Causality Of Psychological Injury

This book offers a welcome expansion on key concepts, terms, and issues in causality. It brings much needed clarity to psychological injury assessments and the legal contexts that employ them. Focusing on PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and chronic pain (and grounding readers in salient U.S. and Canadian case law), the book sets out a multifactorial causality framework to facilitate admissibility of psychological evidence in court.

This magistral treatise approaches the integration of psychology through the study of the multiple causes of normal and dysfunctional behavior. Causality is the focal point reviewed across disciplines. Using diverse models, the book approaches unifying psychology as an ongoing project that integrates genetics, experience, evolution, brain, development, change mechanisms, and so on. The book includes in its integration free will, epitomized as freedom in being. It pinpoints the role of the self in causality and the freedom we have in determining our own behavior. The book deals with disturbed behavior, as well, and tackles the DSM-5 approach to mental disorder and the etiology of psychopathology. Young examines all these topics with a critical eye, and gives many innovative ideas and models that will stimulate thinking on the topic of psychology and causality for decades to come. It is truly integrative and original. Among the topics covered: Models and systems of causality of behavior. Nature and nurture: evolution and complexities. Early adversity, fetal programming, and getting under the skin. Free will in psychotherapy: helping people believe. Causality in psychological injury and law: basics and critics. A Neo-Piagetian/Neo-Eriksonian 25-step (sub)stage model. Unifying Causality and Psychology appeals to the disciplines of psychology, psychiatry, epidemiology, philosophy, neuroscience, genetics, law, the social sciences and humanistic fields, in general, and other mental health fields. Its level of writing makes it appropriate for graduate courses, as well as researchers and practitioners.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the definitions, concepts, and recent research on malingering, feigning, and other response biases in psychological injury/ forensic disability populations. It presents a new model of malingering and related biases, and develops a “diagnostic” system based on it that is applicable to PTSD, chronic pain, and TBI. Included are suggestions for effective practice and future research based on the literature reviews and the new systems, which are useful also because they can be used readily by psychiatrists as much as psychologists. In Malingering, Feigning, and Response Style Assessment in Psychiatric/Psychological Injury, Dr. Young ambitiously sets out to articulate and synthesize the polarities involved in the assessment of response styles in psychological disabilities, including PTSD, pain, and TBI. He does so thoroughly and very even-handedly, neither minimizing the degree that outright faking can be found in substantial numbers of examinees, nor disregarding the possibility that there can be causes for validity test failure other than malingering. He reviews the prior systems for classifying evidence of malingering, and proposes his own criteria for feigned PTSD. These are conservative and well-grounded in the prior literature. Finally, the book contains dozens of very recent references, giving testament to Dr. Young's immersion in the personal injury literature, as might be expected from his experience as founder and Editor in Chief for Psychological Injury and the Law. Reviewer: Steve Rubenzer, Ph.D., ABPP Board Certified Forensic Psychologist

This aim of this book is to demystify the medical and legal aspects of bringing a claim for psychological injuries. In this respect it has two potential audiences. Firstly, lawyers and claims handlers for whom it is hoped that it will help to explain the terms which appear in medical reports and often appear as incomprehensible technical jargon and concepts. Hopefully it will set them on the road to asking the right questions and making the right assessments in the litigation. Second, it is aimed at medical practitioners who may enter the medico-legal world and whilst their expertise is in no doubt, may have questions as to what may be expected of them in a different forum. It is hoped that it will provide them with guidance as to the sorts of issues they will be expected to address in the legal process. Contents include: SECTION I: PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS 1.Classification of Psychological Disorders 2.Causation and Attribution 3.Maximising the Reliability of Evidence: Detecting or Preventing Deception 4.Treatment and Prognosis 5.Resolving Evidential Conflict SECTION II: LEGAL ASPECTS 6.Legal basis of claims for psychological injuries 7.Translating Clinical Opinion into Quantum 8.Civil Procedure SECTION III: CONCLUSION 9.Psychological Assessment into the 21st Century Essential reading for anyone involved in personal injury - from the simplest RTA that may involved PTSD to complex million plus litigation. Readership: Solicitors and barristers, insurers, the courts

Major developments in the field since the publication of Learning Forensic Assessment are integrated in this revised edition, including revised editions of the DSM-5, HCR-20 scale, and child custody guidelines. This textbook is designed for graduate students learning forensic assessment and psychologists coming to forensic practice later in their careers. It is organized around five broad areas: Professional and Practice Issues, Adult Forensic Assessment, Juvenile Forensic Assessment, Civil Forensic Assessment, and Communicating Your Findings. Each chapter begins with a strong teaching and learning foundation. The latter part of each chapter is assessment specific, covering available assessment measures and approaches to assessment. The authors go well beyond simple descriptions of assessment measures and provide a conceptual discussion of the evaluation process that helps the reader understand how assessment measures fit into the overall evaluation process. The evaluation component is geared toward assessing the important aspects of the construct as laid out in the early part of each chapter. Each chapter then concludes with a case example to illustrate the measures and techniques described.

Forensic mental health assessment (FMHA) has grown into a specialization informed by research and professional guidelines. This series presents up-to-date information on the most important and frequently conducted forms of FMHA. The 19 topical volumes address best approaches to practice for particular types of evaluation in the criminal, civil, and juvenile/family areas. Each volume contains a thorough discussion of the relevant legal and psychological concepts, followed by a step-by-step description of the assessment process from preparing for the evaluation to writing the report and testifying in court. Volumes include the following helpful features: · Boxes that zero in on important information for use in evaluations · Tips for best practice and cautions against common pitfalls · Highlighting of relevant case law and statutes · Separate list of assessment tools for easy reference · Helpful glossary of key terms for the particular topic In making recommendations for best practice, authors consider empirical support, legal relevance, and consistency with ethical and professional standards. These volumes offer invaluable guidance for anyone involved in conducting or using forensic evaluations. This book addresses the assessment of personal injury claims, and explores the history and importance of this process, the legal standards and the procedure for applying this assessment in court. Established empirical foundations from the behavioral, social, and medical sciences are then presented. Finally, the book provides a detailed "how-to" for practitioners, including information on data collection, interpretation, report writing and expert testimony.

The third book in Young’s unique trilogy on causality and development continues to locate and define the central role of causality in biopsychosocial and network/systems development, and as a unifying concept of psychology itself. As a way of discussing causality, in general, initially, the book focuses on the acquisition of handedness and hemispheric specialization in infancy and childhood, and their relations to the development of cognition, language, and emotion, in particular. The second part of the book elaborates an innovative 25-step Neo-Eriksonian model of development across the life course based on a Neo-Piagetian model covered in the previous books, completing a step-by-step account of development over the lifespan cognitively and socio-emotionally. It builds on the concept of neo-stage, which is network-based. From this conceptual synthesis, the author’s robust theory of development and causality identifies potential areas for psychological problems and pathology at each developmental step as well as science-based possibilities for their treatment. This elegant volume: Presents a clear picture of the development of handedness and laterality in more depth than has been attempted in the literature to date. Traces the causal concepts of activation-inhibition coordination and networking in the context of development. Describes in depth a novel 25-step Neo-Eriksonian lifespan model of development. Reviews relevant research on Piagetian and Eriksonian theories in development. Emphasizes the clinical utility of the described 25-step Neo-Eriksonian approach to lifespan development. A significant step in understanding this highly nuanced subject and synthesizing a broad knowledge base, Causality and Development will find an interested audience among developmental psychologists, mental health practitioners, academics, and researchers.chers.