Lecture 4: Assessment and Diagnosis Flashcards
What is reliability?
A term describing the degree to which an assessment measure produces the same result each time it is used to evaluate the same thing
What is test-retest reliability?
Whether a test result gives us a similar value today as it did a few days earlier (assuming you’re measuring something stable over time)
What is inter-rater reliability?
The degree to which different clinicians agree on a diagnosis
What is parallel-forms reliability?
The extent to which two alternate versions of an assessment measuring the same process give similar scores
What is validity?
The extent to which a measuring instrument actually measures what it is supposed to measure
What is face validity?
Whether a test measures what it appears to measure
What is convergent validity?
Checks if two tests that should measure the same thing actually give similar results.
What is predictive validity?
The extent to which the measure can predict performance on similar measures administered in the future
What is discriminant validity?
Checks whether a test measures what it’s supposed to and not something unrelated.
What is standardisation?
The process by which a psychological test is administered, scored and interpreted in a consistent (“standard”) manner
3 things a good assessment aims to do
- Describe the problem
- What can be done about it?
- What does the client want?
3 types of psychological assessments
- Clinical Interviews
- Observations of behaviour
- (Neuro)psychological tests
3 types of clinical interviews
- Structured interviews
- Semi-structured interviews
- Unstructured interviews
Describe structured interviews and its advantage & disadvantage
Follows a predetermined format, where each question is structured in a manner that allows responses to be quantified or clearly determined.
+ve: Yields far more reliable results than unstructured or flexible format
-ve: Can be stiff and prevent rapport forming
Describe semi-structured interviews and its advantage & disadvantage
Required to ask questions in a specific order and in a specific way, but can ask follow-up questions
+ve: Resulting diagnoses tend to have higher validity
-ve: Require more interviewer training and take longer to complete
Describe unstructured interviews and its advantage & disadvantage
Subjective and do not follow a predetermined set of questions
+ve: Clients may view the questions as being more sensitive to their needs or problems
-ve: Information needed for a DSM-5 diagnosis might be skipped and responses are hard to quantify
4 types of psychological assessments
- Observation in natural environments
- Self-monitoring
- Observations in therapeutic or medical settings
- Rating scales
3 dimensions of Wechsler Adult Intelligence test
- Vocabulary (verbal): subtest that consist of a list of words to define that are presented orally to the individual
- Digit span (performance): sequence of numbers given orally; test taker repeats in order given
- Block design (visuospatial): arrange cubes with different designs on each side to match an overall design
3 projective personality tests
- Rorschach Inkblot Test
- Thematic Apperception Test
- Sentence Completion Test
An example of objective personality test
MMPI
3 important factors influencing assessment
- Cultural competence
- Influence of professional orientation
- Trust and rapport between the clinician and the client
What are some approaches to classifcation?
- Categorical
- Dimensional
- Prototypal
Explain the categorical approach
Seeks to classify behaviour into distinct categories; approach used in DSM
What is comorbidity?
The concurrent presence of 2 or more disorders in the same person
Explain the dimensional approach
Assumes that a person’s typical behaviour is the product of differing strengths or intensities of definable dimensions (mood, emotional stability etc)
Explain the prototypal approach
Clinician decides if their patient fits the pattern of a “perfect” or “theoretically ideal” case
Symptom vs sign
A symptom is a patient’s subjective description of what’s wrong. Signs are objective and visual indicators of a problem.
