Clinical Assessment - Chapter 4 Content

Question 1

Define what a clinical assessment is.

Answer 1

A systematic evaluation of the psychological, biological and social factors of a person presenting with a possible mental disorder.

Question 2

Define a diagnosis.

Answer 2

It is the process taken to determine if the presented problem meets the criteria for a disorder

Question 3

What are the three concepts to determine the value of the assessment?

Answer 3

Reliability, validity, and standardisation.

Question 4

Define reliability.

Answer 4

This is the degree to which a measurement is consistent (over time or amount different psychologists) Interrater reliability is used to make sure that when assessing, the proper steps are taken so that other psychologists would end up at the same result.

Question 5

Define validity.

Answer 5

This is the degree to which a technique measure is being used to actually measure what it is supposed to measure correctly. Predictive validity is referring to how well the information will tell you about the future.

Question 6

Define standardization.

Answer 6

This is the process of creating norms and requirements for a measuring technique to ensure it is used consistently. This can include instructions for taking the measure, understanding the findings and comparing these for large numbers of people.

Question 7

What is a mental status exam?

Answer 7

This is a preliminary test of a clients judgement, orientation to time/place, and emotional/mental states

Question 8

What are the 5 categories in the mental status exam?

Answer 8

Appearance and behaviour, thought processes, mood and affect, intellectual functions, and sensorium (general awareness of our surroundings).

Question 9

What are semistructured and unstructured interviews?

Answer 9

Unstructured follow no systemic format whereas semistructured interviews follow questions that have been carefully phrased and tested to get the most information in a consistent manner from the patient.

Question 10

Explain what a behavioural assessment is.

Answer 10

This is about measuring, observing, and evaluating the client’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour in the actual problem context/situation.

Question 11

What are the ABC’s of observation?

Answer 11

Antecedents (events that existed before or after another), behaviour, and consequences.

Question 12

What are projective tests?

Answer 12

They include a variety of ambiguous stimuli (people or things) and are presented to a person and asked to describe what they see. The purpose is to see how people project their own personality and unconscious fears onto other people/things. (inkblot test)

Question 13

What is neuropsychological testing?

Answer 13

It is the assessment of the brain and nervous system functioning by testing an individual’s performance on behavioural tasks. We can have false positives and false negatives.

Question 14

Explain what a CAT scan is.

Answer 14

It is a non-invasive scan (other than X-rays) and has proved useful for identifying and locating abnormalities in the structure/shape of the brain.

Question 15

Explain what an MRI scan is.

Answer 15

An MRI is where the head is placed into a high-strength magnetic field where radio frequency signals are transmitted. These signals will excite the neurons in the brain tissue and this can help to see where possible lesions are as there is not as much activity.

Question 16

Explain what a PET scan is.

Answer 16

An imaging tracer is injected into the brain then the scan uses rings of detectors to measure the radioactive decay of the tracer.

Question 17

Explain what an EEG is.

Answer 17

This measures electrical activity patterns in the brain taken through electrodes placed on the scalp, both times being awake or asleep.

Question 18

What are some of the different areas of classification?

Answer 18

Taxonomy (scientific purposes), nosology (clinical purposes), and nomenclature (the names of disorders that create the sections of nosology.

Question 19

What are the types of approaches taken when classifying a disorder?

Answer 19

Classical categorical (focuses on the clear-cut differences among disorders), dimensional (categorizing based on a continuum rather than on an all-or-non basis), prototypical (categorizing using both defining characteristics and a range of variation on other characteristics)

Question 20

What are the sections of the DSM-5?

Answer 20

Section one is introducing the manual and describes how to best use it. Section two is presenting the disorder themselves and the third is about the descriptions of disorders/conditions in order to qualify for an official diagnosis.

Question 21

What are some of the pros of classifying a mental disorder?

Answer 21

Taxonomy, nomenclature, treatment, research, social/politics, insurance

Question 22

What are some of the cons of classifying a mental disorder?

Answer 22

Labelling, stereotyping, stigma-based discrimination

Question 23

Describe categorial classification.

Answer 23

It is based on an all-or-nothing perspective when it comes to having the disorder or not. It is very consistent with the medical model of illness but can cause professionals to miss important info about the patient.

Question 24

Describe dimensional classification.

Answer 24

The symptoms are based along a continuum and focus on how much the behaviour/characteristic is present. Also looks at the intensity of the symptoms but it can be hard to determine what the dimensions would be.

Question 25

What are some pros and cons of categorical classification?

Answer 25

Pros: have a certain answer, easier to treat, the disorder can be made in a shorter time, easier for research
Cons: can miss place patient into wrong disorder, missing context of patient, no severity of disorder

Question 26

What are some pros and cons of dimensional classification?

Answer 26

Pros: taking feelings more into consideration, more flexible, help patients to understand themselves, more reliable/stable
Cons: longer process, could overwhelm patient with info, difficult for others to completely understand, research would needed to be readjusted

Question 27

Explain what the prototypical approach is when it comes to the DSM-5.

Answer 27

This approach is explaining the essential characteristics and the non-essential variations needed to classify a mental disorder. the categories are not assumed to be discrete. (example is with how pizza can have different toppings but still be a pizza)

Question 28

What are all the different parts of the DSM-5?

Answer 28

Criterion A and B explain the possible symptoms or feeling that the patient is expressing/feeling. Criteria C is the list of symptoms that the patient has to have for a certain amount of time to be considered as this disorder. Part D is expressing how the is not clinically significant, criteria E is about how this is not from another physiological effect, and criteria F is talking about how this disorder is not caused by another disorder.

Question 29

What are some of the criticism of the DSM-5?

Answer 29

That the decisions were based on committees, over-influenced by pharmaceuticals, over-pathologizing and that there are too many disorders.

Question 30

What are some of the strengths of the DSM-5?

Answer 30

That is its use with today’s current knowledge, user-friendly and it is not biased towards one theory.

Question 31

What are some of the reasons for clinical treatment?

Answer 31

Formulate diagnosis, understand behaviour, predict behaviour, plan and narrow treatment, evaluate treatment outcome, and help client to understand

Question 32

What are inter-rater and test-retest when it comes to reliability?

Answer 32

Inter-rater is seeing that there is consistency between 2 individuals doing the same tests with the same diagnosis. Test-retest is understood that there should be no difference in results from today and one week from now with the same type of assessment.