Deck 2: Assessment, Treatment, and Consultation in Forensic Psychology

Question 1

What is secondary gain?

A) An additional advantage or benefit central to malingering
B) An improvement in psychological functioning due to therapy
C) An additional advantage associated with conducting a clinical interview
D) Positive aspects of the manic period in those who suffer from bipolar disorder

Answer 1

An additional advantage or benefit central to malingering

Question 2

The interview that accompanies the Psychopathy Checklist-R is intended to be an example of what type of interview?

A) Fixed
B) Structured
C) Unstructured
D) Semi-Structured

Answer 2

Semi-Structured

Question 3

__________ are psychological tests that focus on identifying underlying brain deficits.

A) Cognitive tests
B) Projective tests
C) Malingering tests
D) Neuropsychological tests

Answer 3

Neuropsychological tests

Question 4

All of the following are differences between a therapeutic assessment and a forensic assessment, except

A) consequences
B) goals and objectives
C) financial incentives
D) relationship of the parties

Question 5

Why is it important to clarify the referral question when conducting a forensic assessment?

A) To identify the client
B) To obtain informed consent
C) To assess your duty to warn in cases wherein the client is a danger
D) To best address the needs of the court and stay within your scope of practice

Question 6

Which of the following is not generally seen as a tool to assess malingering?

A) TAT
B) SIRS
C) TOMM
D) Clinical interviews

Question 7

What is a major drawback or difficulty in forensic assessment?

A) Malingering is a concern with all offenders
B) The courts do not appreciate the contribution of psychologists
C) There are no empirically verified means for treating offenders
D) The law asks questions that are too simplistic given our current knowledge

Question 8

What term is associated with the focus on matching a client to a specific type of treatment based on his or her individual characteristics?

A) Archival information
B) Responsivity principle
C) Multifaceted programming
D) Targeting criminogenic needs

Question 9

The primary role of forensic assessment is to

A) assist the court
B) advocate for the defense
C) answer legal questions that courts are unable to answer
D) improve the training of psychologists wishing to involve themselves in legally-related work

Question 10

Special programs have increasingly become the focus of treatment efforts in corrections. Which of the following is not usually a focus of these programs?

A) Mood disorders
B) Personality disorders
C) Chemical dependency
D) Sex offender treatment

Question 11

An advantage of projective personality tests is that they

A) require that the examinee is literate
B) are generally more reliable and valid
C) produce summary reports that are easily read
D) assess characteristics that are typically unobservable

Question 12

Which of the following may be especially problematic in forensic consultation?

A) Identifying the client in a given case
B) The development of dual relationships
C) Educating an attorney on the research in a given area
D) Violating ethical considerations as a result of acting in an adversarial manner

Question 13

Greater need for accuracy and the conclusions being evaluated by the legal system are two reasons _______________ is more important for forensic psychologists as compared to general psychologists.

A) assessment of malingering
B) specialized forensic testing
C) conducting a clinical interview
D) archival and third party information

Question 14

Which form of treatment includes a focus on self-mutilation, violence, and trauma reactions?

A) Outpatient
B) Maintenance
C) Special programs
D) Crisis management

Question 15

You are a forensic psychologist and you have been asked to evaluate an offender that is awaiting sentencing. When should you obtain his informed consent and instruct him about the purpose of your meeting?

A) Informed consent is not necessary when there is a court ordered evaluation
B) Informed consent should be obtained at the beginning of your first session
C) Her attorney should have obtained informed consent before you met the offender
D) Informed consent is assumed when the offender voluntarily answers your questions

Question 16

Reliability is

A) the accuracy of a measurement
B) the consistency of a measurement
C) less important to achieve than validity
D) more important to achieve than validity

Question 17

Dr. Croft is a forensic psychologist who is conducting an evaluation on a 27 year-old man. The man's employer has referred him because he is having anger control problems that have become a problem at work and the employer is considering firing the man. What should Dr. Croft's ethical concern be when communicating the findings of this report?

A) Duty to warn
B) Informed consent
C) Determining the client
D) The admissibility of scientific testimony

Question 18

Which treatment model appears to be the preferred approach for psychologists providing treatment in forensic settings?

A) Psychoanalysis
B) Cognitive-behavioral
C) Behavior modification
D) Rational-emotive therapy

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of a specialized forensic instrument?

A) Trail Making Tests A and B
B) Psychopathy Checklist-Revised PCL-R)
C) Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-II MMPI-II)
D) Roger's Criminal Responsibility Assessment Scales RCRAS)

Question 20

Dr. Collins is a forensic psychologist but he does not have any experience assessing or treating children. An attorney that he has worked with before asks him to assist with a case involving an 8 year-old girl. She is alleging that a man in her neighborhood molested her. Dr. Collins decides to decline this case because

A) he is likely to get sued for malpractice
B) there is no extensive literature on the topic
C) the case is outside Dr. Collins' scope of practice
D) an 9 year-old is not able to give consent for the evaluation

Question 21

Dr. George gave his students an exam worth 100 points. At the end of the exam, several of his students approached him, upset that the exam did not ask questions related to the course material. According to the students, Dr. George's exam was ____________.

A) valid
B)invalid
C) unreliable
D) outside his scope of practice

Question 22

List and explain the three characteristics of successful offender programs.

Question 23

Which of the following roles poses the most risk for losing objectivity and ethical violations?

A) Forensic Treatment
B) Forensic Assessment
C) Forensic Consultation
D) Therapeutic Treatment

Question 24

Identify and explain the differences between therapeutic and forensic assessments.

Question 25

In their survey of mental health professionals in correctional settlings, Bewley and Morgan 2011) found

A) few mental health needs in incarcerated offenders
B) very few offenders received any form of treatment
C) the major identify cognitive-behavioral as their primary theoretical orientation
D) few incorporated all of the RNR principles into their treatment approaches

Question 26

___________ are the most frequently used method of assessment in psychology.

A) Objective tests
B) Personality tests
C) Risk assessment
D) Clinical Interviews

Question 27

Which of the following is true:

A) Male prisoners are more likely than female prisoners to experience mental illness.
B) Mentally ill individuals are as likely as non-mentally ill individuals to be arrested.
C) The mentally ill are more likely to be a victim of crime than a perpetrator of crime.
D) Socioeconomic background is not a factor in the likelihood of an individual being incarcerated.

Question 28

All of the following are issues that forensic psychologists face when deciding on the appropriateness of a test, except

A) Tertiary gain
B) Cultural biases
C) Scope of practice
D) Meeting admissibility criteria

Question 29

What is the difference between specialized forensic instruments and forensically relevant instruments?

Question 30

An incarcerated individual who is receiving psychological services aimed at rehabilitation is likely working with a ___________.

A) physician
B) correctional officer
C) forensic psychologist
D) correctional psychologist

Question 31

What are the three types of clinical interviews? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with each one?

Question 32

According to the text, what are the four general guidelines for written reports?

Question 33

Karen is administered a Psychopathy Checklist-Revised PCL-R) and the results indicate a moderate level of psychopathic characteristics. The following week, Karen is again administered the PCL-R. Karen's symptoms remained largely unchanged but the results now indicate a severe level of psychopathic characteristics. This would suggest the PCL-R is ___________.

A)reliable
B) invalid
C) adaptive
D)unreliable