Symptom and Performance Validity Assessment: European Trends in Research and Practice

This is a short editorial to the special issue of Psychological Injury and Law. The first of the articles of this issue (Merten et al., Symptom and performance validity assessment in European countries: an update, in this issue) was conceived as the proper introduction. The collection contains eight contributions from authors doing their research in eight different countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Switzerland), using a variety of approaches (review and empirical articles, social security and criminal background, etc.). They describe major research trends and the state-of-the-art of validity assessment across the continent. They also reflect the transition from malingering assessment to validity testing and the extension of this field from forensic applications to clinical and rehabilitation referral contexts.