Howard N. Garb, Ph.D. BOX10.2 Clinical Psychologist Perspective:
Dr. Stephen N. Haynes is a Professor and former Depart-
ment Chair and Director of the Clinical Psychology Pro-
gram at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Haynes is
an internationally recognized expert in behavioral
assessment, clinical case formulation, psychological test
development and evaluation, and psychopathology. In
addition to publishing more than 150 articles and book
chapters, Dr. Haynes has authored several books on these
topics. Dr. Haynes served as editor of the journalPsycho-
logical Assessment, and he is also on the editorial board of
other major clinical psychology journals.
Dr. Haynes provided the following responses to
our questions about his background, interests, and
viewpoints.What originally got you interested in the field of
clinical psychology?
My commitment to psychology as a career occurred in
Kalamazoo, Michigan, on a clear, crisp spring day during
my sophomore year in high school. I was always drawn to
questions about my environment when I was in high
school. I contemplated air flow around falling leaves, why
water circled during its drain exits, and why girls behaved
the way they did. In the spring semester of my sophomore
year, I encountered Ms. Mountjoy, a new student teacher
who taught a one-semester course in psychology. We had
intriguing and hilarious discussions of sex, how people
learned and remembered things, and how they formed
attitudes and cried. By perseveratively asking sex-tinged
questions, we were able to make Ms. Mountjoy blush
almost daily. Psychology was a fascinating application of
science, and it was the most interesting and fun course I
had in high school. It was a Tuesday morning in April of
that sophomore year, following a particularly scintillating
interaction with Ms. Mountjoy, when I decided that clini-
cal psychology was something I could make a career of.Describe what activities you are involved in
as a clinical psychologist.
My current scholarly activities mostly involve research
in psychopathology and clinical assessment. I am
involved in psychopathology research on the causes of
sleep disorders in persons who have experienced
trauma (such as sexual assault or war trauma), on the
effects of chronic pain on sleep, mood, and social
interactions, on the psychosocial correlates of cardio-
vascular disorders, the causes and correlates of domes-
tic violence and violence by psychiatric inpatients.
My assessment research involves the development
of assessment instruments to measure importantpersonal and social problems. The valid measurement
of these problems is a necessary antecedent to good
research and treatment—you need good measures to
know how well a treatment is working or to under-
stand the causes of a behavior problem.
The most enjoyable aspect of my research is that it
occurs in collaboration with many competent and fun
colleagues and graduate and undergraduate students.
Many of the projects are directed by graduate students
and are often used as their theses and dissertations.
Typically, each graduate student functions as a princi-
pal investigator and has a team of undergraduates
working for him/her.
I also teach behavioral assessment and adult psy-
chopathology courses to graduate students. We learn
psychometric principles, behavioral interviewing, obser-
vation, and self-monitoring and study research on the
causes of behavior disorders. In these courses, we study
scientific principles of psychological assessment and apply
these principles to the evaluation of families who are
having significant troubles with their children. The goal
of the assessment is to specify the problems and strengths
of the family and, most important, identify the causes of
the problems so that they can be treated.
I also enjoy editing and writing. As editor ofPsy-
chological AssessmentI reviewed thousands of manu-
scripts submitted for publication and continue to review
many manuscripts every year. It is an educational and
humbling experience—I am continually confronted with
the limits of my knowledge and by the impressive
expertise of many scholars and reviewers. I have also
published recent books on behavioral assessment with
William O’Brien (2000) and Elaine Heiby (2004).
I don’t do private therapy, but I do a lot of consult-
ing, seminars, and workshops. I have also consulted with
the family court system as a volunteer guardian for
abused/neglected children, on case formulation at a state
psychiatric institution, and at clinics serving adults and
children with behavior problems. As I write this, I’m living
in Spain giving lectures and workshops on assessment and
clinical case formulation and writing more books on case
formulation and the causes of psychopathology.What are your particular areas of expertise or interest?
As I noted above, the areas in which I feel competent
continue to shrink as I encounter the impressive expertise
of other scholars and as the sophistication of the field
increases. I would say that I am mildly to moderately
familiar with methods of developing and evaluating
assessment instruments, principles of clinical judgment260 CHAPTER 9