Chapter 3 (clinical assessments & diagnosis) Flashcards
The specific tools used in an assessment
depend on the clinician’s
theoretical
orientation
clinical assessment tools
have been developed and fall into three
categories
– Clinical interviews
– Tests
– Observations
Types of Reliability
- Test-Retest
- Alternate Form
- Internal
- Interrater or
Interjudge
Test-Retest
Test produces similar results when given at two
points in time.
Alternate Form
Two versions of the same test produce similar
results.
Internal
Different parts of the same test produce similar
results.
Interrater or
Interjudge
Two or more raters or judges who administer a
test to an individual and score it come to
similar conclusions.
Types of Validity
- Face
- Content
- Concurrent
- Predictive
- Construct
Concurrent
Test yields the same results as other
measures of the same behavior,
thoughts or feelings
Malingering
intentionally providing a false
report of symptoms or
exaggerating existing symptoms
Some patients are bad at providing history because of:
illness such as Schizophrenia or Dementia
Clinical Interviews
Can be either unstructured or
structured
unstructured interview
clinicians ask open-ended
questions
structured interview
clinicians ask prepared questions,
often from a published interview
schedule
Behavioural Assessment
- Target behaviours identified and
observed - ABCs of observation
– Antecedents, behaviours, and
consequences
Self-monitoring
People observe themselves and carefully record the frequency of certain behaviors, feelings, or cognitions as they occur over time
–When people monitor themselves, they may change their behavior
Projective tests
Require that clients interpret vague and ambiguous
stimuli or follow open-ended instruction
Personality inventories
– Designed to measure broad personality characteristics
– Focus on behaviors, beliefs, and feelings
– Usually based on self-reported responses
– Most widely used: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality
Inventory
* For adults: MMPI (original) or MMPI-2 (1989 revision)
* For adolescents: MMPI-A
Response inventories
- Usually based on self-reported
responses - Focus on one specific area of
functioning - Affective inventories (example: Beck Depression Inventory)
- Social skills inventories
- Cognitive inventories
Intelligence tests
- Designed to indirectly
measure intellectual ability - Typically comprised of a series
of tests assessing both verbal
and nonverbal skills - General score is an
intelligence quotient (IQ) - Most popular: Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale (WAIS) and
Wechsler Intelligence Scale for
Children (WISC)
Weakness of intellegence tests
- Performance can be influenced by
nonintelligence factors (e.g., motivation,
anxiety, test-taking experience) - Tests may contain cultural biases in language
or tasks
Classification provides the ability to
– describe a condition in a few words **
– group certain abnormal behaviors and experiences
together
– convey etiology, course, and indications for treatment
– study cases, course, and effects of treatments
– indicate whether an individual is in need of attention,
support, or benefits
– allow patients to identify with others **
The Nature and Forms of Classification
Systems
– Classical (or pure) categorical approach
– Dimensional approach
– Prototypical approach
Classical (or pure) categorical approach
Strict categories
Dimensional approach
Classification along dimension
Prototypical approach
Combines classical and dimensional views
Categorical
Presence/absence of a disorder
Dimensional
Rank on a continuous quantitative
dimension
