Comprehensive Examination MA Forensic Psychology

Preparing for and taking the

Comprehensive Examination

in Forensic Psychology

Argosy University Online

Preparing for the Exam

• Assemble your resources in advance

(journal articles, textbooks, prior work)

• Schedule your time for each day and

questions you will respond to - you will

need 15 to 30 hours

• Write an outline to each question

• Finish a day in advance to have time to

proof read

Advancing Professional Education 2

Formatting your exam

• Start each question on a new page and use a

header (the question)

• Use APA format for citations and references

(should have approximately 15 to 25

references)

• Use a spell and grammar checker and proof

read

• Anticipate writing thirty to fifty pages of text-

however length does not guarantee a good

grade – avoid irrelevant information

• Emphasize the case vignette in all answers

Advancing Professional Education 3

Psychological Theory and Practice

A. What assessment would you conduct to

enhance your understanding of the client(s)

problems and how would they direct your

diagnostic formation? In addition, what

formal assessment procedures (either

conducted by you or by someone you would

refer to) would enhance your understanding

of the problems and direct your treatment

planning? Why?

Advancing Professional Education 4

Assessment

• Identify collateral sources

• Discuss type of interview

• Discuss use of MSE, substance use

and suicidal ideation assessment

• Discuss an provide rationale for

psychological testing

• Discuss any relevant referrals and the

referral question

• Attend to any cultural issues related to

assessment Advancing Professional Education 5

Psychological Theory and Practice

B. Provide a possible multi-axial diagnosis

(based on all five (5) axes of the DSM-

IV-TR) for this individual. In narrative

form, describe your differential

diagnostic thought process used to

reach your hypotheses. What additional

information do you need for each of the

possible diagnoses in order to confirm

your diagnoses and rule out the others?

Advancing Professional Education 6

Diagnosis

• Provide a five axis diagnosis – note what

belongs on each axis

• Can list provisional diagnoses as well as

diagnoses to rule out

• Include a narrative discussion on differential

diagnosis and rationale for diagnostic

decisions – the DSM is a good resource for

differential diagnosis

• Identify any additional necessary information

and how it would be obtained

• Discuss cultural issues relevant to diagnosis

Advancing Professional Education 7

Legal Theory and Application

A. Using information from the provided

vignette, describe the background,

current presentation, and behavior of

the client from a perspective which

takes into consideration theories of

offender and/or victim psychology and

personality/psychopathology theories to

support your position.

Advancing Professional Education 8

Theoretical Application

• Identify a theory from victim psychology

or offender psychology that explains the

clinical presentation as well as forensic

involvement – the Bartol & Bartol text is

a useful initial resource

• Apply the theory to the current vignette

• Identify limitations to the chosen theory

Advancing Professional Education 9

Theoretical Application

• Be sure to include clinical theories for

clinical presentation (personality

theories such as social learning,

psychodynamic, cognitive--Beck, Ellis,

Rem, etc.,) and forensic theories (i.e.,

Moffit's theory, Bandura, etc.) that might

explain criminal activity.

Advancing Professional Education 10

Legal Theory and Application

B. Describe the psycho-legal standards

and/or definitions for each of the

following: competence to stand trial,

risk of dangerousness, and insanity.

Identify and describe one or more

landmark case(s) for each standard (at

least three cases total).

Advancing Professional Education 11

Psycho-legal Standards

• Provide definitions and case law for each of

the three standards

• Competency to stand trial

• Risk of dangerousness assessment

• Insanity

• Provide subheadings

• Show how the cases cited related to the legal

standard

• Identify what elements a forensic mental

health professional assess for each standard

Advancing Professional Education 12

Research and Evaluation

A. Describe what tests or assessment

procedures that you would employ in

the vignette to address these forensic

issues (competence to stand trial, risk of

dangerousness, and insanity) and what

your anticipated conclusions would be

based upon that information provided in

the vignette.

Advancing Professional Education 13

Forensic Assessment

• Use subheadings in this section for the three

legal standards

• Identify what assessment instruments are

used to assess each of the three legal

standards and provide a rationale for the

assessment tools selected

• Identify any cultural concerns relevant to

assessment

• Provide a realistic expectation of the expert

opinion for the case vignette for each of the

three standards

Advancing Professional Education 14

Research and Evaluation

B. Develop an empirically supported

treatment plan for the client in the vignette.

