Assessment of Personality and Psychopathology in Healthcare Settings: Introduction to the Special Section

Healthcare in the United States has increasingly benefited from the adoption of multidisciplinary providers. Many multidisciplinary teams include psychologists who often conduct psychological and personality assessments in their practice. This special section highlights areas of personality and psychological assessment in applied healthcare contexts. Nghiem and colleagues review the psychometric performance of various personality and psychopathology instruments and provide recommendations for the assessment of solid organ transplant evaluations. Gottschling and colleagues present a culturally adapted screener for anxiety-related symptoms in geriatric adults that can easily be administered in various healthcare settings. Perry and colleagues provide a rationale and method for including a brief personality assessment for patients with cancer. McCord presents a broadband screener, the Multidimensional Behavioral Health Screen (MBHS), that assesses 9 components of psychopathology. Mitchell and colleagues provide evidence for using the MBHS in primary care clinics as an alternative to the Patient Health Questionnaire–9. This special section provides evidence-based information regarding personality and psychological assessments that will likely be useful in varied healthcare contexts.