ABSTRACT
The dangers of substitute tests for social signifi cance When psychometric tests alone are used as a measure of clinical signifi cance, it is the service provider’s operational defi nition of the term that becomes the foundation for its marketing strategy. It rarely occurs to politicians, commissioners, service providers, professional bodies and therapists to look beyond the term clinical signifi cance . But to properly exercise good governance it is imperative that they do. The position is somewhat akin to what used to obtain in court, where an expert witness could hide behind his or her clinical judgement; nowadays there is much more enquiry on what that judgement is based on; it has to be evidence based, not eminence based. The provision of psychological services has arguably not yet caught up with these developments.
