Chapter 17: Testing in Healthy Psychology and Healthcare

Question 1

Relevance

Answer 1

Why Health Psych/Healthcare?

• 5% of all psychologists are employed in medical centers, hospitals, etc.
• 3 booming medical settings:
  1) Neuropsych assessment
  2) Anxiety/stress assessment
  3) Quality of life assessment

Question 2

Neuropsychological Assessments

Answer 2

• Clinical neuropsychology studies relationships between brain and behavior
• Broca and Wernicke: originators

General uses:

• Early detection of disease
• Traumatic brain injury (TBI)
• Disease and cognition
• Memory dysfunction
• Motor problems
• Learning capacities
• Spatial integration

Question 3

Testing for Developmental Neuropsychology

Answer 3

Good for:
-Early testing to establish baseline or detect abnormalities early

Two things commonly measured:

• Attention: focus
• Executive functioning: planning, volition (voluntary)

Question 4

Uses in Developmental Neuropsychology (2)

Answer 4

Learning disabilities
-Reading, math, expressive disorders
-Dyslexia: difficulties encoding word (NOT DIAGNOSIS)
+Approximately 1 in 25 school children affected
+80% of those with LD
-Accommodations provided for LD students

Malingering: faking illness/injury

Athletics: determine seriousness of concussions
-Concussion Resolution Index (CRI)
+Reaction time, visual recognition, processing speed
+Concussions in Hockey (any alteration to alertness, shaking violently)

Question 5

Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery

Answer 5

Adult Neuropsychology
-8-12 hours to administer

Subtests include:

• Tactual test: motor speed, psychomotor skills
• Rhythm test: auditory perception, concentration
• Trail-making test: basic and higher level cognitive processes
• Finger oscillation: right and left hand preference, dominant hand more likely to have more taps

Question 6

Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery

Answer 6

Adult Neuropsychology

Premise: brain is a functional system
-Pluripotentiality: each part of the brain involved in several neural functions

Distinguishes neuropsych functions
-Takes 24 hours to administer

Question 7

California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT)

Answer 7

Qualitative approach to administration
-Identifies how errors are made in learning

Construction: a list of words to remember
-Assessment:
\+Recognition and recall
\+Semantic and serial strategies
\+Serial position effects (beginning/end)
\+Learning rates

Question 8

Measures of Test Anxiety

Answer 8

Mandler & Sarason (1952)

• Task-relevant responses: respond to test question
• Task-irrelevant responses: respond to extraneous noises (Test Anxiety Questionairre [TAQ])

Test Anxiety Scale (TAS); State-Trait Anxiety Inventory
-Measure trait, not state, test-anxiety

Anxiety Achievement Test (AAT)
-Facilitating vs. debilitating anxiety

Question 9

Mechanisms of Test Anxiety

Answer 9

• Negative self-talk (most common in class)
• Disqualifying the positive
• Catastophization

Question 10

Ecological Momentary Assessment

Answer 10

• In-the-moment recording of behavior (e.g. smoking), emotional states (e.g. anxiety)
• Reduces lack-of-recall because no delay
• Information collected in natural environment
• Allows for short-term longitudinal research