Katherine Bain

Advances in Psychological Assessment in South Africa provides a detailed, practical and critical appraisal of the evolution of psychological testing since the publication of Psychological Assessment in South Africa: Research and Applications (2013). Editors Laher and Cockcroft once again bring together practitioners and researchers to explore new tools and methods used to evaluate mental processes and behaviours in South Africa’s unique and diverse contexts. The book covers a wide range of psychological domains, including cognitive abilities, personality traits, vocational interests and neuropsychological functions. It examines established testing methods while introducing innovative approaches, technology-driven tools and artificial intelligence-based assessments. These advancements allow for more efficient, accurate, and accessible testing, which is critical given the varied educational, cultural and linguistic backgrounds of South Africans. The country’s diversity presents both opportunities and challenges for psychological assessment. Tests must be relevant to local languages, cultures, and social realities to ensure fairness and accuracy. The book highlights efforts to develop and refine tests that reflect these needs, addressing practical issues like accessibility and ethical concerns in the aftermath of apartheid. Written for practitioners, researchers, educators, and students, the book serves as both a reflection on progress and a guide for the future. It showcases how far South Africa has come in creating reliable, culturally sensitive assessments and points to emerging trends, like the integration of Artificial Intelligence to personalise and streamline testing processes. This makes it a valuable resource for those within and beyond South Africa who are interested in understanding how psychological tools can be applied in diverse settings.

Moving beyond discussions of patriarchy and prescribed "women's roles" in the Roman world - discussions that have relied too much on elite literary sources, in her view - Katherine Bain explores what inscriptional data from Asia Minor can tell us about the actual socioeconomic status of women in the first and second centuries C. E. Her findings suggest that outside of the prescriptive lenses of the upper classes, women were described, in honorary and funerary inscriptions, in terms that mirrored the socioeconomic status of men, suggesting that women's leadership in social associations-and by implication in Jewish and Christian congregations as well-was even more frequent than has been imagined.