Therapeutic Assessment in a University Counseling Center: A Replicated Single-Case Time-Series Pilot Study.

In this study, we pilot tested Therapeutic Assessment (TA) in a university counseling center using a replicated single-case design to generate hypotheses on the effectiveness and applicability for this setting and population. We aimed to see whether TA could be an effective brief intervention to address students' presenting mental health concerns. Further, we explored whether different types of presenting concerns were associated with differential symptomatic improvement during the intervention. An independent clinician interviewed participants before the baseline period to develop individualized rating scales pertaining to their presenting concerns. Eight consecutive students accessing the counseling center enrolled in the study and rated their presenting problems across baseline, intervention, and follow-up periods. The intervention involved five TA sessions. The results suggested that TA is associated with statistically significant reductions in clients' symptoms in the context of a university counseling center. Idiographic trajectory analysis of participant data who experienced significant and insignificant change was used to test whether changes were associated with the onset of TA. The findings suggest TA might be more effective for certain presenting concerns than for others. The implications for the implementation of TA in university counseling centers is discussed.

Effects of Covid-19 Emergency and Associated Lockdown Policies on the Normative Expectations for the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS).

Standardized personality tests compare the test taker's scores to those of a large sample of individuals representing normative expectations. However, what is psychologically normal in one historical context may not be similarly normal in another, so the recent spread of a new coronavirus, SARS-Cov-2 (COVID-19), may have implications for what should normally be expected of a nonclinical person taking a personality test shortly after this dramatic event. To address this research question, we administered the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) to 60 nonclinical volunteers from Italy and compared their scores with the official normative reference values of the two tests, which had been established before COVID-19. The results of a series of two-sample t-tests indicated that our newly collected sample appeared somewhat less psychologically healthy compared with normative expectations, and these discrepancies were more pronounced on the PAI than on the R-PAS. Implications and future perspectives are discussed.

Cultural differences in the measurement of self-curiosity within Mexico: a person-centered and variable-centered study.

Background: This study assessed the role of culture in the measurement of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest scale (SCAI-M), a measure of attitude and interest in increasing one's knowledge of self, adopting both a person-centered and variable-centered approach. Methods: The study was conducted on a Mexican sample composed of 484 adult participants who completed both the SCAI-M and a series of instruments that measure cultural dimensions through Qualtrix. Data were collected between November 9, to December 18, 2020, and respondents were contacted using advertisements on social media platforms (Facebook and WhatsApp). Analyses included multigroup confirmatory factor analysis and latent profile analysis. Results: A latent profile analysis allowed for the generation of three groups featuring distinct cultural orientations that were similar to previously found cultural profiles (Consensus-oriented Egalitarians, Flexible Individualists, and Rules-based Competitors). Multigroup Confirmative Factor Analysis showed partial metric and scalar invariance for the SCAI-M between groups; moreover, we found proofs of convergent validity with other cultural dimensions besides the ones linked with the Hofstede model. Our results indicate that cultural profiles and cultural variables are associated with both the level and meaning of self-curiosity among Mexican citizens. Conclusions: Finally, the discussion includes considerations on self-curiosity divergence among minority cultures and relevant clinical applications; a field for which we propose future research.

A systematic research review of collaborative assessment methods.

Collaborative assessment methods (CAMs) involve working with clients during all phases of the assessment process, from goal definition to interpretation of the testing results to the recommendations and conclusions. In this article, we define CAMs, provide clinical examples, and then meta-analyze the published literature to assess their effectiveness on distal treatment outcomes. Our meta-analytic results indicate that CAMs have positive effects on three outcome domains: a moderate effect on treatment processes, a small-to-moderate effect on personal growth, and a small effect on symptom reduction. There is little research evidence on the immediate, in-session effects of CAMs. We include diversity considerations, training implications. and therapeutic practices grounded in this research evidence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

A retrospective study exploring parents' perceptions of their child's assessment.

The current study investigates parents' perceptions of their child's assessment, focusing on their responses to the Italian version of the Parents' Experience of Assessment Scale (QUEVA-G). Twenty parents, who voluntarily agreed to be contacted after completing the questionnaire, participated in qualitative interviews to gain deeper insights into their assessment experiences. A thematic analysis was conducted on the interview transcriptions, highlighting three primary domains of parental experience: (1) parental perceptions of the assessment process; (2) effects of the assessment; and (3) parental perceptions of their relationship with their children's teachers. The findings indicate that the QUEVA-G accurately captures most areas of interest as well as reveals unexplored aspects.

