Non forensic but relevant Tests: Tests that were not specifically developed for addressing legal issues but are considered to be forensically relevant in that they address clinical constructs. Here are some of them: 


1. MINNESOTA MULTIPHASIC PERSONALITY INVENTORY (MMPI)

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is the most widely used and researched clinical assessment tool utilized by mental health professionals to help diagnose mental health disorders. It was developed in 1937 by clinical psychologist Starke R. Hathaway and neuropsychiatrist J. Charnley McKinley at the University of Minnesota.

It is an objective tool for assessing different psychiatric conditions and their severity. It utilized in psychology clinics, hospitals, correctional settings, and pre-employment screenings.

In forensic settings, it is used to assess the mental conditions of the suspects during criminal defense and custody disputes—whether they are normal or suffering from any disorder. MMPI consists of 10 clinical scales that are used to indicate different psychological conditions.


2. STATE-TRAIT ANXIETY INVENTORY (STAI)

STAI is a commonly used measure of trait anxiety and state anxiety for adults. It can be used in clinical settings to diagnose anxiety and to distinguish it from depressive syndromes. It also is often used in research as an indicator of caregiver distress. This test is split into the S-Anxiety scale and the T-Anxiety scale, each having 20 items.

S-Anxiety scale

 T-Anxiety scale

3. POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD) INVENTORY

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening and may affect mental, physical, social or spiritual well-being. For example: Natural disasters, serious accidents, terrorist acts, war or combat, rape or sexual assault, historical trauma, intimate partner violence, and bullying.

This 30-item structured interview was developed by staff at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Centre for PTSD. It can be used to make a diagnosis, determine lifetime diagnosis, or assess PTSD symptoms over the previous week.


4. PERCEIVED STRESS SCALE (PSS)

The Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a classic stress assessment instrument. It helps understand how different situations affect our feelings and our perceived stress. In each case, you will be asked to indicate how often you felt or thought a certain way.

The Perceived Stress Scale is interesting and important because your perception of what is happening in your life is most important. Consider the idea that two individuals could have the exact same events and experiences in their lives for the past month.

Depending on their perception, total score could put one of those individuals in the low stress category and the total score could put the second person in the high stress category.

 

5. HARE PSYCHOPATHY CHECKLIST-REVISED (HPC-R)

Hare Psychopathy Checklist is a diagnostic tool used to rate a person’s psychopathic/antisocial tendencies.

The HPCR includes 2 factors:

F-1: Measure of Emotional Detachment

  • superficial charm
  • selfish
  • manipulativeness
  • shallow affectivity
  • absence of guilt or empathy

F-2: Measure of Antisocial Behavior

  • deviance from an early age
  • aggression
  • impulsivity
  • irresponsibility
  • proneness to boredom

The PC-R is a construct rating scale designed to assess the personality traits and behaviors related to the construct of psychopathy among adults. The PCR consists of 20 items that are rated on a three-point scale (from 0 to 2) based on the degree to which the personality or behavior of the subject matches the description of the item.

To diagnose adult males in prisons, criminal psychiatric hospitals, and awaiting psychiatric evaluations or trial in other correctional and detention facilities. To identify the degree of a person’s psychopathic tendencies. To use in forensic settings as a factor in deciding the length and type of prison sentences.

 PCL-R scale 

Item’s content

During the evaluation, the clinician scores 20 items that measure central elements of the psychopathic character. The items cover the nature of the subject’s interpersonal relationships; his or her affective or emotional involvement; responses to other people and to situations; evidence of social deviance and lifestyle.

Interpretation

A prototypical psychopath would receive a maximum score of 40, while someone with absolutely no psychopathic traits would receive a score of zero. A score of 30 or above qualifies a person for a diagnosis of psychopathy. People with no criminal backgrounds normally score around 5. Many non-psychopathic criminal offenders score around 22.


6. SCALE FOR SUICIDAL IDEATION (SSI)

Suicidal ideation is one of the symptoms of both major depression and depression found in bipolar disorder, but it may also occur in people with other mental illnesses or no mental illness at all.  It means wanting to take your own life or thinking about suicide. However, there are two kinds of suicidal ideation: active and passive.

  • Active suicidal ideation is not only thinking about it but having the intent to commit suicide, including planning how to do it.
  • Passive suicidal ideation occurs when you wish you were dead or that you could die, but you don’t actually have any plans to commit suicide.

Suicidal ideation is a broad term that includes various thoughts and behaviors that are self-injurious, whether suicidal or not. There might be 4 categories of suicide ideation:

  1. Suicidal thoughts: Thoughts of killing oneself
  2. Suicidal threat: Thoughts of killing oneself that are verbalized to others
  3. Suicide attempt: Behavior that is intended to kill oneself but doesn’t result in death
  4. Non-suicidal self-injury: Directly and intentionally hurting oneself without the intention of suicide

A suicidal ideation scale is a clinical tool used to assess a person’s risk of committing suicide. By helping healthcare providers recognize signs that someone is likely to self-injure, the scale aids in timely intervention and treatment. Suicidal ideation scales include questions about a person’s thoughts, attitudes, and desire to commit suicide.

Examples of SSI:

  • Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation (BSSI)
  • Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS)
  • Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage (SAFE-T)
  • Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ9)

Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI)

Beck Scale for Suicidal Ideation (BSSI) is a widely used instrument to assess suicidality. Here are 19 items of German Beck Scale for Suicide Ideation developed in 2017.

Purpose of use: Suicidal ideation has been identified as one of the major predictors of attempted or actual suicide. Routinely screening individuals for endorsing suicidal thoughts could save lives and protect many from severe psychological consequences following the suicide of loved ones.

Forensic purpose: Often, offenders after being caught, tried to take their own lives avoiding proper investigation or misleading the legal procedures.

 

7. GENERAL HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE (GHQ)

GENERAL HEALTH QUESTIONNAIRE (GHQ) is a self-administered questionnaire for identifying non-psychotic and minor psychiatric disorders. GHQ is a proven, accurate and sensitive assessment tool to pick up signs of distress among respondents.

Four questionnaires available:

  • GHQ-12: A quick and reliable short form screener for survey use
  • GHQ-28: Provides four scores measuring somatic symptoms, anxiety, insomnia, social dysfunction, and severe depression
  • GHQ-30: A screener with ‘physical’ element items removed 
  • GHQ-60: Main version of the GHQ, used to identify cases for more intensive examination

The General Health Questionnaire – 28 is self-report screening measure used to detect possible psychological disorder. The GHQ-28 identifies:

  1. the inability to carry out normal functions
  2. the appearance of new and distressing phenomena
  3. whether an individual’s current mental state differs from his/her typical state.

Scoring and Interpretation There is a high correlation between the anxiety subscale and the total score, showing that anxiety is a common symptom of psychiatric disorders. Scoring method adopts a Likert-type scale of 0 to 3, resulting in a total possible score range of 0 to 84. Higher scores indicate a greater possibility of psychological distress. A score of ≥5 indicates probable cases of psychiatric disorder.