Assessment Tools Flashcards
CAI
Competency Assessment Instrument. Semistructured interview evaluating 13 functions.
GCCT and GCCT-MSH
Georgia Court Competency Test.
21 items assessing 6 categories.
Critiqued for superficial assessment of Dusky standard of understanding. Many items assess only recognition.
IFI and IFI-R
Interdisciplinary Fitness Interview
Semi-structured interview administered by MH pro and an ATTORNEY
CAST-MR
Competence Assessment for Standing Trial for Defendants with MR
FIT-R
Fitness Interview Test-Revised
Based on CAI, but added items re: understanding of trial procedures and mental status. Modeled to address Canadian law.
MacCAT-CA
MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool-Criminal Adjudication
Aimed at assessing abstract knowledge and case-specific knowledge, and includes a component assessing educability.
ECST-R
Evaluation of Competency to Stand Trial-Revised
Manual includes error rates, in attempt to address admissibility per Daubert.
Also screens for feigned incompetence.
Tests for malingering incompetence
ILK (Inventory of Legal Knowledge), consists of T/F questions
TOMI (Test of Malingered Incompetence), looks at malingered cognitive deficits in competence to stand trial evals.
CMR
Comprehension of Miranda Rights series: includes 4 components published as a set.
COPINE
Combating Paedophile Information Networks in Europe
Scale to classify the severity of sexual exploitation images.
CPORT
Child Pornography Offender Risk Tool
Designed to predict any sexual recidivism. Concerns that it could be misapplied in forensic settings due to low size of forensic study sample.
the extent to which an instrument measures what it was intended to measure
validity
the extent to which an instrument measures what it was intended to measure CONSISTENTLY
reliability
a test’s ability to designate an individual with a dz as positive
sensitivity
a test’s ability to designate an individual who does not have a dz as negative
specificity
biggest problem with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES-II)
no validity scales
ID and measure risk factors. May include a combo of static and dynamic risk factors w/scoring incorporating one’s personal experience and empirical knowledge.
SPJ (structured professional judgment). Examples include the HCR-20 and PCL-R (Historical Clinical Risk 20 management scheme and Psychopathy Checklist Revised)
instruments that combine a list of empirically derived static and/or dynamic risk factors and a statistical or algorithmic model to combine the risk scores into a total score
actuarial risk assessment instruments (ARAIs). Examples include the Static-99R, Violence Risk Appraisal Guide-Revised (VRAG-R), Level of Service Inventory-Revised, Stable-2007, and the Sex Offender Need Assessment Rating (SONAR).
method combining actuarial knowledge from ARAIs with SPJs
clinical-idiographic method
What factors should you consider before administering any test?
Has it been validated in the subject’s gender, age, race, and language?
the deliberate fabrication or gross exaggeration of psychological/physical sx w/o any assumption about its goals
feigning
effort-test performance that suggests the examinee is not applying his or her best effort to do well on a task. may be intentional or unintentional.
suspect effort
describes situations where ppl do not answer questions truthfully for some reason
response bias
assessments used to measure the credibility of self-reported emotional problems or impairments. Can help detect poor effort, underperformance, and exaggeration of sx.
symptom validity tests
assessments used as an objective measure of a person’s cognitive ability and effort
performance validity tests
questions that are part of the assessment to assess if the person’s report of symptoms is valid; can measure if the person is under- or overreporting sx as compared to other studied groups (e.g. genuine clinical pop, pt’s w/genuine extreme sxs, simulators, etc)
embedded validity indicators (EVIs)
M-FAST
Miller Forensic Assessment of Symptoms Test.
- SCREENS for malingered psychiatric illness
- scores 6+ suggest need for further assessment
- may be administered by any MH clinician w/formal training in dx interviewing and forensic psychology/psychiatry
SIRS-2
Structured Interview of Reported Symptoms-2nd Edition
- 172 Q, 45-min
- classifies evaluee into categories: genuine, indeterminate, probable, or definite feigning
- SIRS-2 has lower sensitivity than original SIRS, tending to incorrectly classify feigners into the indeterminate category
SIMS
Structured Inventory of Malingered Symptomatology
- 75-item T/F intended to SCREEN for malingering
- 5 domains: psychosis, low intelligence, neurologic impairment, affective d/os, amnestic d/os
- score 14+ requires further assessment
MMPI
MN Multiphasic Personality Inventory
- 335-items on 52 scales
- 10 validity scales
. F: infrequent responses; responses infrequent in the gen pop
. Fp: infrequent psychopathology responses; infrequent in psych pops
. Fs: infrequent somatic responses; infrequent in medical pt pops
. L: uncommon virtues; attempts to ID underreporting of sx
. K: adjustment validity; uncommonly high level of psychological adjustment
PAI-R
Personality Assessment Inventory-Revised
- 22 scales w/4 validity scales
- 4th grade reading level
- age 18-89
a strategy where individuals who are feigning cognitive deficits miss even the most basic of questions
floor effect testing strategy
- Rey I Memory Test
- the “b” test
forces evaluee to choose between two presented stimuli
forced-choice testing strategy
- ILK (Inventory of Legal Knowledge)
- “coin-in-the-hand test” (where ppl w/genuine amnesia perform perfectly)
- TOMM
