The British Psychological Society

Good Practice Guidelines on the use of psychological formulation

Rate
  • Member price £3.00
  • Member Network price £0.00
  • Non-member price £4.00

This is a PDF download licensed for personal use only - read full licence terms.

By placing your order you agree to the British Psychological Society’s Terms and Conditions. Please also see our Privacy Notice and Cookies Information.

Terms and Conditions

By using the BPS Shop website, you are signifying your agreement to these Terms and Conditions.

Document downloads

  1. If you encounter problems downloading a document, please contact the Customer Support Team at [email protected] for support.
  2. The document download service is provided ‘as is’ with no warranties implied, either express of implied.
     

Copyright and permissions

  1. The British Psychological Society is the copyright holder for all documents available to download from this website, unless otherwise stated.
  2. Unauthorised copying, distribution, public display, public performance, and derivative works from downloaded documents are prohibited by copyright law, unless the publication has a Creative Commons licence.
  3. Publications marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence are copyright of the British Psychological Society, but can be freely shared, in whole or in part, in digital or printed formats, for non-commercial purposes as long as the British Psychological Society is credited, and according to the same licence terms. Users are not permitted to distribute any adaptations of the work, including translations.
  4. For Translation requests please email [email protected]
  5. You may reproduce any downloaded document as many times as you wish for personal use, or quote short sections for the purposes of criticism or review, under the terms of ‘fair dealing’ and ‘fair use’ under UK and EU copyright laws. If you wish to republish an article downloaded from this website please visit our clearance service https://plsclear.com/
  6. If you require institutional licensing please email [email protected]


Customer accounts

  1. Customers are responsible for making sure that their account details (e.g. email and postal address) are up-to-date.
  2. Customers are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their username and password, and preventing authorised access to their accounts.
  3. Users must inform the Customer Support Team at [email protected] immediately if they suspect that their password has become known to someone else or has been (or is likely to be) use in an authorised manner.
  4. By providing personal information on the ‘checkout’ page, you are agreeing to the BPS processing and holding it as per our privacy policy www.bps.org.uk/privacy-policy
  5. The email address you provide as part of your account information may be used by the British Psychological Society to communicate with you in matters relating to your order (and if you are a member of the British Psychological Society, in other matters relating to your Society membership).

Description and price of goods

  1. Every effort will be made to ensure that the description and price of products are correct at the time of purchase.
  2. Product images are for illustrative purposes only and may differ from the actual product.

    Whilst The British Psychological Society has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information available on its websites is true and accurate in all material respects, it is essential that you verify all such information with The British Psychological Society before taking any action in reliance upon it. It is a condition of The British Psychological Society allowing you free access to the material on this site that you accept that The British Psychological Society will not be liable for any action you take in reliance on the information on the site.
     

Upon leaving this website through a link, The British Psychological Society will not be liable for any subsequent actions you take, or liable for any information not on this website. Please also note that the services described in this website are provided in England and the statements governed by English Law. On no account shall any statement on this website constitute an offer to provide services.

We will do our best to ensure uninterrupted access to the BPS Shop website and error-free transmission of data, but due to the nature of the internet this cannot be guaranteed. We will do our best to notify you of any planned outage.

 

 

The guidelines have been developed for the Division of Clinical Psychology to promote best practice in psychological formulation, which is a core competence for clinical psychologists. The guidance is intended to be of benefit to clinical psychologists and clinical psychology training courses. Briefer versions suitable for other stakeholders (e.g. commissioners, service users and carers) are currently being developed.

 

Contents

Foreword

1.    Executive summary

2.    Introduction

3.    Structure of the document

4.    Brief historical context of formulation

5.    Formulation in clinical psychology professional documents

6.    Defining formulation

7.    Purposes of formulation

8.    Clinical issues: When is a formulation a formulation?

  • Formulation as a process and formulation as an event
  • A partial formulation and a full formulation

9.    Principles of formulation in clinical psychology

  • Person-centred and problem-specific formulation
  • Multiple-model and single-model formulation
  • Integration-through-personal-meaning and list-of-factors formulation
  • Formulation and diagnosis
  • Psychiatric formulation and psychological formulation
  • Formulation and culture

10.    Formulation and the service/organisational context

11.    Formulation and the wider social/societal context

12.    Ethical issues in formulation

13.    Formulation: Areas for development

  • Research into formulation
  • Formulation and electronic records
  • Formulation-based alternatives to psychiatric diagnosis

14.    Summary and recommendations

15.    Relevant BPS documents

Appendix 1: Checklist of good practice in the use of formulation

Appendix 2: Professional guidelines and criteria in relation to formulation

Appendix 3: Formulation and research

References

 

Series:

SKU: PUB-CAT-842

BPS Shop – Licence terms for document downloads

Unless marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence, all electronic publications downloaded from the BPS Shop, whether free or for a charge, are copyright of the British Psychological Society and are for personal use only. Any downloaded document may not be distributed, republished or reproduced (either electronically or by other means) without permission, other than as allowed by ‘fair dealing’ and ‘fair use’ under UK and EU copyright laws. If you wish to republish or redistribute an article downloaded from the BPS shop, or if you would like any other kind of licence, please email [email protected] with your request.

Publications marked with a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND licence are copyright of the British Psychological Society, but can be freely shared, in whole or in part, in digital or printed formats, for non-commercial purposes as long as the British Psychological Society is credited, and according to the same licence terms. Users are not permitted to distribute any adaptations of the work, including translations.