BOX10-2 Clinical Psychologist Perspective: Howard N. Garb, Ph.D.
Dr. Howard N. Garb is Chief of the Psychology Research
Service at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio Texas.
Recently awarded the Civilian Meritorious Service Medal
for his work on mental health screening in the military,
he is the associate editor ofMilitary Psychology.
We asked Dr. Garb a few questions about his
background and his views on clinical psychology.
What originally got you interested in the field of
clinical psychology?
I decided to become a clinical psychologist by the time I
was 16. Many of the relatives on my mother’ssideofthe
family were mental health professionals. In fact, I am a
third-generation mental health professional. In contrast,
my father’s brother died in a mental health hospital as a
young man. He died because of the inappropriate use of
shock treatment—an occurrence that was not unknown
in the 1940s. I decided to become a clinical psychologist
because I enjoyed reading and thinking about psychology
and because I could think of no more interesting work.
Describe what activities you are involved in as a
clinical psychologist.
From 1984 until 2003, I worked as a clinical psychologist
at the Pittsburgh V.A. Health Care System. I saw clients
for interviews, for psychological testing, and for individ-
ual and group therapy. Two of my books were published
during this time:Studying the Clinician: Judgment
Research and Psychological AssessmentandWhat’s
Wrong With the Rorschach? Science Confronts the Con-
troversial Inkblot Test(written with Jim Wood, Teresa
Nezworski, and Scott Lilienfeld). Currently, I am respon-
sible for the mental health screening of all U.S. Air Force
recruits who are beginning basic training (more than
35,000 a year), and I conduct a range of research projects.
What are your particular areas of expertise or interest?
My general area of expertise is psychological assessment.
I am especially interested in the validity of psychological
tests, the validity of judgments made by mental health
professionals, the cognitive processes of clinicians, and
the use of computers for making judgments and deci-
sions. For example, when a clinician says something to a
client, is the clinician likely to be right or wrong?
What are the future trends you see for clinical
psychology?
Computers will become increasingly important in
psychological assessment, just as they will become
increasingly important for society in general. Eventu-
ally, computers will be used to describe personality
traits, make diagnoses, predict behaviors, and make
treatment decisions. However, before computers
transform psychological assessment, it is important
that we understand how, and how well, clinicians
make judgments. It is important to understand some-
thing before one tries to change it.What are the major lessons clinical psychologists
should learn from studies of clinical judgment?
There are many lessons to learn from studies on clinical
judgment. Clinicians should attend to empirical
research, be aware of and overcome cultural biases, be
wary of some judgment tasks because they may be too
difficult (such as describing defense mechanisms or
making causal judgments), be systematic and compre-
hensive when conducting interviews, attend to diag-
nostic criteria when making diagnoses, make use of
psychological tests and behavioral assessment meth-
ods, consider alternative hypotheses when making
judgments, decrease reliance on memory, and follow
legal and ethical principles.
Results on clinical judgment are neither all posi-
tive nor all negative. Clinicians may be unhappy when
the results of a study are negative. However, only by
examining ourselves can progress be made.Howard N. GarbCarlos Ramirez, USAF Photography,Lackland Multi-Media Ctr.,Lackland AFB, TX.CLINICAL JUDGMENT 295