When and How to use Multiple Informants to Improve Clinical Assessments

Abstract

Multiple informants - compared to single informants - better inform the clinical assessment and the diagnosis of psychopathology. The Operations Triad Model (OTM; De Los Reyes et al. 2013a) provides researchers with a conceptual framework for integrating information from multiple informants into research settings. We simplified this model by: 1) identifying context and insight as the critical factors necessary for determining if multiple informants improve diagnostic accuracy and 2) providing decision-making heuristics for determining when and how to use multiple informants in clinical research and practice. We focused on how symptoms can vary across situations (i.e., context) and how individuals can lack the awareness to accurately report symptoms (i.e., insight) to improve interpretations of informant discrepancies.