Therapeutic assessment efficacy: A meta-analysis.

Therapeutic Assessment is a brief semistructured and collaborative psychological intervention developed by Stephen E. Finn (1996, 2007). In Therapeutic Assessment, the assessor and clients are collaboratively involved in all the phases of the process and psychological tests are used as "empathy magnifiers" in order to promote positive change throughout an assessment. Over the years, many authors have tested the efficacy of Therapeutic Assessment procedures in different contexts and have concluded that Therapeutic Assessment is well-suited for use with a broad array of clients. Despite some studies documenting the benefits of Therapeutic Assessment, results of individual studies have not been meta-analytically analyzed. Therefore, we performed a series of three-level meta-analyses to examine the efficacy of Therapeutic Assessment with adult clients. We included nine studies with 42 dependent variables, grouped into three types of outcomes: treatment process (6 studies, 18 nonindependent variables), clients' symptoms (6 studies, 17 nonindependent variables), and clients' self-enhancement (5 studies, 7 nonindependent variables). The results revealed statistically significant effects for each outcome, treatment process: g = .46, 95% CI [.33; .59]; p < .001; clients' symptoms: g = .34, 95% CI [.06; .63]; p = .021; clients' self-enhancement: g = .37, 95% CI [.05; .69]; p = .029. Moderator analyses also suggested that Therapeutic Assessment is resilient, since supervision, the inclusion of more Therapeutic Assessment elements, and additional hours of intervention do not impact substantially its outcomes. These results suggest that the most important aspect of Therapeutic Assessment may be its underlying philosophy and values, and not so much the exact way in which it is implemented. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

"Invisible Voices": A Critical Incident Study of Family Caregivers' Experience of Nursing Homes After Their Elder Relative's Death.

PURPOSE: The literature provides few examples of family caregivers' retrospective evaluation of nursing home services. This study aimed at analyzing narratives of Italian family caregivers of elders who experienced nursing home placement. DESIGN AND METHODS: Data were gathered through in-depth interviews with family members after their relatives' death. The interviews were based on the Critical Incident Technique, which allowed the categorization of the most memorable positive and negative events from the perspective of family members of elders deceased in nursing homes. Interviews were interpreted with a phenomenologically inspired thematic analysis approach. Participants were screened for complicated grief disorder as a confounding variable in relatives' accounts of the treatment. RESULTS: Results suggested that positive long-term recollection of the nursing home was associated with different themes emerging from the interviews: medical reliability and expertise, active demonstrations of care that extend beyond the contract with the facility, individualized attention, responsiveness, openness to dialog with family members about routines, management of the first impression, and family engagement. Lack of professionals' expertise and medical failures, lack of care for patients' personal goods, lack of family involvement, lack of individualized attention, lack of responsiveness, poor patient surveillance, and structural limits of the facilities were the themes that were more frequently negatively associated with the nursing home experience. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Focusing on the key dimensions connected to the quality of the experience of family members can enrich the quality of existing nursing home services and allow healthcare policymakers and managers to design better facilities for the patients.

Validation of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale in Colombia / Validación de la Escala de Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest en Colombia

Abstract This paper presents a theoretical review of the psychological construct of human curiosity and the Colombian version of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale. This is a two-factor self-report scale that assesses the attitude and the interest that people have to explore their own inner world. Two paired samples for gender, age and working class of Colombian (n = 170) and Italian (n = 195) participants (N = 365) were included in the study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis revealed a good fit of the data to the two-factor model of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale in Italian and Colombian subjects (respectively, x 2(13) =16.073, p = .245 and x 2(13) =10.352, p = .665). Also, Measurement Invariance Analysis suggested equivalent factor structures (Configurai Invariance, x 2 (26) = 26.423, p = .440) and factor loadings across the two groups (Metric Invariance, x 2 (31) = 34.242, p = .315). The results do not support scalar invariance (x 2 (38) = 82.058, p < .001). Data suggest concurrent validity of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest in the Colombian group, welding evidence for the scale application in the Colombian context. In conclusion, the results posit that the two-factor model of the Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale is adequate in Colombia; the psychological construct of self-curiosity is conceived similarly in Colombia and in Italy, and the scale has expected correlations with other relevant psychological constructs.

