Faculty and graduate students present at the 2013 Society for Personality Assessment Convention

Faculty and graduate students from UC Santa Barbara’s Gevirtz Graduate School will take part in six events at the 2013 Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) Convention in San Diego, CA, March 20-24. The scholars, researchers, and teachers — affiliated with the Psychology Assessment Center in the Department of Counseling, Clinical, and School Psychology — will discuss the latest findings on topics as diverse as teaching diversity-sensitive personality assessment to an examination of role differentiation in psychotherapists practicing life coaching interventions.

The Society for Personality Assessment (SPA) was founded in Essex County, New Jersey by Bruno Klopfer and a group of his students. The Society is a collegial organization dedicated to the advancement of professional personality assessment, to the development of procedures and concepts for personality assessment and to the ethical and responsible use of these techniques. Initially incorporated as the Rorschach Institute, Inc. in 1938, the Society was renamed in 1971 to reflect the Society’s interest in the entire spectrum of issues present in contemporary personality assessment and to focus the Society as a special interest group, concerned with promoting exchange of ideas and information about personality assessment in research and in practice.

Gevirtz School faculty and graduate students will take part in the following:

Claiborne, C. & Smith, S.R. Improving cultural sensitivity in personality assessment with African Americans. Poster presentation.

Eichler, W. C., & Smith, S. R. The Utility of Therapeutic Assessment on Client Reported Psychotherapy Process and Alliance. Poster presentation.

Espinoza, R. A. The Psychotherapist-Life Coach: Role Differentiation in Psychotherapists Practicing Life Coaching Interventions. Poster presentation.

Gauthier, J. R., Larsen, J. L., & Cosden, M. Evaluating the use of the Addiction Severity Index for Emerging Adults in a Drug Treatment Court. Poster presentation.

Shahroozi, S. R. & Smith S. R. Promoting the Use of R-PAS in Psychoeducational Assessment. Paper presentation.

Smith, S.R.  Teaching diversity-sensitive personality assessment.  Paper presentation.