• Identify the name of the theory – this should relate back to the theoretical case

conceptualization

• Discuss the types of interventions

recommended by the approach

• Discuss your rationale for the

interventions

• Identify short- and long-term goals.

Advancing Professional Education 15

Treatment Planning (continued)

• Discuss the ways in which effectiveness will

be assessed

• Discuss the anticipated effectiveness and

limitations of the approach for this particular

client

• Summarize the empirical supportfor the

approach with appropriate citations (not just

your own opinion)

Advancing Professional Education 16

Treatment Planning (continued)

•What does the literature suggest regarding

interventions based on the model?

•After reviewing results of research, which

approaches appear to be more effective?

•Are there limitations in the subjects used in the

research that are relevant to your specific client

such as gender or diversity factors?

Advancing Professional Education 17

Treatment Planning (continued)

•How does change occur within a therapeutic

relationship?

•What types of interventions might be more

effective in facilitating change given the

individual’s diagnosis?

Advancing Professional Education 18

Treatment Planning- continued

• It is important to thoroughly discuss the

selected theory with particular focus on how

this theory views psychopathology and what

specific interventions are used to treat it (e.g.,

Beck's schema therapy with the relevant

descriptions of catastrophizing, personalizing,

and dichotomous thinking, rather than simply

stating “cognitive therapy”) according to the

selected theory. It should be presented in this

type of progressive description.

Advancing Professional Education 19

Advancing Professional Education 20

• Goals of therapy

• Structure of the therapy process

• Role of the therapist

• Curative factors and mechanisms of

change

Interpersonal Effectiveness

A. Writing and APA Style

• Be sure to use APA format for your exam. All

sources should be properly cited.

• You are strongly encouraged to use APA

format for headings and subheadings.

• Your headings and subheadings should

correspond to each of the exam questions.

This helps the scorers to easily find each of

your answers.

Advancing Professional Education 21

Writing Your Exam

• Be sure to use peer-reviewed sources.

• Internet based sources often lack reliability

and should be avoided whenever possible.

• A minimum of five peer-reviewed journal

sources should be used, but passing exams

typically have many more.

• All sources should be listed in a reference list

(in APA style) at the end of your exam.

Advancing Professional Education 22

Writing Your Exam

• In addition, the expectations are for a high

level of scholarly writing consistent with

graduate-level performance.

• Other criteria include organization,

comprehensiveness, relevancy, cogency, and

substance of the responses.

Advancing Professional Education 23

Common APA Errors

• Include citations for graphics, tables, illustrations, or other information you use from sources (including websites). See your APA manual for how to cite and reference these sources.

• Over-reliance on direct quotations may be interpreted as “lazy writing” or as the writer’s limited ability to summarize, analyze, synthesize, and apply key concepts. Therefore, paraphrase key information

Advancing Professional Education 24

Writing and APA Style

Don’t forget to…..

• Use a spell and grammar checker

• Read the paper aloud to yourself

• Be very mindful of issues related to

plagiarism

Advancing Professional Education 25

Advancing Professional Education 26

Plagiarism

All exams are submitted to turnitin.com to check for plagiarism.

Students whose turnitin.com report reveals a high degree of plagiarism will not have their exams forwarded for scoring.

Instead, their exams will be referred to program administrators for review and appropriate action or sanctions—up to and including dismissal from the university.

Therefore…take great care not to plagiarize!

Interpersonal Effectiveness

B. Diversity and Multicultural

Competence

• Be prepared to discuss these issues in

relation to the case vignette.

• Include discussion of all relevant

diversity factors, including gender, age,

presence of disability, race, ethnicity,

religion, and sexual orientation

• Sometimes, students focus on only one

or two of these factors. Advancing Professional Education 27

Diversity and Multicultural Competence

• How will these factors affect your evaluation

and treatment?

• Even when the vignette may be lacking in

specifics about some of these elements,

students should discuss the potential

implications of these variables to assessment,

diagnosis, and treatment.

Advancing Professional Education 28

Leadership, Consultation and Ethics

A. Professional Roles

• Describe how you would work within a

professional team to consult, triage and/or

treat this case.

