PS381; Psychological Assessment

Purposes

• Screening

• Diagnosis

• Prognosis

• Treatment recommendations

• Recommendations for accommodations in educational settings

• Diagnosis & case formulation

• Treatment planning

• Treatment monitoring

• Treatment evaluation

• Child custody

• Insurance entitlement 

• Risk assessment in the criminal justice system

Competencies

• Apply knowledge of individual and cultural characteristics in assessment and diagnosis

• Select instruments based on available normed data and/or criterion-referenced standards, and address any limitations in that selection

Testing vs. Assessment

• Testing:

  • Yields scores on a measure

  • Requires standard administration

  • Can be conducred by a trained technician

• Assessment

  • Addresses a specific question or set of questions

  • Usually has multiple sources of data including standardized testing, but also interview

  • Requires integration and interpretation

Testing Practices

• Intelligence

• Cognitive Functions

• Symptom Checklists

• Personality

• Usually just one informant with adult assessment

• With children, there will be at least one adult present who will provide infromation

Ethical Correlation

• Informed consent

• Awareness of limits of the confidentiality

• Responsible caring

• Interpreting data in an even-handed way

Developing a Plan

• Generate multiple hypotheses that need to be examined to address the question

• Gather data to test the hypotheses using a biopsychosocial approach

• Keep ethical issues in mind

  • Consent

  • Confidentiality