Psychological portraits of adolescents

Description

In order to make a complete and accurate psychological analysis of an adolescent, the psychologist must understand the clinical interpretations of psychological test performance in light of the adolescent's development. Psychological Portraits of Adolescents demonstrates how psychological test materials are analyzed and integrated according to developmental expectations. Using their extensive experience testing young people, Eagle and Schwartz give detailed interpretations of the results of several classic psychological tests such as the Wechsler Intelligence Scales, the Bender-Gestalt, the Rorshach, and figure drawing. The book begins at the point after the tests have been administered and scored, and it examines the psychological growth of adolescents from ages twelve to twenty-one through the interpretation of the psychological test data . Eagle and Schwartz provide actual test data based on thirty years of testing thousands of adolescents in school settings, guidance clinics, psychiatric hospitals, private treatment, and research programs. For each age group, the authors provide a picture of the normal developmental level and test results, with an explanation of how to evaluate degrees of deviance from normal expectations. This approach will assist clinical psychologists working with adolescents to better understand the psychological testing of adolescents and the data found in psychological reports. The authors use an ego psychological model reduced to four functional dimensions: cognition, dynamics, defenses, and affect. The relationship between these different areas of functioning and the test data are detailed, so the reader can appreciate how the diagnostic profile is determined by the data. Each diagnosis is explained in terms of the test data and its DSM III-R equivalent. Psychological Portraits of Adolescents provides an innovative framework that child and forensic psychiatrists and school psychologists can use to integrate psychological test results and apply them through all stages of development. Anyone involved in the testing of adolescents or relying on the results of such testing will find this book invaluable.

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