• Include a description of the various

members of the professional team with

whom you would be likely to interact.

• How are the roles of treatment team

members similar and different?

Advancing Professional Education 29

Leadership, Consultation and Ethics

• In other words, what roles would individual

team members assume, and how would they

interact?

•Discuss how they specifically would work

together as a team. For instance, they might

have weekly meetings, phone conferences, or

some combination.

• While much of your exam focuses on the role

of the forensic professional, this question calls

for your perspective as a treatment provider.

Advancing Professional Education 30

Leadership, Consultation and Ethics

B. Ethics

• What are the ethical and legal dilemmas

introduced by the vignette?

• What would be your immediate steps

and why would you take them?

• Be specific about the ethical standards

you would use and the reasoning

process you would undertake

Advancing Professional Education 31

Ethics and Treatment Plans

• Ethical guidelines affect your treatment

as well as your forensic work.

• Are you competent to provide the

services you propose with this client?

• How will your interactions with the client,

starting with the initial session, be guided

by ethical standards?

Advancing Professional Education 32

Professional Ethics

• Professional ethical standards will guide your

professional relationship with your clients.

• What are the client’s rights in therapy and

what is your role in insuring them?

• What are your responsibilities in regard to

paperwork, confidentiality, informed consent,

potential complications within your

relationship with your client, termination of

therapy, etc.?

Advancing Professional Education 33

Appendix A: FP Learning Outcomes

The following slides outline the learning

objectives addressed in your program of

study and evaluated in the

comprehensive examination process.

Advancing Professional Education 34

FP Program Learning Outcomes

Program Outcome One: Psychological

Theory and Practice

Competency: Apply theoretical

concepts and methodological

approaches of psychology to the

practice of forensic psychology.

Advancing Professional Education 35

FP Program Learning Outcomes

Program Outcome Two: Legal Theory

and Application

Competency: Apply theories related to

the interaction between criminal and

civil legal systems and psychology.

Advancing Professional Education 36

FP Program Learning Outcomes

Program Outcome Three: Research

and Evaluation

Competency: Critically evaluate the

existing literature and body of

knowledge in assessment, evaluation,

and research methods in forensic

psychology.

Advancing Professional Education 37

FP Program Learning Outcomes

Program Outcome Four: Leadership,

Consultation, and Ethics

Competency: Use leadership,

consultative, and ethical knowledge,

skills and attitudes to succeed in the

practice of forensic psychology.

Advancing Professional Education 38

FP Program Learning Outcomes

Program Outcome Five: Interpersonal

Effectiveness

Competency: Achieve personal

development and demonstrate positive

relationship skills via effective

communication, respect for others, and

awareness of their impact on others.

Advancing Professional Education 39

Appendix B: Grading Rubrics

Please see accompanying Microsoft Word

document for the comprehensive

examination grading rubrics.

Advancing Professional Education 40

Advancing Professional Education 41

Appendix C: Examination Process

 The examination is web-based and is housed on a learning platform (FP Comp Toolbox) that can be accessed upon notice from the examination administrator to the student.

You will be sent an email notification prior to the release of the examination reminding you of the release date (BE SURE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS IS UP-TO-Date in eCollege!)

Access instructions will also be provided at the same time.

Advancing Professional Education 42

Examination Process

 You are to submit your comprehensive examination to the Drop Box no later than one week after the examination is released (you will be given the exact due date and time.)

 Do not be late! (Late = Fail!)

Examination Process

 Once the exam has been released, DO NOT

contact your classmates about the exam

 Contacting your classmates once the exam

has been released may be grounds for failure

 The exam must be completed on your own

and any questions about the exam should be

directed to the faculty connected to the exam

toolbox

Advancing Professional Education 43

Advancing Professional Education 44

What if I have a problem during the exam?

In the case of an emergency, contact the Online

Assistant Dean who is attached to the eCollege

comprehensive examination toolbox.

Once the exam prompts have been released,

you may not change your mind about completing

the comprehensive exam.

Failure to submit your exam by the due date will

result in a failing score.

Appendix D: Guide to the Comps Exam

This area is under development.

Advancing Professional Education 45