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.

In this book, 30 eminent contributors, from diverse psychological disciplines, address central issues in psychological assessment. Topics include ethical considerations in personality assessment, assessment of racial and ethnic minorities, and assessment of the elderly. The book maintains a practical, context-based approach throughout, and will appeal to both students and psychologists.

The DSM-5 Alternative Model for Personality Disorders reviews and advances this innovative and increasingly popular scheme for diagnosing and evaluating personality disorders. The authors identify the multiple clinical, theoretical, and research paradigms that co-exist in the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD) and show how the model can aid the practicing mental health professional in evaluating and treating patients as well as its importance in stimulating research and theoretical understanding of this domain. This work explores and summarizes methods of personality assessment and psychiatric evaluation, research findings, and clinical applications of the AMPD, highlighting its usefulness to clinical teaching and supervision, forensic application, and current research. It is a go-to reference for experienced professionals and researchers, those who wish to learn this new diagnostic system, and for clinicians in training.

From leading authorities, this book presents evidence-based strategies for using multimethod assessment to enhance clinical practice. The volume is organized around key assessment targets in the areas of personality, psychopathology, and clinical management (for example, treatment planning and progress monitoring). Each chapter presents multiple methods that are particularly useful for assessing the issue at hand, provides a framework for using these methods together, and reviews the empirical data supporting their integration. Illustrative case examples clarify the approaches described and show how incorporating assessment into treatment can strengthen the therapeutic relationship.

A complete, thorough, and pragmatic guide to clinical assessment, this authoritative book meets a key need for both students and practitioners. T. Mark Harwood, Larry E. Beutler, Gary Groth-Marnat, and their associates describe how to construct a "moving picture" of each patient by integrating data from a variety of sources. Included are detailed, systematic reviews of widely used instruments together with strategies for selecting the best methods for particular referral questions. Readers learn to conduct integrated assessments that take the complexities of the individual personality into account, serve as the basis for developing an effective treatment plan, and facilitate meaningful reporting and client feedback. New to This Edition *Incorporates the latest research findings and assessment/treatment planning tools. *Chapters on the Personality Assessment Inventory and the NEO-PI-R and NEO-PI-3. *A new extended case example runs throughout the chapters. *Critically evaluates the recently published MMPI-2-RF.

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.

Test-based psychological assessment has been significantly affected by the health care revolution in the United States during the past two decades. Despite new limitations on psychological services across the board and psychological testing in particular, it continues to offer a rapid and efficient method of identifying problems, planning and monitoring a course of treatment, and assessing the outcomes of interventions. This thoroughly revised and greatly expanded third edition of a classic reference, now three volumes, constitutes an invaluable resource for practitioners who in a managed care era need to focus their testing not on the general goals of personality assessment, symptom identification, and diagnosis so often presented to them as students and trainees, but on specific questions: What course of treatment should this person receive? How is it going? Was it effective? New chapters describe new tests and models and new concerns such as ethical aspects of outcomes assessment. Volume I reviews general issues and recommendations concerning the use of psychological testing for screening for psychological disturbances, planning and monitoring appropriate interventions, and the assessing outcomes, and offers specific guidelines for selecting instruments. It also considers more specific issues such as the analysis of group and individual patient data, the selection and implementation of outcomes instrumentation, and the ethics of gathering and using outcomes data. Volume II discusses psychological measures developed for use with younger children and adolescents that can be used for the purposes outlined in Volume I; Volume III, those developed for use with adults. Drawing on the knowledge and experience of a diverse group of leading experts--test developers, researchers, clinicians and others, the third edition of The Use of Psychological Testing for Treatment Planning and Outcomes Assessment provides vital assistance to all clinicians, and to their trainees and graduate students.