Social functioning depends on the ability to attribute and reason about the mental states of others – an ability known as theory of mind (ToM). Research in this field is limited by the use of tasks in which ceiling effects are ubiquitous, rendering them insensitive to individual differences in ToM ability and instances of subtle ToM impairment. Here, we present data from a new ToM task – the Short Story Task (SST) - intended to improve upon many aspects of existing ToM measures. More specifically, the SST was designed to: (a) assess the full range of individual differences in ToM ability without suffering from ceiling effects; (b) incorporate a range of mental states of differing complexity, including epistemic states, affective states, and intentions to be inferred from a first- and second-order level; (c) use ToM stimuli representative of real-world social interactions; (d) require participants to utilize social context when making mental state inferences; (e) exhibit adequate psychometric properties; and (f) be quick and easy to administer and score. In the task, participants read a short story and were asked questions that assessed explicit mental state reasoning, spontaneous mental state inference, and comprehension of the non-mental aspects of the story. Responses were scored according to a rubric that assigned greater points for accurate mental state attributions that included multiple characters’ mental states. Results demonstrate that the SST is sensitive to variation in ToM ability, can be accurately scored by multiple raters, and exhibits concurrent validity with other social cognitive tasks. The results support the effectiveness of this new measure of ToM in the study of social cognition. The findings are also consistent with studies demonstrating significant relationships among narrative transportation, ToM, and the reading of fiction. Together, the data indicate that reading fiction may be an avenue for improving ToM ability.

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Using Fiction to Assess Mental State Understanding: A New Task for Assessing Theory of Mind in Adults

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Treatment and Rehabilitation of Severe Mental Illness

The readership of Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal is broad and not limited to a single profession; however, in this opinion piece, as the Journal moves under the umbrella of publications operated by the American Psychological Association, we focus on the need to engage one profession, clinical psychology, more fully in working with individuals with a serious mental illness. Many of the arguments provided below also have clear relevance to other professions, and may have implications for increasing their involvement in work with this population. In this opinion piece, we call attention to the insufficient training and lack of investment and involvement in the treatment of serious mental illness of one mental health profession, clinical psychology.

Should the training of clinical psychologists require competence in the treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with a serious mental illness

Recent attention to gaps and inadequacies in U.S. community mental health systems has revived efforts to improve access and the quality of mental health care to underserved, diverse, rural, and seriously mentally ill populations. The importance of elements such as evidence-based practice importation, needs assessment and evaluation, and mental health care disparities in this effort calls for innovation and leadership from professional psychologists. Yet, psychologists have been diminishing in representation from public mental health settings, and there have been limited efforts to comprehensively define the competencies required of practice in the public psychology specialty. This article presents the unique functional and foundational competencies required of psychologists to lead a transformation in the public mental health system. These public psychology competencies provide a foundation for professional psychologists to meet the challenges of a changing public mental health services context and promulgate effective evidence-based community systems of care. With education and training efforts, exposure to the public psychology competencies established in this study can aid in the transition of more psychologists into the public sector.

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Public psychology: A competency model for professional psychologists in community mental health.

National reports have illuminated problems within the public mental health system such as fragmented care for serious mental illness, mental health care disparities for underserved populations, a dearth of data-driven evidence-based practices, and inadequacies in policy and advocacy work (President’s New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, 2003; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001). Chu et al. (2012) established the public psychology competencies that would create the foundation needed for psychology leadership to assist in the transformation of the community mental health system. Yet, systematic doctoral-level training efforts in these competencies appear sparse. This article presents key components of a Public Psychology Doctoral Training Model that trains psychologists in the competencies needed for leadership in community mental health. Key components include the following: (a) a focus on public psychology foundational and functional competencies, (b) collaborative partnerships between academic, community, and county/state/federal entities, and (c) group case–method learning beyond the classroom. The Diversity and Community Mental Health (DCMH) emphasis area is presented as an example, and recommendations are provided for other doctoral programs endeavoring to establish similar programs.

The Public Psychology Doctoral Training Model: Training clinical psychologists in community mental health competencies and leadership.

Psychologists' roles and opportunities in rehabilitation and recovery for serious mental illness: A survey of Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) clinical psychology training and doctoral education.

Introduction. Few studies adequately capture the heterogeneity of severe mental illness (SMI) in recovery outcomes. In this study, we examine the between-person and within-person variance in the longitudinal recovery of key functional domains during a comprehensive inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation program for a severe, treatment-refractory population with SMI. Method. We reviewed clinical assessment data collected over 10 years from an inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation program in the Midwestern United States. Multilevel modeling techniques were applied to examine the between-person and within-person variance in baseline functioning, rates of change, and recovery of social functioning, neurocognition, social cognition, and the reduction of psychiatric symptoms in participants with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (N = 180) over a 12-month period. Results. After considering heterogeneous features at admission, significant overall improvement was evident in social functioning, neurocognition, and psyc...

Felice Reddy

Papers

Psychologists' roles and opportunities in rehabilitation and recovery for serious mental illness: A survey of Council of University Directors of Clinical Psychology (CUDCP) clinical psychology training and doctoral education.

Heterogeneity and the Longitudinal Recovery of Functioning During Inpatient Psychiatric Rehabilitation for Treatment-Refractory Severe Mental Illness