Assessment Flashcards
How is culture relevant to assessment?
Assessment tests should not be culturally biased. Culture-fair tests enable measurement free from cultural-specific knowledge and therefore help reduce differences between minority and majority groups.
How would you know if a test was culturally biased?
If the test scores of people from one group are significantly differently due to cultural differences. The standardisation process should be based on a representative sample for which test norms are derived.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of structured interviews?
Advantages:
- It standardises the experience of interviews, increasing the reliability of the data obtained and allowing for comparison between clients
- Reduces the likelihood of missing relevant information
- They range from low to high structure e.g. high structure = SCID, low structure = uses prompts to structure the interview such as a list of topics found in checklists and intake forms
Disadvantages:
- Do not allow for unique flavour of the individuals, nor the flexibility for the interviewer to explore these nuances
- Extra time is usually required to administer and score the instruments
What are the advantages and disadvantages of an unstructured interview?
Advantages:
- Flexibility of the interview
- Topics of interest and psychologists’ hypothese can be explored
Disadvantages:
- Possibility of variance (variation in amount and type of information obtained)
- Possibility of bias (halo effect = attribution of unrelated attributes from the impression gained e.g. interpreting warmth/friendliness as emotional stability; confirmatory bias = asking questions to confirm an initial inference)
How is self-monitoring used as assessment?
Clients observe and record behaviours about themselves and the way they interact with the environment. This can be therapeutic in and of itself as it frequently leads to behaiour change (phenomenon known as reactivity).
What factors contribute to reactivity in self-monitoring?
Reactivity increases with:
- Higher motivation
- Strong alignment of behaviour with goals
- Greater visibility of recording devices
- Higher frequency of self-recording
What are the steps for self-monitoring?
- Introducing the rationale for the strategy
- Defining the response clearly
- Clearly defining how and when to record the responses
- Charting the responses so that it can be seen in a visual form
- Deciding where and how to display the results - public display may provide reinforcement from others but could jeopardise confidentiality and feelings of shame
- Analysing the data - discussion therapeutically to link results to the client’s goals and maintain the gains
What would a cognitive behavioural orientation interview assessment look like?
- Explaining the purpose of the assessment
- Discussing in full the range of concerns for the client
- Identifying the relative imporance of each of the client’s concerns
- Understanding the client’s present behaviours e.g. description of feelings, body sensation, action, and thoughts associated with the target behaviour
- Exploring antecedents for the behaviours of concern
- Identifying consequences and any gains that follow the behaviours of concern
- Exploring previous approaches by the client, including both unsuccessful and successful efforts
- Exploring the client’s coping skill and resources including relationship resources
- Exploring the client’s perception of the problem behaviour including the intensity of the distress it creates
What is the Mental Status Examination?
The MSE is used to assess for suitability for formal psychological testing or to guide case management in clients with possibility of severe psychological impairment. It can be completed formally or informally. It involves consideration of general appearance, feeling, perception, thinking, orientation, insight and speech.
What are the components of an MSE?
ASEPTIC:
- Apperance and Behaviour = age, dress, grooming/hygiene, gait, psychomotor activity, abnormal movements, eye contact, attitude
- Speech = rate, rhythm, tone, volume, accent, clarity, quantity
- Emotion = mood, affect, congruence, quality, range, stability
- Perception = hallucinations, illusions, depersonalisation, derealisation
- Thought Content and Process = thought process, thought content, delusions, suicidal ideation, homicidal ideation
- Insight and Judgement = patient’s understanding of difficulties, using facts and making reasonable decisions
- Cognition = alertness/consciousness, orientation, attention/concentration, memory, intelligence
What should be considered for historical suicide/homicide attempts?
- The precipitant
- The nature of ideation or attempt
- The reaction afterwards
- Considering the intent repored (e.g. I didn’t want to die), and the actions displayed (e.g. whether an attempt was made at a time when it was likely to be discovered)
What should be considered for current risk?
- Specificity i.e. has a method of self-harm been chosen by the client? Is the method available?
- Frequency, intensity and duration of the thoughts
- Reasons for harm (to help establish intent)
- Protective factors including social support and religious beliefs
What is the Fluid Vulnerability Theory?
The Fluid Vulnerability Theory hypothesises that every individual has a baseline risk depending on their personal history and other factors (e.g. trauma, diagnoses). Multiple attempters have a higher base risk of suicide or self-harm and this should be considered during the assessment, as well as the acute risk.
What is behavioural observation in assessment?
Behavioural observation directly measures specific target behaviours of concern indentified during interview. Target behaviours should be clearly and objectively defined. Simplicity of the definition of the target behaviour and recording method used increased reliability.
What is anecdotal observation?
- Anecdotal observation is a method of direct, continuous observation
- It can also be called ABC recording (Antecedent, Behaviour, Consequences)
- The observer records a descriptive and temporally sequenced account of behaviours of interest and the antecedent conditions and consequences related to the clients’ natural environment.
