Expanding the aperture of psychological assessment: Introduction to the special section on innovative clinical assessment technologies and methods.

Abstract

Contemporary psychological assessment is dominated by tried-and-true methods like clinical interviewing, self-report questionnaires, intellectual assessment, and behavioral observation. These approaches have served as the mainstays of psychological assessment for decades. To be sure, these methods have survived over the years because clinicians have found the information gleaned from these improves our understanding of the client, helps formulate a treatment plan, or aids in assessing outcome. However, are there any recent technological or methodological developments that might improve the clinical assessment enterprise? Some believe so. The purpose of this special section is to provide a snapshot of relatively newer clinical assessment technologies and methods that have been underutilized. Each article in this special section presents one or more assessment methods or techniques that are currently available and are showing some promise in clinical assessment.