Call for Papers Deadline: Utility of Clinical Personality Assessment

Deadline is December 15

Special Issue Editors:

• Jan H. Kamphuis, Ph.D.
• Adam P. Natoli, Ph.D. 

Description:

Despite its central role in clinical practice, surprisingly little research has been done on the real-world usefulness of clinical personality assessment (CPA). Even worse, many existing studies are limited by design flaws or overly narrow approaches. As Kamphuis, Noordhof, and Hopwood (2021) argue, the question of how assessment helps should be rooted in specific clinical situations to better account for the diverse uses of CPA in practice. There are many clear examples where CPA can make a difference in distinct ways—such as correcting a misdiagnosis, helping fine-tune treatment plans, or providing clients with new insights that promote openness to change. So instead of asking whether assessment helps in general, the better question is: under what conditions does CPA lead to better outcomes for clients, or support clinicians in tailoring their treatment? 

Accordingly, the purpose of this special issue is to present a selection of works addressing this important question. We welcome empirical papers that demonstrate how clinical personality assessment (CPA) has been helpful in practice, explore the clinical contexts in which CPA proves useful, and/or offer reflections to guide future research on this understudied topic. Such papers may include systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or case studies that use empirical data to test hypotheses about clinical utility or meaningfully inform the use of personality assessment. In short, this special issue aims to illuminate CPA’s utility and ultimately inform future efforts dedicated to making psychological assessment more clinically and therapeutically useful and better understood.

Submission guidelines:

Abstracts  (max 250 words) for proposed manuscripts should be emailed to the JPA Editorial Assistant at ea.jpa@outlook.com, with “Special Issue on the Utility of Clinical Personality Assessment” in the subject line, by December 15^th, 2025. Based on an initial evaluation of the proposal, authors may be invited to submit complete manuscripts via the journal’s manuscript submission portal. Invitations for full submissions will be sent by January 15^th2026. The deadline for submitting complete manuscripts will be July 15^th, 2026. Manuscript submissions will be peer-reviewed and acceptance for publication is not guaranteed as articles will be expected to meet the customary publication standards for the journal. Further information may be requested from the SI Editors.

Reference:

Kamphuis, J. H., Noordhof, A., & Hopwood, C. J. (2021). When and how assessment matters: An update on the treatment utility of clinical assessment (TUCA). Psychological Assessment, 33(2), 122–132. https://doi.org/10.1037/pas0000966

Questions should be sent directly to the Special Issue Editors at the following addresses.

• Jan H. Kamphuis, Ph.D.; j.h.kamphuis@uva.nl
• Adam P. Natoli, Ph.D.; natolia@montclair.edu