Causal statements from adults with learning disabilities and normally achieving adults were analyzed and organized within a linguistic taxonomy of causal semantic relations, and a relationship between Piagetian cognitive stages and verbal expressions of causality were identified. Piagetian principles were used to design assessment and intervention…

Discussion of computer-assisted psychological evaluation focuses on its use as legal evidence. Topics discussed include legal criteria for expertise; clinical psychology and standards for expertise; factors relating to reliability and validity, including the proper use of data; computerized test administration; computer-based test interpretation;…

Psychological characteristics of 56 male Colombian street children, aged 7 to 16, were examined using participant observations and results of psychological testing. Results showed the children to be relatively healthy, intelligent, and emotionally intact. An attempt is made to understand these relatively good scores in a cultural context.…

Investigated perceptions by elementary school teachers (N=28) of the usefulness and ease of implementation of traditional recommendations that attribute the cause of referral problems to the individual student's characteristics or environmental conditions, as compared to recommendations that address a student's problem with varying degrees of…

Responds to previous article (Gresham and Gansle, this issue) which reviewed relevance of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R), and concluded that DSM-III-R is largely irrelevant for school psychology practice. Notes that Gresham and Gansle's proposal is not more powerful and cannot replace…

Responds to previous article (Gresham and Gansle, this issue) which reviewed relevance of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R), and concluded that DSM-III-R is largely irrelevant for school psychology practice. Calls Gresham and Gansle article rife with inaccuracies and misrepresentations that…

Responds to previous article (Gresham and Gansle, this issue) which reviewed relevance of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition-Revised (DSM-III-R), and concluded that DSM-III-R is largely irrelevant for school psychology practice. Discusses Gresham and Gansle's criticism of medical model views of abnormal behavior…

Discusses expanded role for psychologists and school psychologists ranging from increased knowledge about psychopharmacology to collaborative practice with prescribing physician to obtaining limited independent prescription privileges. Explores legal issues associated with such role expansion: credential concerns, malpractice liability, and record…

Reviews the development and psychometric analyses of the Suicide Assessment Checklist (SAC), a 21-item, 2-part instrument constructed for use as a standardized component of a comprehensive suicide risk assessment and documentation strategy in the emergency evaluation of risk for suicidal behavior. Results suggest SAC is psychometrically sound.…

Notes that studies of clinical judgment provide some important findings about how specific cognitive processes influence these decisions. Reviews research on understanding of clinical judgment, with implications for training and credentializing of mental health counselors. Examines potential of this research to respond empirically to questions of…

Studied 76 adolescents admitted to dual diagnosis unit of private psychiatric hospital, 72 of whom identified themselves as chemically dependent. Results support idea that chemically dependent adolescents may have compulsive/addictive behaviors in more areas than drug and alcohol abuse. More than 50% of subjects saw themselves as having symptoms…

Describes prospective longitudinal studies that pertain to stability, developmental pathways, and long-term outcome for conduct problems and hyperactivity. Reviews treatment outcome studies for these problems with at least one year of follow-up data. Discusses implications of longitudinal research for diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of…

This paper reviews literature on evaluating allegations of child sexual abuse, to determine whether there are systematic and significant differences on psychological tests between sexually abused and nonabused children, and whether these differences are a direct result of sexual abuse or a result of other coexisting factors that might cause…

Clinical evaluations of child molesters include a clinical interview and psychological testing, and sometimes phallometric assessment and polygraphy. The information gathered explains the situational antecedents and offender characteristics that led to the sexual victimization and the amount of risk an individual presents. (JDD)

Administered revised Beck Depression Inventory, Hopelessness Scale, Anxiety Inventory, and Scale for Suicide Ideation to 1,172 psychiatric outpatients. Classified subjects into 127 suicide ideators and 1,045 nonideators. Identified three types of nonideators (anxious depressed, hopeless depressed, and below-average overall symptomatology) and four…