Is psychological testing useful in forensic contexts that are associated with under reporting?
Is psychological testing useful in forensic contexts that are associated with under reporting?

Summary/Abstract: The validity of self-report psychological test results in forensic contexts may be compromised as a result of examinee response style bias to over report or underreport psychological problems. This paper briefly discusses two forensic contexts associated with tendencies of examinees to underreport problems, i.e., child custody evaluations and juvenile delinquency evaluations for disposition. Despite the finding that most examinees in both of these populations obtain within normal limits scores on clinical scales, it is suggested that testing may be helpful in identifying potential problems in some segment of each of these forensic populations. This opinion is supported by findings in empirical studies.

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