MMPI-2 in Psychological Treatment


Book Description

Psychological treatment--using psychodynamic, behavioral, or any other approach--is most successful when both the therapist and client have a clear understanding of the client's problems, weaknesses, resources, and strengths. In this book, James Butcher, a member of the team that developed the new Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory test (MMPI-2), focuses on how the MMPI-2 can provide objective information to both the client and clinician, and how this information can be used in treatment planning and selection. By using the MMPI, the most widely researched and most frequently administered clinical assessment tool, the clinician can provide objective feedback both before treatment begins, as a baseline, and as treatment progresses. The book begins with a descriptive overview of the MMPI-2 and a summary of the empirical correlates underlying the validity of the test and its clinical scales. Dr. Butcher summarizes available treatment-related information that can be obtained from the clinical scales and brings together in one chapter what is known about the use of the traditional MMPI scales in treatment evaluation. Since several MMPI-2 content scales have been found useful for treatment evaluation, these are described in detail. The book will also include several MMPI-2 "special scales," such as Es and Mac-R , which have been found useful in providing specific information about the client's present self-orientation. Dr. Butcher presents a procedure with which to provide test feedback to clients and illustrates this method with several clinical examples. He also discusses the role of computerized psychological interpretation in providing personality descriptions, which can be effectively used in therapy feedback sessions.




Personality Assessment in Treatment Planning


Book Description

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.




Therapeutic Feedback with the MMPI-2


Book Description

Therapeutic Feedback with the MMPI-2 provides the clinician with empirically-based, practical information about how to convey the abundance of information in the MMPI-2 profile in a way that is collaborative, empathic, hopeful, and facilitates a therapeutic alliance. Readers will find this book to be as useful and applicable as the MMPI-2 itself, which is used in psychiatric hospitals; correctional settings; in evaluations for job selection, general medicine, forensic and child custody cases; and even in screenings for television, game, and reality shows. The authors expand upon this already robust test by demonstrating how therapeutic assessment and feedback can be improved upon by considering three contributions from positive psychology: that behavior can be viewed as potentially adaptive; traditional pathological and maladaptive behaviors can be reframed as understandable responses to stressors that therapeutic feedback is empathic, nonjudgmental, and mostly jargon free; humans respond to overwhelming stress in understandable ways that the therapist can give coherence and meaning to lastly, that therapeutic feedback stresses self-esteem and resilience building through self-awareness as a goal. Discussion centers around ten scales and 27 common code types. Each section addresses the complaints, thoughts, emotions, traits and behaviors associated with the profile; therapists’ notes; lifestyle and family background; modifying scales; therapy and therapeutic pitfalls; feedback statements; and treatment and self-help suggestions. The larger page size reflects the size of the MMPI-2 interpretive reports and makes it easy for clinicians to copy pages of the book to share with their clients. Therapeutic Feedback with the MMPI-2 is the most detailed volume available on MMPI-2 feedback and is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any clinician who uses this test.




Essentials of MMPI-2 Assessment


Book Description

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition is used by a broad range of clinicians to assist with the diagnosis of mental disorders and the selection of appropriate treatment methods. To use it properly, professionals need an authoritative source for use of this test. This thoroughly updated and revised second edition of Essentials of MMPI-2 Assessment provides that resource. In addition to comprehensive updates to the research and literature throughout, the new edition will include information on other versions of the test, including the MMPI-2 RC and the MMPI-2-RF. Clinical and school psychologists are provided with information on administering, interpreting, and scoring this most widely used test for assessing personality.




Psychological Assessment With the MMPI-2


Book Description

User-friendly yet sophisticated, Psychological Assessment With the MMPI-2 will be welcomed by practicing psychologists, researchers, and students alike. This long-awaited second edition constitutes the single most comprehensive and up-to-date textbook of MMPI-2 interpretation. Completely rewritten to address the changes to the original instrument that resulted in the MMPI-2 in l989, it describes in detail all the MMPI-2 scales--clinical, supplementary, and content--and offers empirically-grounded and clinically-tested recommendations for their use. The last decade has seen an explosion of research, as well as a steady accumulation of experiential wisdom; bridging the gap between behavioral science and practice, the authors review all the major findings and their implications and draw on rich clinical material to illuminate the issues. This second edition: * helps users with forensic interests including attorneys needing a reference for expert review; * gives step-by-step advice on interpreting profiles; * includes treatment recommendations in the explanation of every code pattern; * provides extensive guidance on report-writing for new users; * compares the most current MMPI-2 computer reports; * features numerous tables, figures, and appendices for all the MMPI-2 scales including the newer validity measures; and * incorporates 570 references (235 completely new).




Personality Assessment in Managed Health Care


Book Description

In response to the many challenges facing mental health professionals in the era of managed care, this highly respected group of contributors from academia, managed care, and full-time clinical practice, outline the importance of personality assessment, particularly through the use of MMPI-2. Butcher and his colleagues argue that psychological assessment plays an indispensable role in managed care, both because it is an essential tool for evaluating the effectiveness of therapy and because of its significant contributions to the structuring and shortening of the process of therapy. By providing working examples of psychological treatment in the context of managed care, this book shows us that the most effective treatments use personality assessment as their foundation.







MMPI-A: Assessing Adolescent Psychopathology


Book Description

This third edition of Robert Archer's classic step-by-step guide to the MMPI-A continues the tradition of the first two in presenting the essential facts and recommendations for students, clinicians, and researchers interested in understanding and utilizing this assessment instrument to its fullest. Special features of the third edition: *presentation of appropriate administration criteria; *updated references to document the recent development of an increasingly solid empirical foundation--more than 160 new ones; *extensive review of new MMPI-A scales and subscales including the content component scales and the PSY-5 scales; *expanded variety of clinical examples; and *a new chapter on the rapidly expanding forensic uses of the MMPI-A, including those in correctional facilities and in custody or personal injury evaluations.




Interpreting the MMPI-2-RF


Book Description

Detailed and practical instruction for interpreting the newly published MMPI-2-RF




Understanding Psychological Assessment


Book Description

Introductory texts on psychological testing and evaluation historically are not in short supply. Typically, however, such texts have been relatively superficial in their discussion of clinical material and have focused primarily on the theoretical and psychometric properties of indi vidual tests. More practical, clinically relevant presentations of psychological instruments have been confined to individual volumes with advanced and often very technical information geared to the more sophisticated user. Professors in introductory graduate courses are often forced to adopt several advanced texts to cover the material, at the same time helping students wade through unnecessary technical information in order to provide a basic working knowl edge of each test. Understanding Psychological Assessment is an attempt to address these concerns. It brings together into a single volume a broad sampling of the most respected instruments in the psychologist's armamentarium along with promising new tests of cognitive, vocational, and personality functioning. Additionally, it presents the most updated versions of these tests, all in a practical, clearly written format that covers the development, psychometrics, administra tive considerations, and interpretive hypotheses for each instrument. Clinical case studies allow the reader to apply the interpretive guidelines to real clinical data, thereby reinforcing basic understanding of the instrument and helping to insure that both the student and practi tioner can actually begin to use the test. Understanding Psychological Assessment includes cognitive and personality tests for adults, children, and adolescents, as well as chapters on the theory of psychological measurement and integrated report writing.