options for using the Rorschach task via videoconference and provide preliminary data from using a new electronic app for remote R-PAS administration to determine whether the remote administration in an electronic form yields different information than in-person administration with the cards in hand. As a pilot study, our...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 16, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Scores in Self-Report Questionnaires Assessing Adult ADHD Can Be Influenced by Negative Response Bias but Are Unrelated to Performance on Executive Function and Attention Tests
AbstractSelf-report questionnaires are in widespread use in the assessment of adults with suspected attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Notwithstanding the high degree of validity, these questionnaires are considered to possess, their stand-alone use in assessment for adult ADHD may result in false-positive diagnoses due to the risk of negative response bias. Most of the self-report questionnaires in typical use are based on the diagnostic systems DSM-5 or ICD-10. From a neuropsychological point of view, however, testing of various executive function abilities and attentional performance is important in th...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 15, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Disability Diagnoses: Seven Sins of Clinicians
AbstractResearch has increasingly demonstrated that clinicians are making disability diagnoses in young adults using flexible and expansive diagnostic criteria, or in some cases ignoring research-informed criteria all together. Commonly exhibited behaviors long considered normal as well as average achievement are now being characterized as disabilities. These practices create an issue of fairness, in that disability diagnoses allow access to academic accommodations that provide significant competitive advantage as well as access to substantial government-funded subsidies and benefits. This paper reviews the most common thi...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 11, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Traits and Distorted Symptom Presentation: a Scoping Review
AbstractAre personality traits related to symptom overreporting and/or symptom underreporting? With this question in mind, we evaluated studies from 1979 to 2020 (k = 55), in which personality traits were linked to scores on stand-alone validity tests, including symptom validity tests (SVTs) and measures of socially desirable responding (SDR) and/or supernormality. As to symptom overreporting (k = 14), associations with depression, alexithymia, apathy, dissociation, and fantasy proneness varied widely from weak to strong (rs .27 to .79). For underreporting (k = 41), inconsistent links (rs − .43 to .63) w...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - March 11, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Joint Consideration of Validity Indicators Embedded in Conners ’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS)
AbstractA decade of research has both illustrated the need for accurate clinical assessment of adult ADHD and brought forward a series of validity indicators assisting this diagnostic process. Several of these indicators have been embedded into Conners ’ Adult ADHD Rating Scales (CAARS). As their different theoretical underpinnings offer the opportunity of possible synergy effects, the present study sought to examine whether the item- or index-wise combination of multiple validity indicators benefits classification accuracy. A sample of controls (n = 856) and adults with ADHD (n = 72) answered the CAARS, includin...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - February 24, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Assessing Negative Response Bias Using Self-Report Measures: New Articles, New Issues
AbstractIn psychological injury and related forensic evaluations, two types of tests are commonly used to assess Negative Response Bias (NRB): Symptom Validity Tests (SVTs) and Performance Validity Tests (PVTs). SVTs assess the credibility of self-reported symptoms, whereas PVTs assess the credibility of observed performance on cognitive tasks. Compared to the large and ever-growing number of published PVTs, there are still relatively few validated self-report SVTs available to professionals for assessing symptom validity. In addition, while several studies have examined how to combine and integrate the results of multiple...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - February 23, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
Assessing Negative Response Bias with the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV (MCMI-IV): a Review of the Literature
AbstractThe most current version of the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory, the MCMI-IV, has practically no literature outside of the manual. The research on the embedded indicators of negative response bias is scarce at this time with regard to the MCMI-IV; however, these scales largely overlap with those of the MCMI-III, so that it is reasonable to hypothesize that a similar validity will generalize to the newer version. The present article reviews data from the manual and the scientific literature to offer a review of the simulation and known-group comparison studies conducted with the MCMI-III. The use of the Modifie...
Source: Psychological Injury and Law - February 2, 2022 Category: Medical Law Source Type: research
