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Balancing psychological assessments: Including strengths and hope in client reports
Author(s) -
Snyder C. R.,
Ritschel Lorie A.,
Rand Kevin L.,
Berg Carla J.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of clinical psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.124
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1097-4679
pISSN - 0021-9762
DOI - 10.1002/jclp.20198
Subject(s) - strengths and weaknesses , psychology , wright , agency (philosophy) , applied psychology , social psychology , computer science , epistemology , philosophy , programming language
Borrowing from B. A. Wright's (1991) suggestions, a balanced approach is advocated for gathering information and writing the subsequent report. Specifically, it is suggested that the clinician attend to four aspects of an interviewee: (a) the strengths in the client's psychological makeup, (b) the weaknesses in the client's psychological makeup, (c) the strengths in the client's environment, and (d) the weaknesses in the client's environment. Additionally, using hope theory (C. R. Snyder, 1994) as a framework, the importance of including information about client goals, along with the routes to those goals (pathways thinking) and the motivation to use those pathways (agency thinking), is described. Furthermore, the implications of using this framework in conducting a diagnostic interview and writing the ensuing report are provided. Finally, the advantages of including human strengths to achieve a balanced interview and report are discussed. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Psychol.