Confidential Psychological Evaluation - Research Paper Example

? Jodi Arias Birth: 07/09/1980 Sex: Female Assessment: 01/20 Age at testing: 32 Psychologist: John Q. Public, Ph.D. CONFIDENTIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL EVALUATION REASON FOR REFERRAL The defendant in a murder trial, Jodi Arias, was submitted for evaluation as to whether it was evident through appropriate psychological testing, that she was actually lying to protect herself in the trial or if she actually did not remember what she did on the day of the murder of Travis Victor Alexander on June 4, 2008. Jodi Arias has already undergone several psychological tests by her previous psychologist, hired by the prosecution in the trial. The former psychologist is Janeen DeMarte, who has been intensely questioned by the defense attorneys for Arias as to the validity of her findings in the tests done. The defendant is now being retested for a second opinion. The defense lawyers for Jodi Arias had a number of questions that needed to be answered and these had to do with whether Jodi Arias had symptoms of a battered woman, whether she had a borderline personality disorder, and whether she might actually have posttraumatic stress disorder. The referral source, therefore, would like to have whatever tests would be suitable to determine the state of Jodi Arias’ mind and what the official explanation would be for the lies she has made over the term of the trial. The trial, itself, has presented the need for a new set of tests, based on the conflicting statements by Arias as well as the issue of the validity of what those answers might be. As a new clinical psychologist being brought into this case, I am only aware of the basic facts of the case, but am not privy to the results of the previous psychological tests done on her previously. Jodi Arias believes that she will undergo testing about her relationships with all the people in her life, a review of any negative experiences she may have had before the murder occurred, and then she will talk about how she feels she interacts with others and whether she feels she must guard her feelings so people cannot hurt her and whether she second-guesses what other people really mean when they say things to her. The interviews and testing will also cover her trust issues with other people, what feelings she has about life in general, such as depression, times of happiness, sadness, anger, and what happens in her life that makes her feel whatever emotions she is experiencing, and what responses occur from those feelings. We want to know if she has an antisocial personality disorder, a narcissistic personality disorder, and how she reacts to stressful confrontations. Of importance, is to determine how volatile she is under stress and whether she is capable of losing her temper and to what degree she does this and under what circumstances. ASSESSMENT INSTRUMENTS AND EVALUATIVE PROCEDURES Two Clinical Interviews for background information – one by computer for basic demographics, and the second was a personal interview for expanded information. Mental Status Exam (Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination) COGNISTAT: The Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination (An assessment of cognitive deficits) Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-4th Edition MMPI-2: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- 2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION or RELAVANT HISTORY Jodi Arias, born July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California, had a fairly ordinary life going to school, graduating high school, and working various jobs until taking the waitress job during the time she met Travis Victor Alexander, the ex-boyfriend she would later kill. During the time she was with Travis Alexander, she converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by Alexander and also assisted him at the Prepaid Legal Services in Las Vegas, Nevada. After she broke up with Alexander, Jodi moved back to her grandparent’s house in Yreka, California in April of 2008. Alexander was a wealthy man who inherited money from his father’s side when both parents died in a car crash. The circumstances around the murder show that Arias found out where he was and drove to meet him at his house although it appears he did not know she was coming. It is somewhat unclear what occurred at the house before the murder although a camera was found in a laundry bin with pictures of both of them in the nude. Alexander’s body was found at his home by members of his family and the medical examiner’s report shows that he had multiple stab wounds, had been shot in the head and his throat cut, nearly to the point of decapitation. At this time, there is no evidence of unusual family history in the way of growing up as far as an abusive household. The family members have said there was never any evidence of strange behavior from Arias other than what would be seen from any normal child growing up. The parents did divorce when Arias was 16 years old and she chose to live with her grandparents at that time until she completed high school. Arias held three jobs since that time, mostly in retail stores as a sales girl. There have been allegations by Arias that Alexander was abusive to her during their relationship, that he beat her numerous times and also forced her to have sex in ways she did not like. He also made sex videos of her on several occasions and forced her to take drugs on various occasions. Arias has said that even while he was abusive to her, she just could not stay away from him for very long and that it was almost like an addiction as she needed to be close to him often. Jodi Arias’ Strengths: