ADVANCING THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTALESSANDRO ZENNARO

Evidence-based Psychological Assessment (EPA)

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

Purposes of psychological assessment

Description of psychopathology and differential diagnosis

Description and prediction of everyday behavior

Inform psychological treatment

Monitoring of treatment

Personality assessment as treatment

Types of assessment tests

Self-report

Performance-based

Behavior ratings

“Psychological assessment attempts to find out not only what a person does, but what

that person is like”

MAIN GOALS AND ACHIEVEMENTS

Investigating the empirical foundation of the Rorschach

Neuro-physiological research with the Rorschach

Development and validation of new Rorschach indexes

Testing the psychometric properties of the Rorschach

Advancing the techniques to detect feigned psychopathology

Testing the validity of and refining the IOP

Comparing different symptom validity measures (e.g., SIMS)

Validation of assessment tools for use within the Italian context

Cross-cultural validation of complex, personality inventories (e.g., PAI)

Cross-cultural adaptation of research tools (e.g., DERS, TMMS, ICQ)

RORSCHACH RESEARCH

What is the Rorschach? A set of 10 inkblot designs: “what might this be?”

“Projective” versus “Performance-based” measure

Scientific foundation Late ‘90s criticisms and moratorium

2013 Psychological Bulletin meta-analyses and withdrawal of moratorium

A set of 10 inkblot designs: “what might this be?”

“Projective” versus “Performance-based” measure

EPA research Neuro-physiological

Development and/or validation of specific indexes

Reliability and validity

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – NEUROPHYSIOL.

1) Human Movement (M) responses and mirroring activity

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – NEUROPHYSIOL.

[Selected publications]

Giromini, L., Viglione, D. J., Pineda, J., Porcelli, P., Hubbard, D., Zennaro, A., & Cauda, F. (2017). Human movement responses to the Rorschach and mirroring activity: an fMRI study. Assessment, in press.

Andò, A., Salatino, A., Giromini, L., Ricci, R., Pignolo, C., Cristofanelli, S., Ferro, L., Viglione, D. J., & Zennaro, A. (2015). Embodied simulation and ambiguous stimuli: The role of the mirror neuron system. Brain Research, 1629, 135-142.

Porcelli, P., Giromini, L., Parolin, L., Pineda, J. A., & Viglione, D. J. (2013). Mirroring Activity in the Brain and Movement Determinant in the Rorschach Test. Journal of Personality Assessment, 95 (5), 444-456

Pineda, J., Giromini, L., Porcelli, P., Parolin, L. & Viglione, D. (2011). Mu suppression and human movement responses to the Rorschach test. NeuroReport, 22 (5), 223-226.

Giromini, L., Porcelli, P., Viglione, D., Parolin, L. & Pineda, J. (2010). The feeling of movement: EEG evidence for mirroring activity during the observations of static, ambiguous stimuli in the Rorschach cards. Biological Psychology, 85, 233-241

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – NEUROPHYSIOL.

2) Neurological and psycho-physiological correlates

- fMRI map of brain activity during the Rorschach

- EDA and HRV research on Rorschach and stress

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – NEUROPHYSIOL.

[Selected publications]

Giromini, L., Viglione, D. J., Zennaro, A., & Cauda, F. (2017). Neural activity during production of rorschach responses: An fMRI study. Psychiatry Research – Neuroimaging, 262, 25-31.

Giromini, L., Ando', A., Morese, R., Salatino, A., Di Girolamo, M., Viglione, D.J., & Zennaro, A. (2016). Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) and vulnerability to stress: A preliminary study on electrodermal activity during stress. Psychiatry Research, 246, 166-172.

Giromini, L., Viglione, D. J., Brusadelli, E., Zennaro, A., Di Girolamo, M., & Porcelli, P. (2016). The Effects of Neurological Priming on the Rorschach: A Pilot Experiment on the Human Movement Response. Rorschachiana, 37, 58-73

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – NEW INDEXES

Cross-cultural validation of the Developmental Index

The DI is a new, Rorschach measure that correlates with development and age

Development and initial validation of a Rorschach – Empathy index

Using self-report and performance-based measures as criterion variable, a new, Rorschach-based, empathy scale is being developed and tested

[Selected publication]

Giromini, L., Viglione, D. J., Brusadelli E., Lang, M., Reese, J., & Zennaro, A. (2015). Cross-Cultural Validation of the Rorschach Developmental Index. Journal of Personality Assessment, 97 (4), 348-353

RORSCHACH RESEARCH – PSYCHOMETRICS

Reliability of R-PAS scores

Do different examiners code the same Rorschach similarly?

