Paul Meehl has suggested that when clinicians mistakenly pay attention to vague, superficial, or stereotyped statements by clients, and fail to pay to attention to subtler but more important evidence, they are victims of the cognitive error he has labeled the

Question

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The Barnum effect refers to the tendency of people to accept vague or general statements about themselves, even if they could apply to many others, as being accurate or specific to them. This can be a problem for clinicians if they rely too heavily on such statements and fail to look for more subtle, specific evidence. The other answer choices (cognitive dissonance effect, unreliability bias, diagnostic fallibility crisis) do not accurately describe Meehl's concept.

Paul Meehl Has Suggested That When Clinicians Mistakenly Pay Attention