Multimethod Assessment of Personality and Psychopathology

Abstract

Abstract Multimethod assessment of personality and psychopathology plays a central role in diagnosis, treatment planning, and risk management. This chapter presents an evidence-based framework for multimethod assessment of personality and psychopathology in clinical and research settings, with an emphasis on test score integration. To implement this framework the clinician must: (a) understand the intra- and interpersonal processes that underlie different assessment methods; (b) interpret meaningful test score divergences as well as convergences; and (c) contextualize work in this area using ideas and findings from beyond clinical psychology. Following a discussion of major personality and psychopathology assessment tools and the intra- and interpersonal dynamics that influence responses to interviews, self-attribution tests (which have traditionally been identified as objective or self-report tests), and stimulus-attribution measures (traditionally labeled projective tests), conceptual, clinical, and empirical implications of current findings in this area are discussed. A template for multimethod assessment in clinical settings is presented, using personality pathology as an exemplar. A multimethod, process-focused approach to test score validation is described, which yields separate indices of outcome-focused and process-focused validity. Finally, the principles of multimethod assessment are applied to emerging models of personality and psychopathology.