Chapter 12

Question 1

What is the origin of the word forensic?

Answer 1

forensis - meaning ‘of the forum’

Question 2

In Australia the College of Forensic Psychologists was established when?

Answer 2

1993

Question 3

What role does forensic psychology play in civil law?

Answer 3

• establish the extent of personal injury
• determine the effect of an unfair dismissal
• determine the capacity of the individuals in making financial decisions or changing the content of a will

Question 4

The process of forensic psychology is commonly ____

Answer 4

an end to itself

Question 5

What are the 3 types of assessment that can be used in forensic assessment?

Answer 5

• forensic assessment e.g. MacCAT-CA (directly relevant to a specific legal standard)
• forensically-relevant instrument e.g. tests measuring constructs such as psychopathy, violence risk, and malingering (not designed with regard to the legal system, but the constructs measured by these instruments are related to a legal standard
• clinical assessments e.g. WAIS-IV, MMPI-2, and the BDI-2 (not specifically design for forensic use, but still applied)

Question 6

CST is used for what?

Answer 6

It is a screening device used to decide if a more comprehensive assessment is necessary

Question 7

What of the CST has been criticsed?

Answer 7

The sentence completion procedure and scoring method are not well justified, the construct(s) it assesses may not be directly related to the legal standard of competency to stand trial, and it leads to relatively high false positives and false negative rates

Question 8

What does the MacCAT-CA measure?

Answer 8

It is intended for use with criminal defendants and is related to the formal functional abilities associated with the legal construct of competency to stand trial

Question 9

According to Rogers et al. (2002) what risk is posed by the MacCAT-CA?

Answer 9

Response faking by the test-taker

Question 10

What are the 2 methods of risk assessment in forensic psychology?

Answer 10

• one based on clinical-psychological judgement

- one based on an actuarial formula

Question 11

Which type of risk assessment is most accurate and reliable?

Answer 11

Actuarial

Question 12

What is a actuarial method?

Answer 12

It is based on psychometric tools that are statistically developed by identifying those factors in the research literature that are most strongly correlated with the offending behaviour

Question 13

What was the Psychopathy Checklist - Revised Second Edition developed for?

Answer 13

To assess psychopathic (antisocial) personality disorders in adult forensic populations

Question 14

Which test is considered the ‘gold standard’ in predicting violence and recidivism and why?

Answer 14

PCL-R; because of its very good psychometric properties

Question 15

What are two limitations of the PCL-R?

Answer 15

• time consuming

- requires a high level of expertise

Question 16

The Ackerman-Schoendorf Scales are used for what?

Answer 16

Parental evaluation with regard to working out custody battles

Question 17

Define malingering

Answer 17

The attempt to exaggerate symptoms or clam symptoms one does not have

Question 18

What is the function of the SIRS?

Answer 18

To detect malingering and other forms of feigning of psychological symptoms. It focuses on deliberate distortions in self-presentation

Question 19

What is one of the most common forms of malingering?

Answer 19

‘Memory impairment’

Question 20

What is recommended as the best measure of memory impairment malingering?

Answer 20

The Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM)

Question 21

The TOMM was developed on what assumption?

Answer 21

That on a 50-item test of two-choice recognition, one’s performance should not be lower than the chance level (i.e. less than 25 items)

Question 22

What are the main limitations to forensic assessment?

Answer 22

• self-report assessments are prone to malingering
• actuarial formulae have not been developed for many assessment instruments to interpret and predict behaviours
• small sample sizes were used in some of the validation studies conducted