• 2013 225 pages in 8½" x 11" large format paperback ISBN: 9781568871486
The three authors are active custody and parenting plan evaluators, teach
workshops on custody evaluations and parenting, and review reports prepared by other evaluators. Their experience has made them acutely aware of the
flaws that appear in some evaluations despite the development of professional association guidelines and standards, on-going continuing education programs on these topics, and increasing demands from
the courts and attorneys for evaluations of the highest quality.
This book is
about developing systematic ways to improve the processes evaluators use to create and test
hypotheses, collect information, organize the information evaluators have, and
analyze the data in a transparent and comprehensive way. The
authors also share an interest in visual ways to organize information in these
evaluations: charts, decision trees, and grids. They include many reproducible 8½" X 11" checklists and tools to reduce human
biases and errors and to improve the accuracy of decision making. They believe that the
processes they describe may mirror the process used by judicial
officers in sorting and weighing evidence, creating clusters of factors around
issues, and generating decisions based on the overall evidence presented in
court. These tools were "field tested" in the authors' practice and teaching, and
they believe the consistency and transparency of decision
making has increased with the aid of these tools.
Throughout
the book, the deliberate use of the term parenting
plan evaluation (PPE) rather than child custody evaluation is more than
just semantics or an attempt to further confuse the field with yet another new
term. The authors strongly believe that it is critical for those who work with families
to emphasize the importance of parenting over the ownership implications of
determining custody. Although both terms are used interchangeably throughout the
book to be consistent with previous writings, the term parenting plan
evaluations is used in the development of the resources that have been created to make
better parenting plan decisions.
Reviews
"If
the parenting plan evaluator uses the scientific method described by these authors,
s/he will make judges, attorneys and parents (if not happy) satisfied that the
analysis of all the data produced by the parents and their counsel was
thoughtful and thorough and transparent. In addition, it will assist the evaluator
in confronting his/her own biases and short cut thinking. It is not just
the evaluator who can benefit from this process: judges and lawyers should
consider consciously adopting this method to better their own decision
making."
-Marjorie A. Slabach, JD, retired judicial officer, presided over Family Court
in San Francisco Superior Court 1997-2011
"Drozd, Olesen, & Saini have integrated aspects of
current research on cognitive errors and applied this knowledge in a superb
manner to assist child custody evaluators to think more clearly and with
greater awareness of the ways in which personal and professional biases may
interfere with our ability to produce the best work product we can. Their
application of the "fast and slow" thinking paradigm and their
development of checklists and flow charts to help guide us toward more
systematic examination of our thinking are challenging, new, and welcome
additions to the child custody literature."
-Jonathan W. Gould, Ph.D., ABPP, Diplomate in Forensic
Psychology, Charlotte, NC, author of Conducting Scientifically-Crafted Child
Custody Evaluations (2nd Ed) and co-author of The Art and Science of
Child Custody Evaluations
“Complaints
the best interests of the child standard is vague obscure the complexities of a
task societies all over the world tackle hundreds of thousands of times
each day. This trio of practitioner/scholars breaks the best interests
task into manageable "bite size" chunks, then demonstrates how
they relate to the "whole." By emphasizing organization
and process, hypothesis generation and testing, and an awareness of
numerous potential distorting biases, Decision Trees outlines a scientific path
for evaluating the complex fact scenarios created when parental
relationships dissolve and families divorce. This book creates a
replicable model that illuminates how evaluators can think in disciplined
ways. It is a "light" that should brighten every evaluator's
bookshelf.”
-Milfred
"Bud" Dale, Ph.D., J.D.,
Attorney at Law, Forensic Psychologist, Topeka, Kansas
“This
innovative and useful book presents a paradigm shift in the approach to parenting plan evaluations.
Its layout is equally imaginative. Drozd, Olesen, and Saini begin
by offering a comprehensive yet simple description of cognitive errors and
then present a systematic process of decision-making through visually
accessible decision trees and checklists. These tools
serve to encompass the possible variables and interactions relevant to optimal parenting plans.
The annotated bibliographies at the conclusion of each chapter and the A
to Z appendices provide the reader with more information than any book currently
on the market. The application of scientific literature in this book
creates a meticulous decision-making model for evaluators, attorneys and
judges.”
-Robin M. Deutsch, Ph.D., Director of the Center of Excellence for Children,
Families and the Law, Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology
"This
thoughtful, well-organized and painstakingly referenced volume may well be the
quintessential handbook for the conscientious family lawyer. It
provides a wealth of data and a well-reasoned critical examination of many
pitfalls which sometimes plague otherwise well intentioned parenting plan
assessments. The authors not only give us the standards for the
scientific analysis we prize from our court appointed experts, but afford an
analytical framework that is clear and easy to follow. The decision
tree methodology is invaluable for lawyer or judge seeking to understand and
critically analyze the evaluation process. This book is destined to
become an essential resource in the quest for scientific understanding of
family dynamics as they affect the needs and best interest of children.”
