Chap. 4: Clinical Assessment & Diagnosis

Question 1

Psychological assessment

Answer 1

procedure by which clinicians, using psychological tests, observation, and interviews, develop a summary of the clients’s symptoms and problems

Question 2

Clinical diagnosis

Answer 2

process through which a clinician arrives at a general summary classification of the patient’s symptoms

Question 3

Presenting problem

Answer 3

• major symptom and behavior the client is experiencing

Question 4

Psychosocial

Answer 4

• personality
• social factors
• medical factors
• psychiatric factors
• important life events

Question 5

Trust and rapport

Answer 5

• Rapport: the quality of the therapeutic relationship, known as the alliance, between the therapist and patient
• successful assessment often requires a client to be comfortable and trust them
• informed consent regarding confidentiality

Question 6

Reliability

Answer 6

degree to which an assessment measure produces the same result each time it is used to evaluate the same thing

• results are consistent

Question 7

validity

Answer 7

• extent to which a measuring instrument actually measures what it is supposed to measure
• results satisfy objectives

Question 8

Standardization

Answer 8

• process by which a psychological test is administered, scored, and interpreted in a consistent or “standard” manner

Question 9

Assessment Instruments: structured interview

Answer 9

• more controlled, reliable data
• allows responses to be quantified
• take longer to administer
• some questions might be irrelevant to client
• overly detailed or irrelevant questions frustrating to client

Question 10

Assessment Instruments: unstructured interview

Answer 10

• typically subjective
• moves from general questions to detailed follow-up questions specific to the client
• possibility of missing important questions
• too uncontrolled for research purposes
• clients might view this as more sensitive to their needs
• valuable, spontaneous information that would not emerge in structured interview

Question 11

Assessment Instruments: clinical observation

Answer 11

• direct observation of a client’s characteristic behavior
• Mental Status Exam: objective description of a person’s appearance and behavior

Question 12

Assessment Instruments: self-monitoring

Answer 12

• ask the client to monitor various thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and triggers throughout the week in their natural life

Question 13

Assessment Instruments: neuropsychological testing

Answer 13

• indirect means of assessing individual characteristics
• subject’s responses to stimuli in comparison to others w/ comparable demographic characteristics
• Tests for: memory, intelligence, attention, executive functioning

Question 14

Objective Personality Tests

Answer 14

• structured tests that use self-report questionnaires or rating scales
  - more controlled than projective tests, better
  reliability and precision

Question 15

Objective Personality Tests: examples

Answer 15

• Neurotocism-Extraversion-Openess Personality Inventory (NEO-PI)
  - provides info on the major dimensions in
  personality
• Million Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCM-III)
  - evaluates underlying personality dimensions
  among clients in treatment
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
  (MMPI-3 is most recent)
  - most widely used personality test for clinical
  and forensic assessment

Question 16

Intergration

Answer 16

• multiple assessment measures often used for one patient
• basis for treatment recommendations
• continue to integrate ongoing assessment data on the patient’s progress throughout treatment

Question 17

Routine Outcome Monitoring

Answer 17

• Routine Outcome Monitoring (ROM) is the term used for the process of monitoring patient treatment progression by collecting patient feedback during treatment
• ROM doesn’t refer to one assessment instrument, a therapist could use any assessment that they believe fits the client’s needs the best

Question 18

Ethical Issues in Assessment

Answer 18

• cultural bias
• theoretical orientation
• underemphasis on external situation
• insufficient validation
• inaccurate data or premature evaluation

Question 19

Models of Classification: Categorical Approach

Answer 19

• assumes that all human behavior can be divided into the categories of healthy and disordered
• within the disordered, there are discrete, non-overlapping types of disorders
• e.g., DSM-5

Question 20

Models of Classification: dimensional approach

Answer 20

• assumes that behavior is the product of different intensities of behavior along several different dimensions
  - mood, emotional stability, aggressiveness, gender identity, anxiousness, social introversion, etc.
• e.g., RDoC