Accuracy and applicability of Rorschach norms

What is the accuracy and applicability of current Rorschach norms? What can we do to further improve them?

[Selected publications] Pignolo, C., Giromini, L., Ando’, A.Ghirardello, D., Di Girolamo, M., Ales, F., & Zennaro, A.

(2017). An inter-rater reliability study of Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS) raw and complexity-adjusted scores. Journal of Personality Assessment, in press.

Viglione, D. J., & Giromini, L. (2016). The effects of using International versus Comprehensive System Rorschach norms for children, adolescents, and adults. Journal of Personality Assessment, 98 (4), 391-397

Giromini, L., Viglione, D. J., & McCullaugh (2015). Introducing a Bayesian approach to determining degree of fit with existing Rorschach norms. Journal of Personality Assessment, 97 (4), 354-363

MALINGERING RESEARCH

What does the term “malingering” refer to?

Deliberate fabrication of symptoms of mental or physical disorders

Typically associated with secondary gain motives (e.g., criminal, civil)

Assessment

Symptom validity tests (SVTs) versus malingering measures

Complex, personality inventories (e.g., MMPI, PAI) or interviews (e.g., SIRS)

Stand-alone, SVTs such as the SIMS or TOMM

EPA research

Development and validation of the Inventory of Problems (IOP)

Comparison between various SVTs and feigning scales (e.g., SIMS, PAI, etc.)

MALINGERING RESEARCH – IOP

Development of the IOP and IOP-29

Originally developed in the late ‘90s, in California

Refined and revised through the years, and published in 2016

Key features of the IOP instruments

“Doesn’t make sense”, in addition to classic True-False options

Items addressing testing-related behaviors

Mixture of mental and cognitive/neuropsychological symptoms

Easy-to-use, probability score

MALINGERING RESEARCH – IOP (U.S.)

MALINGERING RESEARCH – IOP (ITALY)

SIMS Total IOP-29 –FDS Z p r

Diff.Entire Sample (N = 452) .57 .69 -4.57 <.01 .21Psychotic Spectrum Subgroup (n = 214) .47 .67 -4.91 <.01 .29Anxiety, Depression, and/or Trauma Related Subgroup (n = 238) .64 .72 -2.05 .04 .14

CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION STUDIES

Cross-cultural adaptation of complex, personality inventories Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III; Millon et al., 2006, 2015)

Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI; Morey, 1991, 1996, 2007)

Personality Assessment Screener (PAS; Morey, 1997)

Brief, self-report measures, mainly used for research purposes Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS; Gratz & Roemer, 2004)

Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE; Reniers et al., 2011)

Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire (ICQ; Buhrmester et al. 1988)

Trait Meta-Mood Scale (TMMS; Salovey et al., 1995)

EPA research Development and validation of Italian versions

Contribution to developing normative data

Collaboration with foreign research groups (e.g., development of a Brazilian version of the DERS)

CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION STUDIES -VALIDATION OF ITALIAN VERSIONS

CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION STUDIES -VALIDATION OF ITALIAN VERSIONS

THE CONVERGENT VALIDITY BETWEEN THE PAI AND MCMI-III SCORES BY USING CANONICAL CORRELATION ANALYSIS (CCA)

MCMI-III

PAI

ALC DOM

COMPULSIVE PD

PARANOIDPD

ALC DRG

CROSS-CULTURAL ADAPTATION STUDIES -CONTRIBUTION TO DEVELOPING NORMATIVE DATA

OTHER CROSS-CULTURAL VALIDATION STUDIES

[Selected publications]

Miguel, F. K., Giromini, L., Colombarolli, M.S., Zuanazzi, A.C., & Zennaro, A. (2017). A Brazilian investigation of the 36- and 16-item Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scales. Journal of Clinical Psychology, in press

Giromini, L., Ales, F., de Campora, G., Zennaro, A., & Pignolo, C. (2017). Developing age and gender adjusted normative reference values for the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, in press

Giromini, L., Colombarolli, M. S., Brusadelli, E., & Zennaro, A. (2017). An Italian contribution to the study of the validity and reliability of the Trait Meta-Mood Scale. Journal of Mental Health, in press

Giromini, L., de Campora, G., Brusadelli, E., D’Onofrio, E., Zennaro, A., Zavattini, G. C., & Lang, M. (2016). Validity and reliability of the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire: Empirical evidence from an Italian study. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 38, 113-123

Giromini, L., Velotti, P., de Campora, G., Bonalume, L., & Zavattini, G. C. (2012). Cultural Adaptation of the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale: Reliability and Validity of an Italian Version. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 68 (9), 989–1007