SWAP-200

The Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure (SWAP-200) is a psychological test for personality diagnosis and clinical case formulation, developed by psychologists Jonathan Shedler and Drew Westen. SWAP-200 is completed by a mental health professional (such as a psychologist or psychiatrist) based on his or her observations and knowledge of a client or patient. Because SWAP-200 is completed by clinicians and not patients, diagnostic findings do not depend on the accuracy of information people disclose about themselves, nor can test results be faked. The SWAP instruments are based on over 18 years of empirical research and have been described in more than 100 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals. SWAP-200 has been translated into fourteen languages. Other SWAP instruments include the revised SWAP-II and the SWAP-II-A for adolescents.

SWAP-200 is used by clinical practitioners to identify core psychological issues in psychotherapy, for personality disorder diagnosis, by forensic examiners, and by agencies of the United States federal government for assessment of personnel for sensitive positions such as those requiring high-level security clearances.

SWAP-200 comprises 200 personality-descriptive items or statements, each of which may describe a given person well, somewhat, or not at all. The clinician-assessor sorts or ranks the statements into eight categories, from most descriptive of the person (scored 7) to not descriptive or irrelevant (scored 0). SWAP-200 items are written in jargon-free language ("Tends to express anger in passive and indirect ways; may make mistakes, procrastinate, forget, become sulky, etc.") and provide a "standard vocabulary" for clinical case description that is relevant to clinicians of all theoretical orientations. The SWAP instrument is based on the Q-sort method, a psychometric method designed to maximize reliability and minimize error variance.

When the assessor completes the scoring procedure, software-based scoring algorithms compute and graph 37 diagnostic scales organized into three score profiles. The diagnostic scales are expressed as T-scores (Mean=50, SD=10). The score profiles provide:

The National Security Edition of SWAP-200, developed in collaboration with agencies of the United States federal government, includes the Dispositional Indicators of Risk Exposure (DIRE) scale for security risk assessment, developed to assess the potential for high-risk or destructive behavior among personnel employed in, or being evaluated for, sensitive positions such as those requiring access to classified information.

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