ABSTRACT
The interpretation of psychological tests of personality has long been a thorny problem, it largely being a matter of whether to favor an idiographic (clinical-impressionistic) approach, a nomothetic (empirically guided) approach, or more typically one representing a combination of both. There are no easy answers to the question of which method is preferable, in part because it may depend on the purpose of an assessment evaluation, for example, to provide a rich, characterological in-depth understanding of an individual or to provide an answer to a relatively specific clinical question such as suicide potential or disordered thinking. Frequently, the decision depends on the clinical temperament of particular examiners. Probably many test instruments, regardless of their nature, will work well in the hands of particular clinicians because of their experience or way of apprehending the material various methods yield. One objective of this book is to revisit the still unsettled issue of achieving a scientifically and clinically sound balance using empirically based and content-based methods of clinical interpretation.
