Psychological testing is widespread today. Test results are only valuable, though, when they contribute meaningful information that helps therapists better meet the treatment needs of their clients. Psychological Testing that Matters describes an approach to inference-making and synthesizing data that creates eff ective, individualized treatment plans. Th e book's treatment-centered approach describes how to reconcile the results of various tests, use test results to assess a patient's psychological capacities, reach a diagnosis, and write an informative test report. 2014. 464 pages. Hardcover.

Item response theory (IRT) seeks to model the way in which latent psychological constructs manifest themselves in terms of observable item responses; this information is useful when developing, evaluating, and scoring tests. After providing an overview of the most popular IRT models (i.e., those applicable to dichotomously keyed items) and contrasting them with the techniques used in classical test theory (CTT), the authors illustrate the application of IRT using data from the recently revised Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. These results highlight a number of IRT’s advantages, including (a) detailed descriptions of the performance of individual items, (b) indices of item- and scale-level precision that are free to vary across the full range of possible scores, (c) assessments of item- and test-level bias with respect to demographic subgroups, (d) measures of response-profile quality, and (e) computer-adaptive testing, which can dramatically reduce testing time.

The coping process was examined in a group of Israeli subjects experiencing SCUD missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War. We were interested in examining the relationship of coping resources, optimism, perceived control, and coping strategies, to anxiety, to physical symptoms, and to cognitive functioning during a real crisis. Data were gathered via structured questionnaires in the midst of the Persian Gulf War (February 1991) on a sample of 261 adult respondents residing in northern Israel. Although people reported a mixture of palliative and active coping strategies, it was the use of palliative coping efforts that predicted greater anxiety and physical symptoms. Subjects with greater coping resources used more palliative and active coping strategies and had higher cognitive functioning. However, active coping did not predict any of the negative stress reactions (i.e., anxiety and physical symptoms). People who perceived being in control of the situation reported using less palliative coping and fewer symptoms. That active coping did not predict negative stress reactions may have been a function of the severity of the stressor, and the resultant high levels of anxiety that were engendered. Overall, these findings do point to a different coping process in a grave and ongoing disaster situation than that reported in reaction to more normal life events.

This study investigated Grinder and Bandler's (1976) assertion that responding with perceptual predicates similar to those used by a speaker results in increased perceived empathy. In an analogue counseling interview with 63 female undergraduates, counselors tracked the use of visual, auditory, and kinesthetic perceptual predicates and then responded with either similar or dissimilar predicates of their own. A significant difference was found between treatments in the expected direction, with students in the matched predicates condition rating their counselors higher on perceived empathy. There was no difference between interviewers and no interaction effect. The procedure of continually tracking and matching perceptual predicates is contrasted with the method of identifying and matching a Primary Representational System used by other researchers, and questions are raised about the assumptions regarding representational systems in neurolinguistic programming. It is concluded that the tracking procedure was preferable for empirical and theoretical reasons. Implications for training and further research are discussed.The nature of the therapeutic relationship continues to be a focus in practice, training, and research in counseling. One dimension of the relationship in particular, the empathic process, has remained a central, although not unitary, construct (Kurtz & Grurrimon, 1972) since Rogers's work (1965). In a recent article, Barrett-Lennard (1981) refined the construct of empathy by dividing the process into three phases: understanding, communicating understanding, and received empathy. Using this phase model as a framework, most discussion of the first phase has been on seeking to understand the client's model of the world or internal frame of reference by attending to expressed or implicit feelings, affect, and felt experience (Barrett-Lennard, 1981;Carkhuff & Berenson, 1967;Rogers, 1965).There is more to inner experience, how-This article is based in part on a doctoral dissertation submitted by the author to Michigan State University under the direction of William W. Farquhar.The assistance of Judy Ellickson, Melissa Andrea, and Liz Monroe-Cook is gratefully acknowledged. Jane Berry and Mary Catherine Dettling provided valuable comments on an earlier draft.

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