Is able to communicate in a lucid manner and can answer questions fairly easily. She enjoys talking with people. She is straightforward about most subjects except when talking about the murder which she claims she cannot remember. At that time, she becomes vague and very uneasy. For the most part, she is very confident and feels assured that she will not be convicted of the murder of Alexander. She remembers very clearly her life with her parents and the rest of the family and can provide details of events that stood out in her life. The murder, however, is very vague. Appears to be very friendly but when on the stand, she gets confused easily. Background: Jodi Arias, born July 9, 1980, in Salinas, California. As a very young child, she enjoyed playing with her older brother, John, and sister, Alice, who were one to two years older than her respectively. Her mother is an artist who paints on a regular basis and sells her work in galleries across the United States. Her father is a lawyer and heads the firm of Arias and Johnson in Salinas, California. Jodi Arias had a very privileged childhood up until her teenage years. She also loved to read fairytale books while she was growing up. While she played with her siblings, she did not play with other classmate very often as they did not live close by so it was difficult to get to other people’s houses. She did like to watch movies on television and also loved going to the cinema whenever she could, usually with her brother and sister. Arias was a Brownie which later led to becoming a Girl Scout, earning a number of badges for homemaking, camping, and swimming. She also took ballet classes for a while but gave it up when she hurt her left ankle and it was determined by the doctor that she could never go on pointe because of that weakness from the injury. This was a great disappointment to her but she later began taking piano lessons as an alternative, something which she still enjoys to this day. Arias began dating young men when she was 14 years of age but never had any serious boyfriends until she was 17. When her parents divorced, she was 16 years old and this was a very devastating time for her, according to her siblings. They weathered it better than she did and she blamed her father more for the split of the family. She chose to move in with her grandparents on her mother’s side because it gave her a chance to get away from the pain of divorce and change of lifestyle. She also picked up smoking around this time and still smokes today. She does not drink very much however, usually only having wine at dinner. She has no known addiction to any social drugs although she has tried marijuana and cocaine. She did not like either one. BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS and MENTAL STATUS EXAM During the first interview and the subsequent tests, Arias appeared well groomed and fully functional in terms of understanding and responding to questions. She did show some impatience with tests that took a long time to get through. At those points, she would become a little terse and abrupt and her responses would become shorter, not so elucidating. When asked to expand further on her feelings or reactions, she would huff a bit, think for a minute and then finally open up more about her reactions. At times she appeared to be thinking through her answers as if to set the response up rather than just being spontaneous about her thoughts. When asked what she felt about her father, she said that she had forgiven him for splitting the family up and did not hold ill will towards him. However, her demeanor was somewhat closed in as if she were still holding some resentment over what happened. When asked about her first boyfriends, she said they were really stupid boys who could not talk about anything intelligent. For the most part, she thought they were okay as people but that they did not have much on the ball, as she put it. Her statement was that they had no focus about what they wanted to do in life and that irritated her. As her father was a lawyer, she viewed him as being very focused and competitive about what his work entailed. She viewed her mother as being very smart and artistic and was to some degree, envious of her abilities to paint landscapes. Arias is talented as a piano player but she does not feel she is anything special and that it is really just for fun. As a retail sales person, she feels like she has no real future ahead in any sort of professional career like her parents have had. She does not have a real goal for achieving some type of direction for her life although she says she would like to get married and have children and a real family life. She had hoped she would have that with Alexander. At this current time, she does not see any future ahead for her unless, if she ends up with a life sentence, then she might be able to write books and work with the prison inmates in positive thinking sessions. She does not appear to be fully realistic about what she will be allowed to do if in prison. RESULTS OF TESTING: COGNITIVE AND PERSONALITY FUNCTIONING: The two basic clinical interviews done first are represented in the information given above in that she is basically a positive person when talking about herself. Discussions on her early life do not show any particular abnormalities. She gave almost all her answers in a straight-forward manner and there were no diversionary tactics used on her part in responding to personal questions about dating men and any unusual episodes that could have occurred in school during her adolescent years (Sternberg, 1998). The Mental Status Exam (Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination) showed someone who is fairly bright and cognizant of