Expert Testimony Using the Rorschach Performance Assessment System in Psychological Injury Cases

The Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; Meyer et al. 2011) is a new system for administering, scoring, and interpreting the Rorschach Inkblot Test that is designed to make the best
possible use of currently available scientific and clinical evidence. Many features of R-PAS are well-suited to forensic evaluation
generally and to psychological evaluations in psychological injury cases in particular. Among them, R-PAS: (a) offers an alternative
to self-report methods that adds incremental validity, (b) provides a useful check against exaggerated or minimized symptom
presentation, (d) generates evidence concerning implicit traits and behavioral tendencies, (e) offers techniques for adjusting
for abnormal response sets, (f) uses internationally applicable reference data that do not exaggerate or minimize pathology,
(g) organizes results according to the strength of the evidence, and (h) presents results on which are interpretations are
based in a manner easy for the intelligent layperson to grasp. Despite its recent formal introduction to the professional
assessment community, R-PAS takes advantage of decades of research in peer-reviewed publications (including the insights of
Rorschach critics) and builds on established validity and general acceptance for most of its procedures and features. The
article describes the standards and criteria applying to expert psychological testimony in U.S. federal and state courts and
applies them to Rorschach-based testimony in general and R-PAS-based testimony specifically. It is argued that when the system
is properly used and applied and when such testimony is appropriately formulated, it should be found admissible in both state
and federal courtrooms