Compare methods

	Standardized Clinical Cutoff	Strengths Assessment
Field	Social Work	Social Work
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1991	2012
Originator	Neil S. Jacobson & Paula Truax	Dennis Saleebey (strengths perspective); Charles Rapp & Richard Goscha (strengths model assessment)
Type	Method for judging whether individual change on a standardized measure is reliable and clinically meaningful	Structured, domain-based assessment of client and environmental strengths
Seminal source	Jacobson, N. S., & Truax, P. (1991). Clinical significance: A statistical approach to defining meaningful change in psychotherapy research. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 59(1), 12–19.	Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (2013). The Strengths Perspective in Social Work Practice (6th ed.). Pearson. ISBN: 9780205011544
Aliases	Clinical Cutoff Score, Clinical Significance Method, Reliable Change Index, Jacobson-Truax Method	Strengths-Based Assessment, Strengths Perspective Assessment, Strengths Model Assessment, Asset-Based Assessment
Related	3	3
Summary	The standardized clinical cutoff approach, developed by Jacobson and Truax, judges whether an individual client's change on a standardized measure is both statistically reliable and clinically meaningful. It pairs a Reliable Change Index — which asks whether a pre-to-post change is larger than the measurement error of the instrument — with a cutoff score that marks the boundary between the dysfunctional and functional (normal) populations. A client who moves reliably across that cutoff is counted as recovered, giving practice and research a defensible, individual-level definition of meaningful improvement.	Strengths assessment is a structured way of assessing a client that deliberately foregrounds capabilities, resources, and aspirations rather than deficits and problems. Grounded in the strengths perspective articulated by Dennis Saleebey and operationalized in Charles Rapp and Richard Goscha's strengths model, it surveys the client's life domains — such as daily living, health, finances, relationships, leisure, and spirituality — to record what is already working, what the person wants, and the personal and environmental resources available to get there. Those strengths then become the raw material for goal-setting and intervention.