Assessing feigning with the Feigning Evaluation INtegrating Sources (FEINS) in a forensic psychiatric sample

Area of Science:

• Forensic Psychology
• Psychiatry
• Clinical Assessment

Background:

• Forensic evaluators must identify feigned psychiatric symptoms or cognitive deficits.
• Existing tools lack a comprehensive method for integrating diverse assessment data.
• Malingering assessment is crucial in legal and psychiatric evaluations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine the reliability and validity of the Feigning Evaluation INtegrating Sources (FEINS) tool.
• To assess the FEINS's utility in consolidating data from multiple sources for feigning detection.
• To determine if structured professional judgments using FEINS improve malingering prediction.

Main Methods:

• Pilot study involving 58 male pretrial defendants.
• Administered the newly developed FEINS assessment tool.
• Used hierarchical multiple regressions to compare FEINS-guided judgments with other methods.

Main Results:

• Preliminary support for FEINS's scoring reliability, construct validity, and predictive validity.
• FEINS items related to clinical presentation and test data use were most effective.
• FEINS-structured judgments were more accurate in predicting perceived feigning than unstructured judgment or test data alone.

Conclusions:

• The FEINS tool shows practical utility in guiding forensic opinions on feigning.
• FEINS aids comprehensive assessment across psychiatric, cognitive, and functional domains.
• Structured professional judgment using FEINS enhances malingering detection accuracy.