National Psychology Training Consortium

Course Description and Target Audience

As malingering constitutes a test response style that is not infrequently seen when assessing examinees in forensic and/or neuropsychological practice, the goal of this presentation is to provide attendees with a general overview aimed at enhancing skills in recognizing this test response style when it occurs in psychological assessment. To accomplish this goal, the presentation will specifically explore a brief history of malingering, define the nature of malingering and differentiate it from common masquerades, review its base rates across a variety of clinical settings, describe the psychometric properties that permit selection of effective malingering instruments, discuss the methods and strategies used by test developers when constructing effective tests of malingering, and examine specific behavioral clues and specific test results which suggest a malingered performance in a sampling of clinical presentations.

The materials to be presented are believed to be accurate as of the end of the first quarter of the year of this presentation (2022) and useful for effectively identifying malingering in examinees on testing in clinical settings based on reliance on much of the latest literature available at the time of the presentation. There are no known limitations or potential risks.

Learning Objectives

• Participants will be able to briefly describe the history of malingering.
• Participants will be able to define malingering and differentiate it from its masquerades.
• Participants will be able to briefly describe the epidemiology of malingering and the significance of base rates in malingering detection.
• Participants will be able to describe in some detail the psychometric foundations underlying effective tests of malingering when selecting instruments for use.
• Participants will be able to provide clinical material for later review and reference regarding the methods and strategies for detecting malingering used in test development and reference material for later review and use as a clinical aid in examining specific qualitative (behavioral observations) and quantitative (specific test findings) clues to a malingered test performance in a variety of psychometric tests.
• Participants will be able to demonstrate the use of effective skills in detecting malingering in test performance via discussion of a detailed forensic neuropsychological case presentation.

Presenter Information

Michael R. Walsh, Psy.D. has been a psychological services provider with assessment experience for 31 years, initially as an independent psychological examiner in Arkansas, and as a clinical psychologist in Missouri since 2010. In regard to his forensic and/or neuropsychological assessment experience, from 1990 until 2009 while working for an Arkansas public community mental health center he provided civil commitment evaluations, pre-employment public safety evaluations, fitness for duty evaluations, social security disability evaluations, and psychosexual evaluations, and since 2010 while working for a private neuropsychological practice he has provided sex offender evaluations to offenders at the request of the Missouri Department of Corrections. He has provided forensic neuropsychological evaluations on referral by patients, private attorneys, physicians, the Missouri Division of Workers Compensation, and the Missouri Public Defender System. He has provided decisional capacity (guardianship) evaluations, psychosexual evaluations, and criminal competency evaluations on referral by patients, private attorneys, and the Missouri Public Defender System. Further, he has also provided criminal competency and mental health commitment evaluations on federal inmates referred by the U. S. Federal Public Defenders Office.

Video Homestudy Format

CE’s for this homestudy training will be earned through completing the following tasks:

• Watch the presentation video and review all provided documents in their entirety.
• Pass the post-test questionnaire with at least 80% correct.

A program evaluation form will be provided to all who registered following the training. Please be sure to complete this form since your feedback helps direct future CE programming from our organization.

Registration Cost

This cost includes video links, materials, and tests required to obtain CE’s. Your CE certificate will be made available to you upon successful completion of the training (80% or higher on exam).

National Psychology Training Consortium (NPTC) is approved by the American Psychological Association to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. NPTC maintains responsibility for this program and its content.