Re: Evaluating abuse cases

["James E. Hord. Jr., Ph.D." <DrHord@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

You can get reliable measures with a ruler with unequal spaces.
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agreed.


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Not, however, a valid measurement As Dawes stated so well -- The accuracy f the judgment of professional psychologists and other mental health workers is limited, however, by the accuracy of the techniques they employ (House of cards, 107).
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I would also agree here, in part. If I reported something as factual about a client, because of a response to an area of the Rorschach, I would never believe anything else I said about a client. However that would be naive on my part. The Rorschach can be a valuable source of rich material about the client as attested to by many writers, including Kathy Kuehnle (which I know because it was an issue that was attempted against me in the last court martial I testified in and this point was raised. That attempt failed because, as I think I said earlier, I know more about the Rorschach than the attorney who is cross examining me.)

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If the measure is invalid, then presumably so is the judgment upon which it is based. And the Rorschach is not a valid measurement device, as documented by Dawes. So it certainly should not be used in a forensic setting (or in any setting for that matter).
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Change "invalid" in the line above to "unreliable" and it would be a better point. Otherwise the presumption is a mighty big one. And let me point out, again, that the only time we seem to hear this argument is when it is related to forensic work. It has been a point of paranoia for psychologists all of my professional life, and I continue to think that it is an over rated point. IF a psychologist sees the Rorschach or ANY projective test instrument as valuable in his/her practice, it is illogical to not use that instrument in cases were lawyers are involved. I have had a handful of good cross examinations on this point over the years... out of several thousand court appearences at this point, but they are rare. I felt very good about how I was able to deal with those attacks when they did occur however.

BTW, if you and/or Holly are not also on the PsyUSA list for doctoral level psychologist, please back channel me for a short sales pitch.

Jim Hord
Jim@Hord.com
http://jim.hord.com