Week 1: Intro to Psychological Assessment

Question 1

What is a psychological asessment?

Answer 1

It is a formal process that uses validated and reliable measures of psychological or cognitive functioning to evaluate certain skills and attributes.

Question 2

What are the five assessment measures?

Answer 2

1. Questionnaires or surveys
2. Tests
3. Structured or unstructured interviews
4. Behavioural observation
5. Puzzle-like activities

Question 3

What do psychological assessments focus on in Australia?

Answer 3

Our current tools focus on the individual and measure the cognitive skills that are valued in our individualistic, capitalist society. They also measure personality traits that are deemed desirable in our culture.

Question 4

What is the main purpose of conducting psychological assessments?

Answer 4

To answer referral questions.

Question 5

What are the five different referral contexts?

Answer 5

1. Psychiatric
2. General medical
3. Legal
4. Academic/educational
5. Psychological clinic/private

Question 6

What is the psychiatric referral context?

Answer 6

The psychological assessment in the psychiatric context usually provides assistance in characterisation and treatment planning.

Question 7

What complications can arise in the psychiatric referral context?

Answer 7

If the client is already engaged in treatment and there are different approaches between the psychologist and psychiatrist, it can lead to miscommunication and misinterpretations, as well as role confusion.

Question 8

What is the general medical referral context?

Answer 8

Assessments in this context usually investigate psychosocial factors that may be causing or maintaining medical issues.

Question 9

What is the legal referral context?

Answer 9

Assessments in the legal context are usually requested as evidence for hearings involving custody decisions, criminal cases, sentencing decisions etc…

Question 10

What is the academic/educational referral context?

Answer 10

Assessments in the academic/educational context answer questions about cognitive functioning, suitable careers, explanations for behavioural issues, decisions around additional support etc…

Question 11

What is the psychological clinic/private referral context?

Answer 11

Assessments in this context focus on determining the presenting issues of a client and how to proceed with treatment.

Question 12

What are the 3 ethical guidelines to consider when selecting an appropriate assessment?

Answer 12

1. Linguistic equivalence
2. Conceptual equivalence
3. Metric equivalence

Question 13

What is linguistic equivalence?

Answer 13

It refers to whether a test or assessment has been translated accurately from another language.

Question 14

What is conceptual equivalence?

Answer 14

It refers to whether the concepts in the test have the same meaning across different cultures.

Question 15

What is metric equivalence?

Answer 15

It refers to whether the test has similar psychometric properties across groups e.g., if the test was made to predict academic performance for high schoolers, can it be applied to other groups?

Question 16

What factors can affect the results of an assessment?

Answer 16

Factors such as socioeconomic status and educational differences can affect results.

Question 17

What are the four stages of culturally appropriate assessment?

Answer 17

Stage 1. Proactive Steps
Stage 2. Assessment Outset
Stage 3. Assessment Process
Stage 4. Results Reporting

Question 18

What is stage 1 of culturally appropriate assessment?

Answer 18

This stage includes the proactive steps that should be taken prior to the assessment i.e., training for the practitioner.

Question 19

What is stage 2 of culturally appropriate assessment?

Answer 19

This is the assessment outset which requires practitioners to undertake a comprehensive interview with their client before deciding on the assessment processes and use of any formal testing.

Question 20

What is stage 3 of culturally appropriate assessment?

Answer 20

The assessment process requires practitioners to recognise and document the impact of the language and non-verbal communication.

Question 21

What is stage 4 of culturally appropriate assessment?

Answer 21

This is the result reporting stage which includes the interpretation and reporting of results and requires practitioners to incorporate cultural explanations, and avoid labelling.