The reactions by Ridley and Shaw-Ridley (EJ832451) and Lichtenberg (EJ832452) to the authors' meta-analysis on the effects of experience on judgment accuracy add positively to what is hoped will become an ever more focused discourse on this most basic question: How can mental health clinical decision making be improved? In this rejoinder, the…

However intuitively appealing the notion is that therapists learn from clinical experience (presumably both successes and failures), whether clinical judgment actually is enhanced by experience remains a matter on which there continues to be disagreement. The author discusses the meta-analysis of P.M. Spengler et al. that demonstrates a supportive…

Clinical judgment is foundational to psychological practice. Accurate judgment forms the basis for establishing reasonable goals and selecting appropriate treatments, which in turn are essential in achieving positive therapeutic outcomes. Therefore, Spengler and colleagues' meta-analytic finding--clinical judgment accuracy improves marginally with…

The purpose of this article is to discuss the psychological and emotional effects of racism on people of Color. Psychological models and research on racism, discrimination, stress, and trauma will be integrated to promote a model to be used to understand, recognize, and assess race-based traumatic stress to aid counseling and psychological…

The results of the clinical versus statistical prediction meta-analysis support the longstanding finding that statistical methods are superior to clinical methods in making predictions. In this reaction, the authors discuss the findings from the perspective of the context of discovery and the context of justification, the client model-building…

Clinical predictions made by mental health practitioners are compared with those using statistical approaches. Sixty-seven studies were identified from a comprehensive search of 56 years of research; 92 effect sizes were derived from these studies. The overall effect of clinical versus statistical prediction showed a somewhat greater accuracy for…

In their meta-analysis of clinical versus statistical prediction models, Aegisdottir et al. (this issue) extended previous findings of statistical-method superiority across such variables as clinicians' experience and familiarity with data. In this reaction, the authors are particularly interested in violence prediction, which yields the greatest…

Surveyed training directors of American Psychological Association approved counseling psychology programs and internship sites to determine extent of training in psychological assessment procedures. Found that clinical interview was most widely used procedure, vocational assessment was changing, different procedures were emphasized in academic and…

Examines item-response theory (IRT), which seeks to model the way in which latent psychological constructs manifest themselves in terms of observable item responses. Provides an overview of the most popular IRT models and contrasts them with the techniques used in classical test theory. Results highlight several IRT advantages. (Author/GCP)

In this rejoinder, the authors respond to the insightful commentary of Strohmer and Arm, Chwalisz, and Hilton, Harris, and Rice about the meta-analysis on statistical versus clinical prediction techniques for mental health judgments. The authors address issues including the availability of statistical prediction techniques for real-life psychology…

Proposes a prototypical model for psychological assessment that reformulates a model of the counselor-as-scientist. Integrates the model's theory and research on human inference, judgment, and decision making; research on threats to accurate clinical prediction; and findings about counselor characteristics associated with effective judgment…