psychological formulation

Question 1

AO1 of case formulation

Answer 1

-psychological formulation is a hypothesis about someone’s problems and what lead them to and why behavior is maintained.
- it looks at the features of offender to provide treatment.
- done by clinical and counselling psychologists in a clinical setting relating to mental health issues.
- it can be part of court process to see if the person was capable of committing the crime and how likely to reoffend.
- psychologists would use biological and social circumstances that influenced their behavior to try and reduce reoffending.
- to be effective psychological formulation should have consistency with familiar theories, needs to be reliable with other forensic psychologists giving similar formulation, coherent in how it ties the past, present and future, should be short and focused.

Question 2

case formulation stages

Answer 2

1. early experiences- bullying, death
2. core beliefs- don’t need others
3. triggers- schema, memory of passed one
4. situation- outcome of previous stages

Question 3

strengths of case formulation

Answer 3

• Whitehead 2007 found that case formulation worked for Mr. C due to the fact that it worked towards goals that were valued by him and helped him keep on track once released by responding to treatment.
• Case formulation is a way of summarizing information about an individual and interpreting it according to a theory and putting together a treatment plan effective with rehab. A good formulation put well together helps the offender understand their behavior and creates a plan to change it to prevent reoffending.
• Case formulation takes into account all aspects of the offenders life from childhood to present day, also include temperament and personality. It is a more holistic approach as it looks at all aspects of life and more effective that therapies that focus on 1 factor.

Question 4

weakness of case formulation

Answer 4

• there is an issue when several people involved in making a case formulation as everyone involved with he offender and not just the psychologist needs to be trained such as probation officers.
• Conell 2014 says there is interpretation in case formulation. the person gathers information from assessments and puts it into a concise summary that is valid to inform treatments for the offender. Interpretation means some information if left out and others taken in.
• Case formulation involves the offender giving all information, they may not do this as they can’t remember or don’t want to share, in this case case formulation would not be very effective as they don’t have al necessary information