Direct Dana Haskins Flashcards
Beginning
Could you please introduce yourself to the court?
My name is Dana Haskins
And how are you involved in today’s court case?
I am here as an expert and as someone who was on the train
let’s start with your background education, could you tell me bit about that?
Yes of course well I am a licensed psychologist and I received my PH.D in Clinical Psychology from Midland state
and previous employment experience?
I used to work for Polk County helping first responders, i.e. firefighters and paramedics.
And why did you leave Polk county?
Well after the Black Bear casino fire, there were a lot of people that needed help and after a while I could no longer handle things mentally so I had to leave. I know people would be upset but I needed to get out
I am so sorry to hear that, but could you please tell us where you currently work?
I moved to the private sector helping people in families mend relationships. This allows me to travel all over the world. Hence why I was in Australia, I had a conference to attend in Burbary
And could you tell me why you were brought on as an expert?
I was asked to perform an evaluation on Taylor Hopson to determine if she is a killer.
Can you tell me about the practices that you used to come to your findings?
Of course, I did a physical examination to ensure that she understood what was going on and to make sure she didn’t take any medication the night before that might impair her ability to answer freely and honestly. She passed with flying colors.
What did you do after that?
I did 3 different psychological assessments on taylor which results are typically accurate in upwards of 85% of cases. I did a Multiphasic personality inventory (MPI), the Chambliss Incomplete sentences blank (CISB) test, and the Thematic Apperception Test or (TAT). I also completed a general interview with her in order to get a better understanding of who she is.
And are all of these reports to your knowledge clear and accurate?
Yes, it is all from reputable forms of testing and the information is sufficient and clear, I used all of this information to form my conclusion.
Are these the results gained found from the best tests and practices in the field?
Yes, they are still widely used in multiple tests. I would also like to state that I also obtained an independent advisory opinion form the midlands board of Psychology to ensure that there are no issues regarding the ethicality of me evaluating Taylor. There were no such concerns.
Well lets begin with the first test the Multiphasic Personality Inventory, can you explain what this test is?
It’s a test that is set-up as true/false questions in order to gauge emotional and mental status. From there we evaluate the reports and use a 5 number scale to determine emotional and mental status. This ranges from scale (1) being antisocial behavior, (2) aggressiveness, (3) self-importance, (4) disconstraint, all the way to scale (5) shyness. A high rating in 2 or more of these categories would indicate that a person could be a killer personality.
Could you tell us how many questions are on this test
Typically 335 but we only used 45 questions
Now this test you administered is based on a test with 335 questions but you only use 40, how does this affect the results of the tests accuracy?
Well there should be no effect on accuracy because the questions were removed to simply fight off fatigue, and in order for there to be no manipulation, the Midland board of psychologist restricts scoring criteria and exact questions
You also claimed that this test can be manipulated, how are you able to ensure that this did not occur with Taylor
Well the scoring is designed to ensure that answer that appear to be false or misrepresentative do not impact the true score, not to mention that Hopson had never heard of this test, so i ruled out self manipulation
And after taking the test how would you evaluate Taylor?
She didn’t score high in any category, so I would say she possessed any traits that would lead toward further psychological intervention.
Moving on to the Chambliss test, what is this test?
This is a test of which a patient is given 20 statements in which they have to finish. The test is scored on a seven point scale with 0-2 being optimism or humor, 3 being neutral and 4-7 being hopeless, pessimism, or unhappy. This is totaled and people with 70 or up is considered maladjusted and people 50 and below are well adjusted. And 50-70 is considered a normal middle tones
And where did Taylor rate?
She rated a 69, so a middle ground response, not a maladjusted person
And finally tell me about the Thematic Apperception Test?
This is a test that shows a subject a picture then asks the patient to create an extremely dramatic story based on the picture.
Are there any Downfalls to this test?
yes
What are the downfalls of this test?
Some would argue that the test is outdated and because the people are creating the answers so it is hard to predict how reliable the results are, but when used in tandem with other tests, this is mitigated and this is still a widely used test.
How did Taylor perform on the test?
She is a pessimist. She feels inadequate and depressed. This all stems from her childhood and didn’t help when her father died with the two of them on bad terms.
Finally let’s move to your interview, how was taylor?
Again she was depressed and felt as though she would never have a chance to get better because her dad had died. The only thing she feels guilty for is that she was unable to repair her relationship with her father.
Overall, how would you describe taylor?
