The Clinical Application of Psychological Tests
- Author:
Roy Schaler, M.A. New York : International Universities Press Inc. London :
George Allen & Unwin. 30s.
This monograph is a sequel to a work entitled Diagnostic Psychological Testing in the production of which the author collaborated with Drs. Rappaport and Holt. It aims at providing diagnostic summaries and case studies which could not be included in the earlier work.
The monograph is not so much a test book as an illustration of the application of a particular battery of tests in use at the Menninger Foundation, and their interpretation in the light of the psychological rational advanced in the earlier work. The author presupposes that the reader is acquainted with these concepts and findings, but claims that those generally familiar with the tests composing the battery will not find detailed or frequent reference to Diagnostic Psychological Testing necessary, and this is generally so.
The student, or the academic psychologist, whose work does not carry him into the clinical field will, in fact, gain insight into the use which can be made of the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, the Rorschach Test, the Thematic Apperception Test, the Sorting Test of Concept Formation, a Word Association Test, and a Test of Memory Efficiency, more especially as there are records of the actual responses to the test situations of typical cases. Each set of results is followed by an analysis of results, a test report and a clinical summary, and this material, comprising more than half the book, represents a valuable contribution to the literature of clinical psychology. This is preceded by a short chapter entitled ” diagnostic summaries The former states a number of propositions which show quite clearly the standpoint taken regarding test results and the process of diagnosis ; for example, a test response is regarded as something more than a score. The processes by which the solutions are achieved, and the content of the responses themselves are important diagnostic data. This point of view may appear strange to those who are, perhaps, over-concerned with the objective scoring of test results, but the point of view is here avowedly clinical, and clinical work demands clinical intuition as well as a conceptual scheme based upon scientifically organized data. It is only when intuitive judgments (or perhaps prejudices masquerading as such), are presented as a scientific scheme without the support of adequate empirical data that objection may, with reason, be made. Another proposition wisely stresses the need to obtain a rounded and hierarchical picture from a variety of problem situations (i.e. as presented by the battery of tests), while yet another distinguishes between ” interpretations ” and ” diagnostic conclusions “, the latter usually involving subscription to a nosological scheme. The latter is the field in which disagreement so often takes place, whereas the clinical tester need not commit himself beyond interpretation ; thus, the distinction seems to be important and demands the attention and consideration of the reader.
This is not, for most persons one would imagine, the kind of book which can be read at one or two sittings, but rather a valuable case collection for study and for consultation. E.S.D.
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