Assignment on Competency vs Insanity

Assignment 1: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2

Tasks:

Assignment on Competency vs. Insanity

In a minimum of 300 words, respond to the following:

• Given the norms of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), what do you need to consider when using the MMPI-2 profile with non-Caucasian individuals. Search the Argosy University online library resources and other scholarly sources for background information on this test.
• What are the cultural competencies necessary for an unbiased psychological evaluation and report? What ethical and multicultural issues do you need to address to ensure that the psychological evaluation is unbiased and accurate?

As discussed previously, forensic psychology is the interaction between the clinical practice of psychology and the law. Insanity and competency are two legal issues that examine specific mental health aspects of clinical practice within the legal context. Courts utilize forensic psychologists as experts to assist in arriving at legal decisions for both, but the focus is on addressing the legal question before the court, not in answering a psychological question. Though insanity and competency both focus on mental health aspects of the law, the issues involved are very dissimilar and often confused. Insanity focuses on a person’s mental state at the time of a crime, and competence focuses on a person’s mental state at the present moment.

The defense of insanity was originally established to provide a legal compromise to a moral dilemma. The courts reasoned that it was not fair or just to punish a person who committed a crime only because the person was mentally ill. If someone is found insane, they do not possess the mental state necessary to be culpable or blameworthy of a crime. As a result, people who are found insane are not guilty or responsible for their behavior. Despite the public’s misguided beliefs, the insanity defense is rarely employed, and those who are found insane are rarely simply set free. The insanity defense is used in 1 percent of all felony cases, and a defendant is found insane in less than one third of those cases (Callahan, Steadman, McGreevy, & Robbins, 1991).