Episode Details

Would you rather read the transcript? Click here

The realm of psychopathology assessment is fascinating to me. Today I’m speaking with the developers of the SPECTRA Indices of Psychopathology, Dr. Mark Blais and Dr. Justin Sinclair, about their work to develop this measure over the last decade or so. They are kind enough to endure my naive questions about the measure and the assessment of psychopathology in general. Here are a few topics that we get into:

• The p factor (it’s okay if you don’t know what that is)
• Why a hierarchical model of psychopathology makes sense for clinicians and clients
• Nuts and bolts of the SPECTRA
• Clinical use cases for the SPECTRA

Cool Things Mentioned

• Code for one free SPECTRA admin: call PAR at 855.856.4266 and use code S-P-E-C
• SPECTRA white paper
• Buy the SPECTRA from PAR Inc.
• Lahey’s research discovering the p factor
• Testing Psychologist interview with Dr. Katherine Jonas on HiTOP
• Society for Personality Assessment
• APA Division 12 & Division 9

Featured Resource

I am honored to partner with PAR for 2021 to bring you featured items from their catalog! Listen to each episode for specific product recommendations and links. Learn more at www.parinc.com.

The Testing Psychologist podcast is approved for CEU’s!

I’ve partnered with At Health to offer CE credits for podcast episodes! Visit this link to access current and past episodes available for CE credit. You can use code “TTP10” for a discount on ALL the course credits you purchase from At Health!

About Dr. Mark Blais

Dr. Mark Blais is the Director of the Psychological Evaluation and Research Laboratory (the PEaRL) at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School. His primary clinical and research interests are in psychological assessment, psychometrics, and scale development – and he has published widely in these areas (over 150 journal publications and book chapters, and several edited books).

https://www.massgeneral.org/psychiatry/research/psychological-evaluation-and-research-lab

About Dr. Justin Sinclair