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The Admissibility of the R-PAS in Court

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Abstract

The admissibility of the Rorschach has been a concern of forensic psychologists for many years. The focus of this debate has been the Comprehensive System, which is the most researched of the current Rorschach Systems available in the USA. However, recently, a new, competing system has been published: the Rorschach Performance Assessment System (R-PAS; Meyer et al., Rorschach Performance Assessment System: Administration, Coding, Interpretation, and Technical Manual, 2011). Using Heilbrun’s (Law and Human Behavior 16:257–272, 1992) guidelines as a framework, we examine the admissibility of this new system according to the standards outlined in Daubert (1993) and Frye (1923). We conclude that we have reservations about the admissibility of the R-PAS in court at the present time, notwithstanding ongoing work on this system.

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Correspondence to Jessica R. Gurley.

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Gurley, J.R., Sheehan, B.L., Piechowski, L.D. et al. The Admissibility of the R-PAS in Court. Psychol. Inj. and Law 7, 9–17 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-014-9182-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-014-9182-2

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