MA Psych Juris study plan

Map every forensic assessment instrument named in your materials (e.g., MMPI-2-RF/MMPI-3, PAI, HCR-20v3, PCL-R, WAIS, MacCAT-CA, ECST-R, SIRS-2) onto a table listing construct, format, normative base, and forensic caution.

Distinguish the legal standards for competency to stand trial (Dusky two-prong) from competency to waive rights and competency to be executed, writing one paragraph on each.

Explain the M'Naghten, irresistible impulse, and ALI/MPC insanity formulations and the federal standard after the Insanity Defense Reform Act, with one case example per standard.

Build a one-page decision tree that routes a referral question to the correct evaluation type (competency, sanity, risk, malingering screening).

Practice scoring and interpreting at least two forensic instruments on sample data, writing interpretive paragraphs that stay within validity-scale limits.

Draft a mock forensic report section addressing competency, including referral question, procedures, data integration, and opinion stated to a reasonable degree of professional certainty.

Analyze how response style (feigning, overreporting, underreporting) is detected and how base rates affect positive predictive value in forensic settings.

Compare the roles of evaluator as treating clinician versus forensic evaluator, identifying dual-role conflicts in three scenarios.

Trace the historical arc from the Frye general-acceptance test to Daubert and its progeny (Joiner, Kumho Tire), and state the current admissibility standard in your jurisdiction.

Summarize the Specialty Guidelines for Forensic Psychology and the APA Ethics Code standards most implicated in forensic work (informed consent, multiple relationships, confidentiality limits).

Identify the ethical boundaries around attorney-client privilege, work product, and third-party presence during evaluations.

List the forensic-specific limits of confidentiality and test-data release obligations under copyright and ethics rules.

Design a small validity study for a forensic instrument, specifying sampling, criterion measure, and appropriate reliability coefficient (kappa, ICC, alpha).

Compute and interpret sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive value, and likelihood ratios from a 2x2 table.

Explain how base-rate neglect and the prosecutor's fallacy distort risk testimony, and write a plain-language correction.

Evaluate the psychometric adequacy of actuarial risk tools versus structured professional judgment, citing the limits of cross-validation.

Distinguish malingering from factitious disorder and somatic symptom presentations in personal-injury and disability contexts.

Outline the elements of a psychological injury claim (causation, damages, pre-existing conditions, eggshell plaintiff) and the evaluator's role in each.

Summarize civil commitment standards, parens patriae versus police power, and the holding and rule of Addington v. Texas and O'Connor v. Donaldson.

Explain the Tarasoff duty-to-protect framework and how state statutes vary in trigger and scope.

Compare best-interests-of-the-child and parental-fitness standards in custody evaluation, and list the assessment methods that support each.

Describe the developmental and legal distinctions that justify a separate juvenile justice framework (immaturity, susceptibility to coercion, diminished culpability).

Summarize key juvenile case law on interrogation, sentencing, and waiver of rights (e.g., Miranda waiver by minors, Eighth Amendment limits on juvenile life without parole).

Identify child-maltreatment evaluation procedures, including forensic interviewing protocols and the limits of child suggestibility research.

Evaluate eyewitness identification research (estimator vs. system variables, lineup procedures, confidence-accuracy relationship) and translate it into policy recommendations.

Analyze false-confession typologies (voluntary, compliant, internalized) and the interrogation tactics associated with each.

Differentiate risk-need-responsivity, the Level of Service instruments, and desistance-oriented approaches in correctional treatment planning.

Assess suicide risk, self-harm, and victimization risk in correctional settings, and identify the legal duties that attach to each.

Complete two full-length timed practice exams under test conditions and log every missed item by domain and error type (knowledge gap, misread, reasoning).

Re-teach your three weakest domains by writing a one-page summary for each from memory, then checking against source notes.

Drill high-yield case names, standards, and instrument facts using spaced-repetition cards until you reach 90% recall on a self-test.

Rehearse concise written opinions for four referral questions under a 20-minute time limit each.