-Donald S. Eisenberg, Certified Family Law Specialist, Long Beach, CA
“Drozd,
Olesen, and Saini have done what no one has done before. Of the three key
aspects of parenting plan evaluations, gathering data, analyzing data and
presentation of data, we have modest guidance of the gathering and presentation
aspects. The more complex analysis of the data has up until this book
been hidden from view and lacking any rigour. Their systematic approach to
analysis is ground-breaking and a major contribution to the field. It is also
significant to note that as Drozd did with her earlier book (edited with
Kuehnle) “Parenting Plan Evaluations”, they have also modernized the term custody
evaluations to parenting plan evaluations.”
-Lorraine
Martin, MSW RSW, Private Practice, Retired Clinical Coordinator, Office of the
Children’s Lawyer, Toronto, Canada
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Cognitive Errors and Paradigm Shifts
I. Common errors
A. Procedural Errors
B. Systematic
C. Assertion
II. Cognitive Errors and Biases
A. Research on cognitive errors
B. Specific errors & biases: Confirmatory bias, premature disclosure of evidence seeking, anchoring, optimism
bias, disaster neglect, and availability heuristic
III. Parenting Plan Evaluator's Cognitive Error Checklist
IV. Summary
V. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 2
Road Map for Working with Parenting Plan Complexity
I. Introduction: A road map for understanding the complexity of parenting plan evaluations
II. Roadmap: A picture
A. Preparation & planning
a. Filling up the research tank
b. Accepting the case
c. Data planning
B. Hypotheses & decision trees: How to form hypotheses and make a decision tree
C. Data collection
D. Analysis & synthesis into parenting plan recommendations
E. Review, consult, revise
III. Strengths and limitations of the parenting plan evaluation road map approach: How does this process help offset cognitive errors and improve transparency and decision making?
IV. Summary
V. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 3
Paradigm Shift: Embracing Complexity in a Real Case
I. Preparation
and planning
A. Be prepared
and up to date:
B. Identification and sources of obtaining data
C. Initial Data:
The Case of Maria, Timothy, and Children
II. Hypotheses and decision trees
A. Formation of hypotheses
B. Making a decision tree
III. Summary
IV. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 4
Ongoing Data Collection
I. Standard data collection
A. Methods
B. Recording
C. Anchored in research
II. Continuing
data collection in the case of Maria, Timothy, & family
III. Reflecting during the evaluation: Revised
hypotheses and decision tree
IV. Summary
V. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 5
The Data Matrix: Organizing the Data
I. Introduction
II. Levels of inference
A. Definitions
B. Learning to use the levels of
inference
III. Parenting Plan Evaluation Matrix:
Organizing the data
C. Working with the PPE Matrix
D. Maria, Timothy, & children case example
IV. Identifying themes that integrate facts
& conclusions
V. Summary
VI. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 6
Connections and Synthesis
I. Introduction
II. Updating hypotheses & the decision tree
III. Parenting Plan Evaluation Matrix: Summary, Analysis, & Synthesis
A. Working with the PPE Matrix: II
B. The family of Maria, Timothy, & family
IV. Creating themes that integrate the facts and conclusions and lead to parenting plan recommendations
V. The interactional nature of the analysis
VI. Summary
Chapter 7
Finishing the Synthesis: Making Parenting Plan Recommendations
I. Parenting plan recommendations for Maria,
Timothy, & family
A. Summary of factors not considered to
date
B. Maria, Timothy, and family: Matrix II
(Inferences) & Matrix III (Parenting Plan Recommendations)
II. General considerations in parenting plan
recommendations
III. Summary
IV. Annotated bibliography
Chapter 8
Review, Revisit, Revise
I. Introduction
II. Reviewing the process and revising when needed
A. The importance of crosschecking
III. Writing the report
A. Framing the report to avoid shaming
B. Vetting the report
C. Reporting the limitations of the evaluation
D. Practice tips for report writing
IV. Post evaluation road map approach: Testimony and critiquing others
V. Considerations and cautions: Time and duration, cost, capacity, ethical responsibility and use of tools
VI. Summary
VII. Annotated bibliography
References
Appendices
I. Appendix chapter:
Research
II. Glossary
III. References
IV. Misc. Charts, Tools, etc.
CE Program
For information about our approved continuing education sponsorships
and acceptance by state boards, go to: Continuing Education
About the Authors
Nancy W. Olesen, PhD, graduated in psychology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison and earned a PhD in clinical psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She has conducted hundreds of child custody and dependency evaluations for the courts in California over more than 25 years and has provided expert testimony in child custody cases throughout California and other states. Dr. Olesen has taught many courses in best practices in child custody evaluation for professionals in California, nationwide and abroad, including the mandatory training required for court appointed evaluators. In addition she has taught the course for judges, attorneys, and mediators on child custody special issues such as child abuse, alienation, domestic violence and attachment.
Michael A. Saini, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto and the Course Director of the 40-hour Foundations to Custody Evaluations at the University of Toronto. For the past 14 years, he has been conducting custody evaluations and assisting children's counsel for the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, Ministry of the Attorney General in Ontario. He has over 50 publications, including books, book chapters, government reports, systematic reviews and peer-reviewed journal articles. He is an editorial board member for the Family Court Review, the Journal of Child Custody, Research for Social Work Practice and Oxford Bibliographies Online. As well, he is a peer reviewer for 10 peer-reviewed journals and 4 international funding organizations.
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