Ethics
Assessment
More Assessment
Testing
More Testing
100
Expert testimony in which the expert answers the legal question posed before the court (e.g. the defendant is guilty).
What is ultimate issue testimony? (This is beyond the role of the forensic psychologist, who should be limited to answering psychological questions.)
100
The consistency of a measure
What is reliability?
100
Type of interview where the forensic psychologist can develop the best rapport with the client and gather in-depth information without a prescribed list of questions
Unstructured interview
100
Type of test that presents ambiguous stimuli to individuals to record their responses to access underlying issues like personality or psychopathology.
What is a projective test? (e.g. Rorschach Inkblot Test or Thematic Apperception Test (TAT))
100
Most frequently used psychological test among forensic psychologists.
What is the MMPI-II (personality test)?
200
The most common method for an opposing attorney to challenge and attempt to discredit a psychologist's testimony in court?
What is cross-examination?
200
The accuracy of measurement (the extent to which a test measures what it is intended to measure)
What is validity?
200
Type of interviewing that is the most formal/rigid and consists of specific questions that must be asked by the interviewer who is not allowed to deviate from the questions.
What is structured interviewing? (not the best to establish rapport)
200
Type of test that tends to be more structured than projective tests and that presents specific questions and asks for a specific range of responses.
What is an objective test? (e.g. MMPI-II)
200
Most frequently used projective test whose only single emperically-reliable use is to determine if an individual is grounded in reality or not.
What is the Rorschach test?
300
The area of expertise of a forensic psychologists within which they should practice.
What is scope of practice? (e.g. A child custody evaluator shouldn't be conducting insanity evaluations.)
300
Can a test be valid but unreliable?
No!
300
Type of interviewing that consists of pre-determined questions that the interviewer follows, but allows for flexibility on the part of the interviewer in asking additional follow-up questions.
What is semi-structured interviewing? (allow for more consistency than unstructured interviews)
300
Type of forensic assessment instrument that focuses on clinical issues that are common to the legal system (e.g. risk of future violence or psychopathy).
What is a forensically-relevant instrument? (e.g. PCL-R or the VRAG)
300
Which scales on the MMPI-II should be examined first by a psychologist - clinical or validity?
Validity.
400
Evidence regarding a set of symptoms that occur together in a meaningful manner and typically have a triggering event.
What is syndrome evidence? (Controversial, due lack of emperical-support for any of the syndromes)
400
Can a test be reliable but invalid?
Yes! (e.g. a test of depression that measures an individual's height)
400
Type of assessment where the individual being assessed is the "client" of the psychologist.
Therapeutic assessment (in a forensic assessment the client is usually an attorney or the court). See Table 2.1 in the textbook for more differences.
400
Type of forensic assessment instrument that is directly relevant to a specific legal standard [legal question posed by the court to the forensic psychologist] and "reflects the focus on specific capacities, abilities, or knowledge that are embodied by the law".
What is a specialized forensic instrument? (e.g. Rogers Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scale (R-CRAS)
400
The validity scale on the MMPI-II is the "lie-good scale" that presents socially desirable responses and is indicative of extreme or naive defensiveness due to the unrealistic portrayal of moralism?
What is L-scale? (Contrasted with the K-scale which is a measure of more subtle defensiveness)
500
One of the main ethical problems faced by testifying as an expert witness where a psychologist is placed in a potentially compromising situation no matter what the outcome of the case is. APA ethics code advises against this. (Hint: not financial issue)
Multiple Relationships
500
In what type of assessment are "clients" more likely to lie or to malinger due to potential consequences like financial rewards, loss of freedom, loss of custody?
Forensic Assessment
500
Information consisting of (but not limited to) institutional records, interviews with individuals outside of the person being evaluated, probation reports, mental health records, educational records, etc.
What is archival/third-party information?
500
Is the MMPI-II a specialized forensic instrument, a forensically-relevant instrument, or neither?
Neither! The MMPI-II doesn't answer directly a legal question posted by the court (specialized) and it doesn't focus on clinical issues common in the legal system (forensically-relevant). It is a general clinical psychological test.
500
The validity scale on the MMPI-II that is the "fake-bad" scale and indicates fabricated or exaggerated symptoms (malingering).
What is the F-scale?
M
e
n
u