Dr. Lorandos' cross exam - how to cope with claims of professional experience

Dr. Lorandos' cross exam - how to cope with claims of professional experience

LORANDOS:Doctor, you have suggested that as a result of your years of professional experience, we can place more confidence in your professional opinions - Correct?

Witness: Yes.

LORANDOS:And your position in this regard also assumes that experienced professionals have acquired greater skill and expertise compared to less experienced professionals - Correct?

Witness: Yes, I think that's rather self evident.

LORANDOS:Well, let me ask you this: If accumulated experience were consistently associated with greater expertise, professionals would acquire that expertise as a result of their learning experiences - Correct?

Witness: Right.

LORANDOSM: And learning from experience necessitates feedback in response to your professional work - Correct?

Witness: Right.

LORANDOS:Feedback allows professionals to recognize their errors, and then correct them - Would you agree?

Witness: Yes.

LORANDOS:Have you ever published any articles in a peer-reviewed journal?

Witness:No, that's not consistent with the focus of my treatment work.

LORANDOS:Peer-review would afford you systematic feedback about what you think and say as a professional -- Correct?

Witness:I imaging it would, yes.

LORANDOS:But, you have never sought the feedback associated with submitting an article to a peer-reviewed journal -- Correct?

Witness: No.

LORANDOS:In your treatment work, you not regularly videotape or audiotape your therapy sessions -- Correct?

Witness: No. . . I don't know who does. . .

LORANDOS:Without videotaping your therapy sessions, it is quite difficult to obtain objective feedback from a colleague regarding your process -- Correct?

Witness: Well, I . . I can discuss cases with colleagues.

LORANDOS:Without videotaping your therapy sessions, it is quite difficult to obtain objective feedback from a colleague regarding your work -- Correct?

Witness:Oh, now I see what you're getting at, that the colleague can't see the session. Yes, that's correct.

LORANDOS:Because there's a world of difference between discussing therapy with a colleague, and the colleague actually seeing a video tape of what occurred -- Correct?

Witness: There can be differences, yes.

LORANDOS:And you do not videotape the interviews and psychological testing you do in the course of your evaluations -- Correct?

Witness: No, I don't know who does that.

LORANDOS:Without videotaping your therapy sessions, or evaluative interviews, you could be committing errors and never even know it -- Correct?

Witness: In theory that's possible.

LORANDOS:And you could remain unaware of your errors because there is no objective feedback available to you regarding what you do as a professional -- Correct?

Witness: In theory again, that's possible.

LORANDOS:And without objective feedback, you could continue committing the same kinds of errors over and over again -- Correct?

Witness: That could happen.

LORANDOS:The journal Professional Psychology: Research and Practice is a generally recognized and accepted, peer-reviewed journal in your field -- Correct?

Witness: Correct.

LORANDOS:And a 1996 article by Garb published in Professional Psychology: Research and Practice - titled "The Representativeness and Past-Behavior Heuristics in Clinical Judgment" - might be relevant to your opinions in this case -- Correct?

Witness: Might be, yes.

LORANDOS:Please consider Garb's comments from his 1996 article: - [ reads ] - "Clinicians frequently have trouble learning from their experiences in clinical settings, in part because they do not always receive accurate feedback, especially with regard to diagnosis." Now my question: If clinicians frequently have trouble learning from their experiences in clinical settings, your claims of expertise based on your clinical experience warrant skepticism -- Correct?

Witness: If those problems are the case, yes.

LORANDOS:You have not published anything in a peer-reviewed journal necessitating that we reconsider Garb's position in this regard -- Correct?

Witness: No, I have not.

LORANDOS:And you cannot cite anything published in a peer-reviewed journal necessitating that we reconsider Garb's position in this regard -- Correct?

Witness: No, right off the top of my head, no.

LORANDOS:Without any peer-reviewed articles demonstrating the contrary, your profession generally recognizes and accepts that clinicians frequently encounter problems - learning from their experience in clinical settings -- Correct?

Witness: It seems that someone could take that position.

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