Resumen El objetivo de este estudio es presentar una revisión teórica del constructo psicológico de la curiosidad humana, así como presentar la validación de la versión colombiana de la Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale, una escala de auto-reporte de dos factores que evalúa la actitud y el interés que la gente posee para explorar su propio mundo interior. Se incluyeron en el estudio participantes (N = 365) Colombianos (n = 170) e Italianos (n = 195) pareados por género, edad y clase trabajadora. El Análisis Factorial Confirmatorio ha revelado un buen ajuste de los datos al modelo de dos factores de Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale en participantes italianos y colombianos (respectivamente, x 2(13) =16.073, p = .245 y x 2(13) =10.352, p = .665). El Análisis de Invariancia ha sugerido factores de estructuras (Invariancia de Configuración, x 2 (26) = 26.423, p = .440) y pesos de los factores equivalentes entre los dos grupos (Invariancia Métrica, x 2 (31) = 34.242, p = .315). Los datos no soportan la Invariancia Escalar (x 2 (38) = 82.058, p < .001). Adicionalmente, los datos destacaron la validez concurrente de la escala en el grupo de Colombia, y la posibilidad de aplicar la escala en el contexto colombiano. En conclusión, los resultados demuestran que el modelo de dos factores de la Self-Curiosity Attitude-Interest Scale es apto para ser aplicado en Colombia, así mismo reflejan que el concepto psicológico de la self-curiosity es concebido de forma similar tanto en Colombia como en Italia, y que la escala indica correlaciones con otras construcciones psicológicas relevantes.

Changing Avatars, Changing Selves? The Influence of Social and Contextual Expectations on Digital Rendition of Identity.

Avatar creation is an interesting topic for both video game and social network studies. Research has shown that the creation of avatars is influenced by individual, contextual, and cultural features. Avatars are used to represent aspects of users' personality, but multiple avatars are used in different virtual contexts, as self-presentation strategies may vary according to the different "audiences" to be met online (say: friends, or strangers). Moreover, avatar creation is also influenced by cultural variables, such as gender, as avatars embody stereotypical aspects of being a woman or a man. This research tested whether avatars, as digital self-representations, may change depending on the above-mentioned variables. Ninety-four participants created two avatars to be used in different contexts (video game and job-themed social network). Moreover, two groups of participants were told that they would have met friends or total strangers within the two virtual contexts. Results showed that avatars changed from the game to the job context. Changes involved avatars' transient features (Clothes) more than physical (Body) and symbolic (Accessories) ones, and females changed accessories more than males. Moreover, females who expected to meet friends changed their avatars' bodies significantly more than males in both virtual contexts. The findings are discussed based on literature about computer-mediated communication and online self-disclosure. In conclusion, possible implications of the results for avatar-based interventions and the field of video games and social network design are reviewed.

Exploring Children's Induced Defensiveness to the Tell Me a Story Test (TEMAS).

This study examined the effect of inducing a defensive attitude (fake good) in children on their responses to the Tell Me a Story test (TEMAS; Costantino, Malgady, & Rogler, 1988 ). Different story elicitation procedures were employed to explore their efficacy for inducing a defensive response style in children. Eighty-four Italian children aged 8 to 10 years old completed the TEMAS and the L scale of the Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children-2 (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004 ), which were used to detect the adoption of a defensive attitude. Children completed the tests under 1 of 3 conditions: (a) honest condition, (b) fake good with verbal instructions, and (c) fake good with verbal instructions and visual stimuli illustrating what was verbally explained. Using simultaneous verbal instructions and visual stimuli facilitated children's understanding of the researcher's instructions compared to using verbal stimuli alone. Results showed that children instructed to fake good used less time to tell stories and tended to modify the simpler and more face valid aspects of their stories. Still, 29 out of 47 children failed to fake good on the BASC-2 L scale. More complex TEMAS variables showed no significant difference between story elicitation conditions.

Maximizing the Impact of e-Therapy and Serious Gaming: Time for a Paradigm Shift.

Internet interventions for mental health, including serious games, online programs, and apps, hold promise for increasing access to evidence-based treatments and prevention. Many such interventions have been shown to be effective and acceptable in trials; however, uptake and adherence outside of trials is seldom reported, and where it is, adherence at least, generally appears to be underwhelming. In response, an international Collaboration On Maximizing the impact of E-Therapy and Serious Gaming (COMETS) was formed. In this perspectives' paper, we call for a paradigm shift to increase the impact of internet interventions toward the ultimate goal of improved population mental health. We propose four pillars for change: (1) increased focus on user-centered approaches, including both user-centered design of programs and greater individualization within programs, with the latter perhaps utilizing increased modularization; (2) Increased emphasis on engagement utilizing processes such as gaming, gamification, telepresence, and persuasive technology; (3) Increased collaboration in program development, testing, and data sharing, across both sectors and regions, in order to achieve higher quality, more sustainable outcomes with greater reach; and (4) Rapid testing and implementation, including the measurement of reach, engagement, and effectiveness, and timely implementation. We suggest it is time for researchers, clinicians, developers, and end-users to collaborate on these aspects in order to maximize the impact of e-therapies and serious gaming.

