"Stumbling" in responses to psychological scales and support from clinical psychologists

Abstract

This study defines "stumbling in responses" (hereinafter called "stumbling" ) as the difficulty a client has in giving a valid response about their condition to a certain situation, psychological scale, or item. This study explored the presence, situation, and clinical psychologists' support for clients' stumbling in clinical situations from the perspective of clinical psychologists. An open-ended web-based survey of clinical psychologists showed that 99 out of 103 valid respondents noticed stumbling. Qualitative analysis revealed various situations causing stumbling, the diversity of clients' expressions, clinical psychologists' support, and different characteristics of stumbling in the collected responses. Quantitative analysis of co-occurrence frequencies and rates showed that the situation was related to stumbling, and that stumbling was related to support. These results are expected to facilitate the development of appropriate methods for stumbling prevention and support.