Ch 6: Assessment: Interviewing and Observation Flashcards
What are the common goals of assessment and psychotherapy interviews?
- establish and maintain rapport
- convey respect, empathy
- gather information not easily assessed in psychometric tests
- attend to verbal and nonverbal cues
- encourage client to ask questions and engage in service
- can involve individual, couple or family
- communicate service expectations and limits of confidentiality
What is a major pro of an interview?
- face to face allows you to pick up on other cues
- ex. how they attend, body language, appearance
What is the goal of an assessment interview?
- goal is to gather information needed for case formulation and diagnosis
- inform treatment or referral recommendations
- focus on specific areas
- 1 or 2 sessions
What is the goal of psychotherapy interviews?
- goal to guide and promote behavioural, cognitive and emotional change
- focus on specific issues to explore client understanding encourage alternative perspectives and develop change strategies
- information gathering concentrated to first few sessions
What are the limits of confidentiality?
- protection from harm
- harm to self
- harm to others
- harm from others
- abuse of a minor
- when required by law
What are the three types of interviews?
- unstructured
- semi-structured
- structured
What characterizes an unstructured interview?
- no specified structure or sequence of questions
- typically more open-ended questions
- most common format of clinical interviews
- most training needed
What characterizes semi-structured interviews?
- questions follow general sequence and structure, but allow for customization and follow-up prompts
- typically mix of open and close-ended questions
What characterizes a structured interview?
- questions stated and delivered in precise way, queries/prompts only if specified
- typically more closed-ended questions
- most often used in population surveys
- leas training needed
What type of language is important to use in interviewing?
- strengths-based language and approach while still gathering information on client/family struggles and psychosocial functioning
What is SCID-5?
- structured clinical interview for DSM-5
- most widely used
- very broad and time consuming
- do not need to administer all of it
- four versions depending on need: research, clinician, personality disorders, clinical trials
What is ADIS-5?
- anxiety and related disorders interview schedule for DSM-5
- less broad than SCID-5, more deep and less time consuming
- child and parent versions for DSM-IV
What are some general issues in interviewing?
- skills in questioning
- skills in listening and attending
- asking about sensitive issues
- cultural sensitivity
- adapting to children, couples, families, and older adults
What is important for assessment interviews with children?
- language is developmentally appropriate
- visual cues are helpful
- interactivity
What factors must be balanced in interviews?
- rapport vs information-gathering
- open vs. closed-ended questions
- directiveness vs non-directiveness
- eye-contact vs. averted gaze
What are some examples of “pursuing a line of questioning”?
- tell me more about…
- can you explain what you mean by..
- can you give me an example of…
What are some examples of “problem definition questions”?
- tell me what you mean by…
- what happens when…
- describe what it is like when…
What factors are you looking for with problem definition questions?
- frequency: how often does this happen, are there times when its better or worse
- intensity: how hard is it to do, what is the effect
- duration: when did this start, how long has it been going on
What are the aspects of assessing suicide risk?
- crucial responsibility to determine suicide risk in certain situations, especially with clients who report depressive symptoms
- common misconception that asking about or talking about suicide encourages risky behaviours
- various assessment strategies/mnemonics
What are the mnemonics for assessing suicide risk?
- IS PATH WARM
- SAD PERSONS
- H(e)LP
Where are observations conducted?
- clinic
- school and home (naturalistic)
- important data can be gathered by observing the client across settings
What factors can be observed?
- activity level
- attention span
- impulsivity
- speech
- physical movments
- interactions with others
What are the advantages of self-monitoring?
- not susceptible to same memory fading as retrospective reports
- helps establish baseline for behaviour or problem that is focus of treatment
- adaptable to use with devices (phones, wearables)
What are the challenges of self-monitoring?
- data not always accurate (forget to record, misunderstand task, reluctant to disclose)
- susceptible to reactivity (change in phenomenon being monitored due to process of being observed)
