ABPP Clinical Psychology key terms

The ongoing process of telling a client, in understandable language, the nature and risks of assessment or treatment, alternatives, limits of confidentiality, and the right to withdraw, before the client voluntarily agrees to proceed.

The ethical duty to protect information a client discloses in the professional relationship and to limit its release to authorized persons or legally mandated situations.

A legal protection, held by the client rather than the psychologist, that shields confidential communications from compelled disclosure in legal proceedings; it can be waived by the client.

A legal obligation, defined by state statute, to notify designated authorities when a psychologist reasonably suspects child abuse or neglect, or other specified harm to protected persons.

A duty to protect identifiable third parties from a client's serious threat of violence, typically met by warning the potential victim, notifying police, or taking other protective steps permitted by state law.

A situation in which a psychologist occupies another role with a client, a client's relative, or a person closely associated with the client, raising risks of impaired objectivity or exploitation.

A deviation from customary professional practice that is not inherently harmful and may sometimes serve the client, distinguished from a boundary violation, which exploits or harms the client.

The ethical and legal obligation to act in the client's best interest, placing the client's welfare above the psychologist's own interests within the professional relationship.

Possessing the education, training, supervised experience, and current knowledge needed to provide a particular service, including awareness of the limits of one's own expertise.

The range of activities a psychologist is legally authorized and professionally qualified to perform, defined by licensure law, training, and recognized standards of the field.

A minor's or cognitively impaired person's agreement to participate in services, sought in developmentally appropriate terms, when legal consent must come from a parent or guardian.

The obligation to protect the integrity and proprietary content of psychological tests and materials, limiting access to qualified users so results remain valid and fair.

The requirement that a psychologist use only assessment instruments for which they have the training and credentials specified by the test publisher and professional standards.

Assigning tasks to supervisees or assistants while retaining responsibility for the quality of their work and ensuring they are competent to perform the assigned activities.

A structured, evaluative professional relationship in which a more experienced psychologist oversees a trainee's or supervisee's clinical work, ensuring quality, ethics, and skill development.

A court order requiring a person to appear or produce records; a psychologist should verify its authority and seek legal or ethical guidance before releasing protected information.

A circumstance in which financial, personal, or other interests could improperly influence professional judgment or create the appearance of such influence.

A legal arrangement in which a court appoints someone to make decisions for a person judged unable to do so, affecting who may consent to psychological services.

A legal obligation in some jurisdictions to alert a specific person or authorities about a client's credible threat of serious harm, closely related to the broader duty to protect.

An integrated clinical explanation of a client's symptoms and functioning that organizes assessment data into a coherent account linking predisposing, precipitating, perpetuating, and protective factors.

The systematic process of distinguishing among disorders with overlapping features by comparing symptom patterns, course, and contextual factors to identify the best-fitting explanation.

The co-occurrence of two or more distinct disorders in the same person, which can complicate assessment, prognosis, and treatment planning.

A working theory of a client's difficulties that integrates presenting problems, history, and a treatment model to guide intervention targets and predict obstacles.

A written set of goals, interventions, and measurable outcomes developed collaboratively with the client and revised as clinical progress warrants.

The consistency of a measure, meaning it yields stable and reproducible results across items, occasions, or raters.

The extent to which a measure or assessment method accurately captures the construct it is intended to assess and supports the inferences drawn from scores.

An index of the expected variability in an individual's observed test score around their true score, used to build confidence intervals around scores.

The prevalence of a condition in a given population, which strongly affects the probability that a positive test result reflects a true case.

Explaining a score by comparing it to the distribution of scores from a defined reference group, often expressed as a percentile or standard score.

A structured, present-focused treatment that targets maladaptive thoughts and behaviors through techniques such as cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation, and exposure.

A treatment in which a client systematically confronts feared stimuli without avoidance, allowing anxiety to extinguish or habituate over repeated trials.

The collaborative emotional bond and shared agreement on goals and tasks between client and therapist, consistently linked to treatment outcome.

Clinical decision making that integrates the best available research evidence, clinician expertise, and the client's values, preferences, and circumstances.

Systematically informing clients and families about a condition, its course, and its treatment to build understanding, reduce stigma, and support self-management.

A structured observational assessment of appearance, behavior, mood and affect, thought process and content, cognition, insight, and judgment at a given point in time.

A structured evaluation of a client's likelihood of harm to self or others, weighing static and dynamic factors to inform safety planning and level of care.

The planned or unplanned ending of services, ideally discussed in advance with attention to client welfare, referral needs, and remaining treatment gains.