what is being asked of her (Folstein, n.d.). There did not appear to be any areas where she had any trouble with remembering things. There was no sign of dementia or of forgetfulness (Alzheimer’s Society, 2012). With a high school education, Arias shows a higher state of intelligence than might be normally found in most high school graduates. She was also tested within this same process for signs of confusion and she was not easily distracted, did not ramble at any time, and kept a fairly logical flow in the conversation (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2010). The result was that she passed this test showing no signs of confusion, unstable memory or other signs of vagueness (SHM, 2013). In the COGNISTAT: The Neurobehavioral Cognitive Status Examination (An assessment of cognitive deficits), Arias completed an online test which was captured into the CAS database. This test was designed for symptoms of substance abuse and also dementia implications. The results showed no tendencies to dementia, thus complementing the findings of the Folstein Examination as well (NMDS, 2011). The only substance abuse shown was that of her need for smoking cigarettes. By this tendency, the personality shows a need for habits and needing certain things to be happy or satisfied. In the sample returns for another person tested who had more problems than Arias, the numbers dip into the moderate to severe areas for memory. Arias showed fairly consistent numbers along the average range with no severe dips. Fig. (Dementia Test-NMDS, 2011) The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-4th Edition was given to Arias and it was noted that in providing picture completion puzzles, Arias had some trouble with detail and concentration in this area. She was not able to fully complete a few of the line drawn pictures which required adding in missing details (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2010). She also had trouble with object assembly as in two jigsaw puzzles given to her to complete. This showed an inability to think through a situation and project if further and may account for why she has lied because she cannot think further in her story-building process to fill in holes that her stories might have (Mehr, 1983). In the MMPI-2: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- 2, which contains some 567 items, the overview looks at hypochondriasis, depression, deviation in psychosis, schizophrenia and hysteria as part of the complete picture of Arias (Locke, Kirlin, Thomas, et al., 2010). The outcome of this test was more revealing when looked at in conjunction with the other tests in that schizophrenia was uncovered as well as depression experienced over the proceedings of the trial the defendant is currently undergoing (Locke et al., 2010). This may explain the issue of her attempts at lying in the first part of the trial and subsequent switches to other stories which were also lies, until such a time as she finally told the truth. The results show that Arias lies quite often and even believes her lies until she is proven wrong. It is an attempt, as speculated, that she wishes to be living another life and this is her way of providing that for herself. Jodi Arias’ clinical profile also reflects short-term psychological adjustment problems that involve the following characteristics and symptoms: DSM-IV DIAGNOSTIC IMPRESSION Jodi Arias is basically trying to live another life which, at this point, is understandable. Her issue with lying however, extended into the court room, causing numerous issues with the case. She does not see that as really lying but perhaps adjusting the story to explain things better. She is delusional although she still presents herself in a straight-forward manner as if nothing were wrong. Axis I Is somewhat dissociative and delusional, choosing to live in a world of her choosing. Axis II She is fairly narcissistic and does not say much about Alexander but is more concerned about herself. She does not mention her family very much. Axis III. She does not have any real physical issues other than that she is underweight, most likely due to the trial. Axis IV Only shows evidence of abuse as experienced in her relationship with Alexander. Axis V GAF: 70 CONCLUSIONS and RECOMMENDATIONS: In light of her problems and the fact that she will either go to jail or be put on death row, there is not much we can suggest for her in terms of becoming better in her mental stability. We really have no recommendations other than if she becomes a problem in the jail, it is recommended to put her on Prozac to help with depression. ______________________________ John Q. Public, Ph.D. (Don't Forget your Signature Line) Orlando, FL ======================================================== Resources Alzheimer’s Society. (2012). The Mini Mental State Examination. Alzheimer’s Society Online. Available from Andrews, D.A., & Bonta, J. (2010). The Psychology of criminal conduct. 5th ed. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson Publishing. Davey, G.C. (2008). Psychopathology: Research assessment and treatment in clinical psychology. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell. Drayton, M. (2009). The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory- 2 (MMPI-2). Occupational Medicine, 59(2), 135-136. The Folstein Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE). (n.d.). Available from Kantowitz, B.H., RoedigerIII, H.L., & Elmes, D.G. (1991). Experimental psychology. New York, NY: West Publishing Company. Kaplan, R.M., & Saccuzzo, D.P. (2010). Psychological testing: Principles, applications, & issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. 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