Shame as a Cultural Artifact: A Call for Self-Awareness and Reflexivity in Personality Assessment.

It has become common for assessors to face therapeutic impasses and dilemmas when practicing within the Therapeutic Assessment (TA) model. This is due to the explicit goal of producing therapeutic changes in clients. In this article the author discusses the importance of assessors being aware of how their clinical practices relate to their assessment outcomes. To enhance such awareness, the author reviews the characteristics of psychological assessment practices as derived from 3 paradigms developed almost 1.5 centuries ago in Europe by the forefathers of psychology as a scientific discipline. Current assessment practices are deeply ingrained in specific cultural, social, and political frameworks originating in these paradigms. Being aware of such a historical and cultural background might help the assessor avoid blindly reenacting the values, norms, and latent relational schemas implied by different assessment methods, and instead use assessment tools as potent aids in the service of clients' change. Finally, the author illustrates how the experience of clients' shame in psychological assessment might also be understood as a by-product of the specific cultural and historical background of certain common assessment practices.

Therapeutic Assessment of Complex Trauma: A Single-Case Time-Series Study.

The cumulative effect of repeated traumatic experiences in early childhood incrementally increases the risk of adjustment problems later in life. Surviving traumatic environments can lead to the development of an interrelated constellation of emotional and interpersonal symptoms termed complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD). Effective treatment of trauma begins with a multimethod psychological assessment and requires the use of several evidence-based therapeutic processes, including establishing a safe therapeutic environment, reprocessing the trauma, constructing a new narrative, and managing emotional dysregulation. Therapeutic Assessment (TA) is a semistructured, brief intervention that uses psychological testing to promote positive change. The case study of Kelly, a middle-aged woman with a history of repeated interpersonal trauma, illustrates delivery of the TA model for CPTSD. Results of this single-case time-series experiment indicate statistically significant symptom improvement as a result of participating in TA. We discuss the implications of these findings for assessing and treating trauma-related concerns, such as CPTSD.

The conjoint Rorschach comprehensive system: reliability and validity in clinical and nonclinical couples.

This article presents the comparison of 2 paired groups of satisfied (n = 22) and distressed (n = 22) couples using a conjoint version of the Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS; Exner, 2003). The aim of the study was to evaluate if the couples' verbalizations could be coded reliably using standard CS variables and if the 2 groups of protocols differed on several dimensions hypothesized to reflect relational dissatisfaction. The results showed good to excellent interrater reliability for the selected CS variables. Comparisons revealed expected moderate to large differences between the satisfied and distressed groups with regard to communication (R), some of the affective variables (DEPI%, Afr, SumV%, Col-Shading Blends%), and cognitive variables (X-%, WDA% Sum6%, WSum6%). Among variables connected with aggression, only AgPast% was moderately higher in the distressed group of couples. Overall, the results support the use of the Conjoint Rorschach Comprehensive System (ConRCS) in couples' assessments.

The effectiveness of therapeutic assessment with an adult client: a single-case study using a time-series design.

This article presents the therapeutic assessment (TA; Finn, 2007) of a traumatized young woman named Claire. Claire reported feeling debilitated by academic demands and the expectations of her parents, and was finding it nearly impossible to progress in her studies. She was also finding it difficult to develop and sustain intimate relationships. The emotional aspects of close relationships were extremely difficult for her and she routinely blamed herself for her struggles in this arena. The assessor utilized the TA model for adults, with the exception of not including an optional intervention session. The steps of TA, particularly the extended inquiry and the discussion of test findings along the way, cultivated a supportive and empathic atmosphere with Claire. By employing the single-case time-series experimental design used in previous TA studies (e.g., Smith, Handler, & Nash, 2010; Smith, Wolf, Handler, & Nash, 2009), the authors demonstrated that Claire experienced statistically significant improvement correlated with the onset of TA. Results indicated that participation in TA coincided with a positive shift in the trajectory of her reported symptoms and with recognizing the affection she held for others in her life. This case illustrates the successful application of case-based time-series methodology in the evaluation of an adult TA. The potential implications for future study are discussed.