Introduction:
This is the second issue of the newsletter.  I would like to thank those of you who responded with such favorable comments to the first issue.  Thank you for taking the time to respond and thank you for your kind words.  I am hoping this is just the beginning.

Tip of the Month:
As cases near time for hearing, activities surrounding a case can become frantic.  But in that activity it is crucial you do not forget to prepare your expert.  You know it is extremely  important to prepare your expert witness prior to a hearing, deposition, trial, etc.  Obviously, the preparation is driven by how the expert's subject matter and their expertise apply to your case.  The expert will be literally teaching and instructing the court on how their subject matter relates to the case.  Naturally, the circumstances of the expert's involvement play a role.  If he or she was court appointed, well, there is no preparation.  In situations where you are working with an expert in a privileged manner and your client has a confidential, client-professional relationship, then preparation is critical.  It may be important during meetings with the expert where only the attorney takes notes and then provides a draft to the expert.  The expert can then review the notes and return them, with corrections and comments.  This process may go back and forth a few times and both attorney and expert are then literally "reading off the same sheet".  The expert never has possession of the document, therefore, it is not discoverable.  This would be one component of preparation.  The better prepared the expert, the more likely the expertise will be shared with the court in a way that works for you and your client.  Regardless of how qualified or experienced the expert, there needs to be sufficient preparation.

Feature Article:
Last month I came very close to using "psychobabble" when I mentioned the L., K and F scales on the MMPI-2.  So let's see if I can't exonerate myself now.  Let's talk about the L scale.  You have heard it mentioned.  So what is it?  This is the test's way of detecting the tendency to deliberately deceive the evaluator.  The whole issue of deception is a lengthy topic by itself, but for now, the L scale uses erroneous knowledge to describe oneself in highly virtuous and unrealistic terms.  "At times I feel like swearing" (false) and "I get angry sometimes" (false); Really?  Obviously claiming these as false, for virtually any one other than Mother Theresa is an unrealistic degree of personal virtue.  Frankly, we don't get too many Mother Theresa's in this business coming into our offices!  The thinking goes like this.  If someone is likely to respond to items like these in a false fashion, then they are likely to respond to other items in the inventory in such a manner as to deny any personal weaknesses and present an unrealistic image.  The L scale is a valuable scale for forensic testimony. L scale scores between 60 and 64 suggest that the individual has been less than truthful in the assessment and has probably under reported psychological symptoms and problems.  Scores above 70 are a blatant distortion or conscious manipulation of the personality assessment process and is commonly referred to as "fake good" and is unlikely to provide much valid personality or symptomatic information. 

The K scale is a measure that is supposed to detect the tendency to present in a socially favorable light, (i.e. claim no personal weaknesses) as well as correct for test defensiveness in clients who had mental health problems.  This will be very common in test scores of those involved in custody disputes and should be interpreted very carefully.  If being with your children was in the balance of a dispute, most anyone would be defensive about their responses.  This is all too human.  The K is a valuable indicator of a tendency to present a favorable self-report, but such issues as socioeconomic class and education also influence the K scores.  Very low scores could be related to cultural factors.  There is a lot more to discuss regarding the K scores and they are not without their critics.  This may be an interesting areas to revisit in the future. 

The F scale or infrequency scale is one of the most useful in the MMPI or MMPI-2 assessment.  The F scale assesses an individual's tendency to exaggerate symptoms in order to appear more psychologically impaired than they actually are.  The items that comprise the F scale measure the extent to which a person has responded carefully and selectively to the content of the items.   Very high scores (>90) threaten the validity and the interpretability of the MMPI-2.  The F scale is referred to as the "fake bad" scale.  A very high F can be the result of careless responding, random responding, very high stress, cultural background, severe psychological disturbance and faking mental illness.  It takes an expert to help distinguish the real reason behind the score. 

Well, that's all the time we have this time; until next time.

I hope this information is helpful, sincerely,

Robert A. Evans, Ph.D.