Psychological Reports: A Guide to Report Writing in Professional Psychology

Provides a systematic approach to writing psychological reports for optimal clarity, thoroughness, and impact A clinical report should have all the clarity and precision of a military dispatch. Unfortunately, as anyone who deals with psychological reports knows, this is almost never the case. Extensive research has shown that with most psychologist's reports, there is a dangerously wide gap between author intent and reader interpretation. Since the quality of clinical reports can have a direct bearing on the quality of care a client receives --especially in an age of managed care --it is essential that psychologists arm themselves with a systematic approach to creating reports that in structure, content, and style have the utmost clarity, thoroughness, and utility. Psychological Reports, Third Edition, provides them with such an approach. The book begins with a theory-based analysis of report-writing problems, which is then used to construct a framework for identifying and correcting them. A valuable working resource for practicing psychologists and psychotherapists, Psychological Reports, Third Edition, is also must reading for students and psychologists-in-training. A complete guide to writing effective reports for a variety of contexts Updated to correspond to recent changes in the DSM-IV Includes practice exercises that help readers build report-writing skills Features sample reports representing a wide range of applications.