Psychological testing that matters: Creating a road map for effective treatment.

Psychological testing is most valuable when it makes a meaningful difference in a person s treatment. This groundbreaking book offers a person- and treatment-centered approach to psychological testing, as opposed to the more common test-centered approach. The result is a clinically nuanced and robust approach to inference making and data synthesis. The book s four sections parallel the flow of an examiner moving from overview to detail and back to synthesis: Part I describes treatment-centered diagnosis; Part II focuses on assessment of the patient s psychological capacities; Part III shows how to integrate the test information into a working understanding of the patient s problems; and Part IV explains how to consolidate test findings and communicate them clearly, using a detailed case example and sample report. Readers will find much to benefit from in this evidence-based book linking test results to meaningful individualized treatment. "In clinical settings, the ultimate value of a psychological test report is a function of its ability to guide treatment planning in meaningful ways. Psychological test data are a rich mine of potential treatment-relevant inferences. For example, test data can inform psychologists about factors that facilitate and hinder the therapeutic alliance or that affect our ability to learn in psychotherapy. Test data can help clarify what psychological forces are driving the symptoms we are witnessing, so that an accurately targeted treatment focus can be established and tailored interventions can be recommended. Too often, however, test reports fall short of such potential and thus may not be worth the investment of time, energy, and money required of the psychologist, patient, and patient's family. Such a sad truth proves truer the more the referral questions seek to help with a patient's psychological (as opposed to academic) functioning. The result is that many nontesting clinicians have come to believe that psychological testing offers little in terms of therapy guidance beyond what good clinical interviewing provides. We wrote this book to reverse such trends, by detailing an approach to testing that restores clinicians' ability to provide testing that matters to their referring colleagues. We present an approach to testing that evolved in Menninger's psychology postdoctoral training program in Topeka, Kansas, from the 1940s until its close in 2001 (when Menninger downsized and relocated to Texas). Our interest is not in transmitting outdated norms, scores, and theory from 70 years ago. Rather, our focus is on bringing to a general readership an approach to inference making and synthesizing data that, as we hope to demonstrate, remains relevant and is clinically sophisticated and disciplined. We present a way of engaging with test data and our patient that yields findings a therapist can use immediately and return to for guidance over time. In this book, we are writing to students, supervisors, and clinicians who are intrigued with the value of testing and who want to apply mastered basics of test administration, scoring, and interpretation to the next level of tackling sophisticated treatment puzzles. We address the complexity of multisourced data--scores, indices, content themes, relational process--and we demonstrate how to cross-layer such data to yield a textured clinical picture. We offer methods for exploring hypotheses, such as probing discontinuities, "testing the limits," and focused inquiry. We spell out the tools of disciplined inference making--the checks and balances of repetition and convergence of data--that keep our findings objective (i.e., factual and verifiable) without sacrificing the meaning-making and pattern-recognition capabilities unique to an experienced clinician"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved) Part I. Basic Framework -- Ch. 1. Treatment-centered Diagnosis And The Role Of Testing -- Ch. 2. Principles Of Inference-making -- Ch. 3. Test Referral And Administration -- Part Ii. Key Psychological Capacities To Assess And Where To Look In The Data -- Ch. 4. Reality Testing And Reasoning -- Ch. 5. Emotional Regulation : Balance And Effectiveness -- Ch. 6. Experience Of Self And Other : Implications For The Therapeutic Alliance -- Ch. 7. Experience Of Self And Other : Narcissistic Vulnerabilities -- Part Iii. Diagnostic Considerations -- Ch. 8. Underlying Developmental Disruption -- Ch. 9. Assessing Underlying Developmental Disruption : Case Examples -- Part Iv. Putting It All Together -- Ch. 10. Communicating Our Findings : Test Report Writing And Feedback -0 Ch. 11. Detailed Case Example With Sample Report. Anthony D. Bram And Mary Jo Peebles. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Psychological testing is widespread today. Test results are only valuable, though, when they contribute meaningful information that helps therapists better meet the treatment needs of their clients. Psychological Testing That Matters describes an approach to inference-making and synthesizing data that creates effective, individualized treatment plans. The books treatment-centered approach describes how to reconcile the results of various tests, use test results to assess a patients psychological capacities, reach a diagnosis, and write an informative test report.