Clinical Applications of the Personality Assessment Inventory demonstrates the broad clinical utility of this modern multi-scale self-report measure of psychological functioning. By bringing together leading experts in psychological assessment from diverse applied settings, the book illustrates the impressive range of current Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) applications while providing recommendations for expanding the instrument’s research base and clinical use. Many authors also present population specific PAI reference data. In this timely volume, experts from specialized areas of psychological assessment integrate the relevant research with their extensive clinical knowledge of the PAI, making this a valuable text for practitioners, students, and researchers.

In this volume, over 50 eminent contributors from a diverse range of psychological disciplines address central issues in personality assessment. The authors were invited to select a key problem area in the field and to emphasize practical issues in their chapters. The result is a work of outstanding variety and depth of coverage with an immediately useful, hands-on focus. Topics include ethical considerations in clinical personality assessment, assessment of racial and ethnic minorities, and assessment of the elderly, among many other key topics. A practical, context-based approach is maintained throughout, and a useful Appendix providing an index of psychological assessment procedures concludes the book. It will be considered a definitive text for the field of assessment, appealing to both students and practicing clinical psychologists.

This comprehensive, balanced guide to personality assessment, written by two of the foremost experts in the field, is sure to become the gold standard of texts on this topic. The Handbook of Personality Assessment covers everything from the basics, including a historic overview and detailed discussion of the assessment process and its psychometric foundations, to valuable sections on conducting the assessment interview and the nature, interpretation, and applications of the most popular self-report (objective) and performance-based (projective) measures. A concluding section of special topics such as computerized assessment, ethical and legal issues, and report writing are unique to this text.

One of the oldest of all psychological disciplines, the field of personality assessment has seen no shortage of scientific study or scientific literature. This Oxford Handbook provides a comprehensive perspective on the contemporary practice of personality assessment, including its historical developments, underlying methods, applications, contemporary issues, and assessment techniques. The Oxford Handbook of Personality Assessment details both the historical roots of personality assessment and the evolution of its contemporary methodological tenets. This provides the foundation for the handbook's other major focus: the application of personality assessment in clinical, personnel, and forensic assessments. This handbook will serve as an authoritative and field-encompassing resource for researchers and clinicians from across the medical health and psychology disciplines (i.e., clinical psychology, psychiatry, social work, etc.) and would be an ideal text for any graduate course on the topic of personality assessment.

Personality Assessment provides an overview of the most popular self-report and performance-based personality assessment instruments. Designed with graduate-level clinical and counseling psychology programs in mind, the book serves as an instructional text for courses in objective or projective personality assessment. It provides coverage of eight of the most popular assessment instruments used in the United States—from authors key in creating, or developing the research base for these test instruments. The uniquely informed perspective of these leading researchers, as well as chapters on clinical interviewing, test feedback, and integrating test results into a comprehensive report, will offer students and clinicians a level of depth and complexity not available in other texts.

For decades, The Rorschach Inkblot Method (RIM)--the most popular of the projective tests--has been routinely employed for personality assessment and treatment planning. But in recent years, it has not been free from controversy. Criticisms of its validity and empirical support are catalyzing new efforts to strengthen its foundations and document its broad utility. Among the most common--yet also most confusing and challenging--categories of clinical disorders is the personality disorders. However, minimal data have been available on the RIM evaluation of most of those found in DSM-IV. This welcomed book constitutes the first research-grounded, comprehensive guide to the use of the RIM in assessing personality disorders. The first section offers a theoretical overview of personality disorders and constructs a framework and compelling rationale for the legitimate role of the RIM in their assessment. The second, third, and fourth sections present Cluster A disorders--paranoid, schizoid, and schizotypal; Cluster B disorders--antisocial and psychopathic, borderline, histrionic, and narcissistic; and Cluster C disorders--avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive. The fifth section presents passive aggressive and depressive personality disorders, currently being proposed for DSM inclusion. Each chapter in these four sections includes an extensive description of the disorder, a review of empirical studies of the use of the RIM to assess it, an analysis of the Rorschach variables that may characterize patients diagnosed with it, and a depiction of a real case and discussion of the ways in which the RIM contributed to its formulation. The sixth and final section explores the relationship between psychoanalytic theory and the RIM. Rorschach Assessment of the Personality Disorders brings practical help for clinicians and clinicians-in-training, and suggests new paths for researchers seeking to advance our understanding of the complexities of these disorders.

The establishment of frank and honest communication is one of the most important early goals of psychotherapy. Indeed, the most prominent challenge in the early stages of treatment is to develop a comfortable relationship that allows disclosure. In this volume, the authors show that objectively interpreted personality measures can be applied in psychotherapeutic assessments to facilitate an understanding of the patient and a thriving treatment program. Successful psychotherapy depends upon an early understanding of the patient's problems and personality and the establishment of attainable treatment goals. The extensive accumulated base of knowledge about personality and its maladjustment has become crucial when making treatment decisions about individuals in psychotherapy, and the field of personality assessment provides both methods and substantive information to support treatment-oriented evaluation. The MMPI has a long tradition of providing personality information about clients in mental health settings since the 1940s. James Butcher participated in the creation of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2) in 1989, which has continued to be one of the most commonly used personality tests in clinical evaluation. Over a thousand studies have been conducted on the effectiveness of the MMPI in treatment related assessments. Here, Butcher and co-author Julia Perry explore the MMPI-2 as well as a new assessment tool, the Butcher Treatment Planning Inventory (BTPI). In using psychological evaluation techniques for treatment planning, many clinicians incorporate information from a broad base of instruments-clinical interview, projective testing, behavioral data, and personal history-and do not rely on data from a single source. Therefore, while this volume focuses on the use of the MMPI-2 and the BTPI in treatment planning, it will provide a context not to the exclusion of other measures.