August 2024 | Newsletter Updates
Workshop Proposals | Grand Rounds | Award Nominations | Convention Proposals | Grants | Expert Insights | JPA Special Issue | Poster Proposals | Community Events & News | Job Postings
Workshop Proposals
Deadline is August 12th!
The deadline is fast approaching to submit your workshop proposals for the 2025 SPA Convention which will be hosted in Denver, CO from March 26th-30th.
Workshops are meant to provide an opportunity to deep dive into topics within the personality and psychological assessment field. They are typically scheduled on Wednesday, Thursday, or Sunday of the convention and may by either a half day or full day.
Submit your proposal today and learn more by clicking the button below.
Grand Rounds
September Grand Round
Appreciating Layers & Intersections of Personality Attachment, Culture, and Trauma through a Therapeutic Assessment
September 4th | 12:00pm
Presenter: Dr. Kate Thomas
Dr. Kate Thomas will discuss a Therapeutic Assessment (TA) she did with Priyanka, a senior at the University of Texas who was suddenly failing classes and struggling with her post-college transition. They will focus particularly on two of her questions: 1) Why can’t I care about myself? and 2) Can we confirm the [psychiatrist’s] diagnosis of dependent and narcissistic personality disorders? For more information and to register, click on the button below.
October Grand Round
"Creating the Road Map": Helping Families make Meaning Out of Confusion in Complex Collaboration Therapeutic Assessments
October 2nd | 12:00pm
Presenter: Dr. Diane Santas
This presentation will focus on meaningful feedback to families (parents, teens, older children) in the context of complex, multi-method assessments with a collaborative therapeutic assessment orientation. In particular, Dr. Santas will give examples of how to prioritize test findings so that the results (and report) clarify the picture- creating an effective road map to help guide families- rather than overwhelming them with too much data and too many recommendations. For more information and to register, click the button below.
November Grand Round
Personality Functioning, Problems in Living, and Personality Traits
November 6th | 12:00pm
Presenter: Dr. Christopher Hopwood
A significant portion of research has focused on narrow issues and appears to be driven in part by ideological differences between scholars who prefer Criterion A (personality functioning) or Criterion B (maladaptive traits). This webinar will talk about one perspective on how these issues trace to ambiguity about the concept of personality functioning as defined in the AMPD and its conceptual distinction from personality traits and problems in living. For more information and to register, click on the button below.
Award Nominations
Deadline
is September 5th
We're looking to receive nominations (including self-nominations) for awards recognizing individuals that have made an impact in the personality and psychological assessment field. Help us in finding those individuals by submitting your nominations. Click the button below for more information and to access each nomination form.
Convention Proposals
Deadline is October 7th
We're accepting program proposals for our 2025 SPA Convention which will be hosted in Denver, CO from March 26th-30th. Submit your proposal for any of the following program types:
- Symposia
- Case Discussion
- Rountable Discussion
- Individual Paper
For more information, click the button below.
Grants
Deadline for both is October 15th
Dissertation Grant
The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) will be making grants to support dissertation research in the area of personality assessment. These awards of up to $800 dollars must have an approved dissertation proposal before applying for the grant. Although not required at time of application, to receive the grant, the student must hold an active student membership for the 2025 calendar year. It is expected that the findings of the dissertation will be presented at a forthcoming Annual Convention of SPA.
Student Research Grant
The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) will be making grants to support all types of student research in the area of personality assessment. These awards of up to $500 dollars are open to undergraduate or graduate students in psychology or related fields. Although not required at time of application, to receive the grant, the student must hold an active student membership for the 2025 calendar year. It is expected that the findings of this research will be presented at a forthcoming Annual Convention of SPA.
Expert Insights
October 31st - November 2nd
Expert Insights on Psychological Assessment: Enhancing Skills Based on Recent Developments is a two-day virtual experience focused on solutions to common challenges in psychological assessment. This conference hopes to expand the range of tools and frameworks accessible to clinicians in their daily practice. Our presenters are leading experts in the development, training, and practice of clinical personality assessment, and attendees will have the opportunity to engage with a range of esteemed researchers, clinicians, and educators at the forefront of the field throughout this two day virtual event. Click the button below for more information on the schedule and to register.
Call for JPA Special Issue
Deadline is October 31st!
There is currently a call for papers for the JPA Special Issue on Applications of Personality Assessment to Traumatic Stress.
They invite papers that offer novel approaches to studying the overlap between personality assessment and trauma, including (but perhaps not limited to) empirical articles, systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and high-quality clinical case studies that meet the journal’s requirements (see JPA’s Aims and Scope; see also Sellbom, 2019). The goal of this special issue is to highlight the most recent scholarly thinking on applying personality assessment to the area of trauma with the hope that personality assessment will become more common (even routine) in the future. For more information on how to submit abstracts, click the button below.
Poster Proposals
Deadline is November 7th!
Submit your poster proposal for the 2025 SPA Convention.
Poster presenters will prepare a visual depiction of a research study, case analysis, or other type of material relevant to personality assessment, typically including descriptive text along with tables and/or figures. Poster sessions may be for a completed study or a proposed study, so no need to have your research complete to present. Posters are either presented on Thursday evening or Saturday evening. Click the button below to submit proposal.
Community Events & News
- Training: A virtual training sequence for the Crisi Wartegg System (CWS) will begin in September! The CWS is an empirically validated and standardized methodology (administration, scoring, interpretation) for the clinical use of the Wartegg Drawing Completion Test (WDCT)—an easy, efficient, and non-overwhelming performance-based personality measure that can be completed in 5-10 minutes and is appropriate across the lifespan. The CWS is recognized as a valid performance-based personality test that can be used for certification in Therapeutic Assessment. The Level 1 workshop focuses on history and statistical foundations, reviews standardized administration procedures, and builds proficiency in the normative scoring system. Following completion of Level 1, clinicians are able to independently administer the test with clients but require consultation for accurate scoring and interpretation. Levels 2 and 3 of the training sequence are described within this flyer. Online registration can be made at: https://sc-cca-com.3dcartstores.com/.
- Event: The Symptom Validity Assessment (SVA) Conference will be held in Italy October 10- 11, 2024. This conference is organized for everyone with an interest in the latest research and state-of-the-art clinical practice of symptom and performance validity assessment. For more information, click here.
- Survey on MMPI-3 and Forensic Assessment: We need your expertise for a research study on psychological assessment and MMPI interpretation. Your insights will help advance our understanding of how test scores are interpreted across different contexts.
It will take less than 5 minutes of your time to respond to a few brief questions. Your contribution is invaluable to our research efforts!
Plus, we're excited to announce that the survey is available in multiple languages to ensure inclusivity and accessibility.
Interested in participating? Click here to access the survey
Your participation will make a significant difference in shaping the future of psychological assessment. Thank you for your support! THANK YOU!- Emre Akca, Irena Boskovic, Luciano Giromini, Paul Ingram, Martin Sellbom, et al.
- Event: Award Presentation: Queering Psychological Assessment (1 CE)- The Psychological Assessment Section of the Society for Clinical Psychology (Division 12) Presents the 2024 Distinguished Contribution to Assessment Psychology Award to A. Jordan Wright PhD, ABAP. ABPP on Friday, September 20th at 12pm ET. More information coming soon!
- Training: You're invited to a 2-day (Helsinki) and 4 half-day (Zoom) Training and Update for CS Experts. The Rorschach Comprehensive System- Revised (CS-R) and Supplementary Scales training May 23-24 and October 10,17, 24 & November 7, 2024. Click here for more information.