Factors associated with utilization of emotion and personality instruments among neuropsychologists

Abstract

Historically, assessment of emotion and personality functioning was not emphasized by clinical neuropsychologists, who instead focused almost exclusively on the evaluation of cognitive functioning. This study examined current practices regarding clinical neuropsychologists’ usage of instruments for assessing emotion and personality, along with factors that may mediate their choice of measures and their beliefs about evaluating emotion and personality. Participants were 117 board-certified neuropsychologists as recognized by the American Board of Professional Psychology (ABPP-CN), many of whom had been practicing for over 20 years (39%). Participants generally indicated that examining emotion and personality is essential to evaluations. There was variability among participants as to whether assessment of emotion and personality functioning is challenging, as well as whether or not clinical interview was better suited than instruments. Patients’ lack of self-awareness, purposeful over- and under-exaggeration, and lack of sensitivity and specificity of the assessment instruments for neurologic disorders/conditions were identified as the greatest challenges in this area of assessment. Results of the survey suggest that further advancement in the construction and availability of emotion/personality instruments is necessary.

Keywords:

• Neuropsychological assessment
• emotions/emotional processing

Geolocation information

Washington, D.C.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the many members of the neuropsychological community who generously contributed to this survey. We also thank Edward Shearin for assistance with survey design and data analysis.

Disclosure statement

No conflicts of interest declared. No financial interest or benefit arose from the direct applications of this research.

Data availability statement

Data associated with this research is available upon request to the corresponding author.