LESSON 2

Psychological Assessment
A psychological assessment is the attempt of a skilled professional, usually a psychologist, to use the
techniques and tools of psychology to learn either general or specific facts about another person, either to
inform others of how they function now, or to predict their behavior and functioning in the future.
A psychological assessment can include numerous components such as norm-referenced psychological
tests, informal tests and surveys, interview information, school or medical records, medical evaluation and
observational data. A psychologist determines what information to use based on the specific questions being
asked.
The point of assessment is often diagnosis or classification. These are the act of placing a person in a
strictly or loosely defined category of people. This allows us to quickly understand what they are like in general,
and to assess the presence of other relevant characteristics based upon people similar to them. There are
several parts to assessment.

Tests and Assessments

Testing involves the use of formal tests such as questionnaires or checklists. These are often described
as “norm-referenced” tests. That simply means the tests have been standardized so that test-takers are
evaluated in a similar way, no matter where they live or who administers the test. A norm-referenced test of a
child's reading abilities, for example, may rank that child's ability compared to other children of similar age or
grade level. Norm-referenced tests have been developed and evaluated by researchers and proven to be
effective for measuring a particular trait or disorder.

There are basically seven types of tests:

• Group educational tests such as the California Achievement Test
• Ability and preference tests such as the Myers-Briggs
• LD and neuropsychology tests such as the Halstead Reitan Battery
• Individual intelligence tests such as the WAIS and WISC
• Readiness tests such as the Metropolitan Readiness Tests
• Objective personality tests such as the MMPI2 or NEO-Pi-R
• Self-administered, scored, and interpreted tests, such as data base user qualification tests

A good test is both reliable and valid, and has good norms.

1. Reliability, briefly, refers to the consistency of the test results. For example, IQ is not presumed to vary much
from week to week, and as such, test results from an IQ test should be highly reliable. On the other hand,
transient mood states do not last long, and a measurement of such moods should not be very reliable over long
periods of time.

2. Validity, briefly, refers to how well a test measures what it says it does. In a simple way, validity tells you if
the hammer is the right tool to fix a chair, and reliability tells you how good a hammer you have. A test of
intelligence based on eye color (blue eyed people are more intelligent than brown eyed people) would certainly
be reliable, because eye color doesn't change, but it would not be very valid, because IQ and eye color have
little to do with each other.

3. Norms are designed to tell you what the result of measurement (a number) means in relation to other results
(numbers). The "normative sample" should be very representative of the sample of people who will be given
the test. Thus, if a test is to be used on the general population, the normative sample should be large, include
people from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds, and include people from all levels of income and
educational status.

Clinical Interview
One common assessment technique, for instance, is a clinical interview. When a psychologist
speaks to a client about his or her concerns and history, they're able to observe how the client thinks,
reasons and interacts with others. Assessments may also include interviewing other people who are
close to the client, such as teachers, coworkers or family members.

• Verbal and face-to-face - what does the client tell you? How much information are
they willing/able to provide?

• Para-verbal- how does the client speak? At normal pace, tone, volume, inflection? What is their
command of English, how well do they choose their words? Do they pick up on non-verbal cues
for speech and turn taking? How organized is their speech?

• Situation - Is the client cooperative? Is their participation voluntary? For what purpose is the
interview conducted? Where is the interview conducted?

There are really two kinds of Interviews, structured or unstructured.

1. Structured - It is designed to provide a diagnosis for a client by detailed questioning of the client in a "yes/no"
or "definitely/somewhat/not at all" forced choice format. It is broken up into different sections reflecting the
diagnosis in question. Often Structured interviews use closed questions, which require a simple pre-determined
answer. Examples of closed questions are "When did this problem begin? Was there any particular stressor going
on at that time? Can you tell me about how this problem started?" Closed interviews are better suited for specific
information gathering.

2. Unstructured - Other interviews can be less structured and allow the client more control over the topic and
direction of the interview. Unstructured interviews are better suited for general information gathering, and
structured interviews for specific information gathering. Unstructured interviews often use open questions,
which ask for more explanation and elaboration on the part of the client. Examples of open questions are "What
was happening in your life when this problem started? How did you feel then? How did this all start?" Open
interviews are better suited for general information gathering.

Behavioral Observations
Behavioral observation is an important assessment method that can be used to collect data
in the client’s natural settings where their problem behaviors are most prevalent or in a clinical
setting under contrived conditions designed to approximate important aspects of the natural setting.
 As social creatures and "informal scientists," we rely upon observations of behavior to
understand current social experiences and predict future social events. In fact, direct observation
of behavior is one of the most important strategies we use to process our social world.

1. Behavioral observation is an important assessment method that can be used to collect data in
the client’s natural settings where their problem behaviors are most prevalent or in a clinical setting
under contrived conditions designed to approximate important aspects of the natural setting.

2. Systematic recording of observable behaviors using carefully designed procedures to collect

reliable and valid data on the behavior and functional relations associated with the behavior (Bakeman
& Haynes, 2015; Haynes, O’Brien, et al., 2011)

3. In conducting a behavioral observation, the clinician needs to make several decisions about setting
(where the observations should be conducted), coding methods (how to record and quantify
observations), sampling strategies, and participants (who should be observed).

4. The clinician must apply a numerical value (e.g., score) to his or her observations of the relevant
dimensions of the target behavior problem and its causal variables and the occurrence of
environmental events to quantify these variables and to determine their functional relations. A
numerical value is also necessary to monitor the degree of change across settings and over time and
change in response to an intervention.

5. At the same time, qualitative data can also be recorded to capture other characteristics of a
behavior or causal variable that are not easily quantifiable, such as the form or expression of
behavior or unexpected functional relations.