Most psychologists rely heavily on the clinical interview and what people tell us in reaching our conclusions. But how accurate is this self-report? Is it possible to tell when someone is lying, exaggerating or withholding information? How can we evidence that our conclusions are robust and that we haven’t been “taken in” by a client who is giving us false information about themselves? What about cases where the person may not even realise they are providing inaccurate information? Don’t we all lie sometimes?

This webinar will provide an overview of the current state of the literature around impression management and validity in psychological assessments, particularly in a medicolegal context. 

The webinar aims to achieve the following learning outcomes:

1)     To understand what is meant by performance management in psychological assessments, including positive impression management versus negative impression management.

2)     To learn about different types of deception commonly found in medicolegal contexts and their various psychological origins.  This will include discussion of “malingering”, deliberate under-performance, denial, lack of effort, and unconscious deception.

3)     To discuss the role of denial and self-awareness in psychological assessments.

4)     To understand motives for performance management in medicolegal contexts and when to consider effort testing.

5)     To be introduced to how psychologists assess validity and performance management including in the clinical interview, questionnaire design, performance management tools, and collateral information.

6)     To be introduced to current guidelines and notable cases when considering performance management and validity testing.     

Click here to Download Slides