Psychological problem representation, a complex task, is underpinned by clinicians' inferential processes, processes which are not immune to bias and logical error. Problem representation influenced by faulty reasoning can have deleterious effects on treatment planning and consequently on treatment outcome. Using a think-aloud procedure, 32 clinical and counselling psychologists examined a case file of the initial interview. The following three variables thought to contribute to clinicians' conceptualization of clients' problems were investigated: (1) theoretical orientation, (2) level of experience, and (3) temporal order of client information. The reasoning processes of psychodynamically-oriented and behaviourally-oriented clinicians were studied. The existence of expertise in psychotherapy was examined. Comparison of hypothesis generation among novices and experts was made. The impact of the temporal order of client information on the inferential processes of clinicians was also investigated. Subjects processed one of two versions of the case file. Levels of theoretical orientation, experience, and temporal order were compared in order to determine (1) whether clinicians posit significantly more dispositional hypotheses than contextual hypotheses, (2) whether initial hypotheses of a dispositional or contextual nature are confirmed or disconfirmed, and (3) whether initial hypotheses of a dispositional or contextual nature are retained or rejected. Based on absolute numbers, psychodynamicists posited more contextual inferences than behaviourists. Novices confirmed more dispositional inferences than experts. Clinicians rarely disconfirmed or rejected their initial hypotheses. Behaviourists retained more dispositional inferences than psychodynamicists. The order of the case material significantly affected the types of hypotheses generated and the hypothesis-testing strategies utilized. No significant differences, however, were found in the proportion of dispositio

No description available.

No description available.

Diss.--Technische Universität Berlin, 2007. / Bibliogr. p. 127-131.

The purpose of this research was to examine the assessment process in clinical psychology using an ecologically valid design. By capitalizing on the methodologies of cognitive science and adapting data analytic techniques borrowed from the medical decision-making literature, the clinical assessment behaviours of psychology undergraduate students, clinical psychology graduate students, and professional psychologists were compared. / The results demonstrate that professional psychologists took longest to develop their diagnostic formulations, divide their questioning evenly between close and open-ended questions, provide more information to the patient, provide diagnoses that are fully consistent with the clinical data, and demonstrate an increase in diagnostic accuracy using the MultiAxial Form (APA, 1994). Finally, extensive clinical experience affords clinicians with a greater degree of case comprehension that may impact the quality of treatment. / Graduate students in clinical psychology demonstrate the same degree of test familiarity as the psychologists, adhere to empirical recommendations by conducting comprehensive clinical interviews and asking about DSM-IV criteria during the clinical interview, evidence a reliance on open-ended questions during the clinical interview, and also show an increase in diagnostic accuracy using the MultiAxial Form (APA, 1994). There were no significant differences in accuracy rates between professional psychologists and graduate students; however, some graduate students included diagnoses that were inconsistent with the clinical data. / The undergraduate students tended to cover many of the same topics in the interview as the other groups; however, they did so by posing significantly more close-ended questions. Further, none of the undergraduate students provided an accurate diagnosis of the case. There were no differences in confidence ratings across levels of experience. A model of clinical assessment behaviour is proposed that can function as a framework for future studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Jon S. Bailey, Florida State University, College of Art and Sciences, Dept. of Psychology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 9, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains x, 142 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

A diagnostic classification of Borderline subgroups was developed for the purpose of reducing the current ambiguities existing in the range of pathologies between the psychoses and neuroses. This classification is a questionnaire of forty items and is intended to be used in treatment settings as a measure of object relations, i.e., of ego development and arrest. The criteria which define the Borderline subgroups were derived from the normative developmental data of Mahler, Pine, and Bergman (1975). In Experiment I, raters used the Mahler criteria as operational definitions of the developmental stages and sorted 180 items taken from Benjamin's structural Analysis Social Behavior (SASB) into the four Mahler substages. Those items which were reliably sorted eight out of nine times into the same Mahler stage or substage were retained as critical items to be administered in Experiment II to three groups of subjects. These groups consisted of nineteen schizophrenic inpatients, eighteen outpatients, and twenty nonpsychiatric volunteers. These subjects rated each item of the SASB questionnaire on a scale of 0 to 100; means for each type of psychiatric group according to sex were submitted to a repeated measures 2 (sex) X 3 (group) X 4 (Mahler substage) Analysis of Variance.

Thesis (doctoral)--Würzburg, 1904.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2003. / Title from PDF of title page. Document formatted into pages; contains 89 pages. Includes bibliographical references.