Chapter 4: Assessment & Diagnosis Flashcards
Define standardization.
- Set up common steps to be followed whenever test/technique is administered
- Test is administered to a large group of people whose performance then serves as a standard or norm against which any individual’s score can be measured
Define reliability. What are the different kinds?
A measure of the consistency of test or research results
- test-retest = yields same result every time it’s given to same people
- inter-rater = judges independently agree on how to score and interepret
Define validity. What are the different kinds?
The extent to which the test or study accurately measures what it’s supposed to measure
- face validity = instrument may not be trustworthy
- predictive validity = tool’s ability to predict future characteristics/behavior
- concurrent validity = degree to which measures gathered from one tool agree with measure gathered from other tools
What is a mental status exam?
A set of interview questions and observations designed to reveal the degree and nature of a client’s abnormal functioning
Describe the intake assessment criteria.
- Reasons for referral and assessment (chief complaint)
- History of current problem (stressors, symptoms, duration)
- Social history (living situation, marital status, employment)
- Family history (history of abuse)
- Legal history
- Support network (friends, church)
- Medical & psychiatric history (mental illnesses, meds)
- Substance abuse history
What are the components of the mental status exam?
- General appearance and behavior (grooming, facial expression, activity level, gait, mannerisms, attitude)
- Speech (quality, rate, content)
- Affect & mood
- Thoughts (content, delusions, hallucinations, paranoid ideation)
- Orientation (place, time self, consciousness)
- Memory (immediate, past, attention span, concentration)
- Intellectual functioning (intelligence, judgment)
- Insight (awareness of illness, motivation for treatment, knowledge of illness)
- Somatic symptoms (appetite, libido, sleep)
- Suicidality (attempts, risk)
- Homicidality (history, risk)
What is a clinical interview?
First face to face encounter during which clinician collects info about person’s problems, feelings, lifestyle, history, and devises possible treatment options
What are the main data collection methods in clinical practice?
- Clinical interview
- Behavioral observation
- External sources
- Psychological tests
- Neurological tests
What are projective personality tests? Main hypothesis?
- Subjects asked to respond to ambiguous stimuli while being unaware of the the true purpose of the test
- Subjects will project aspects of their own personality into their responses
Describe the Rorschach Inkblot Test.
- Images a viewer say in blot seemed to correspond w/ his/her psychological condition
- Do they see whole image of specific details?
- Do they focus on the ink blots or the white spaces in between?
Describe the Thematic Apperception Test.
- People shown 30 black and white pictures of individuals in vague situations and are asked to make up a story about each
- Tell what is happening, what led up to it, what the characters are feeling and thinking, what the outcome will be
- People usually identify with characters
- Common theme emerges
Describe the Sentence Completion Test.
- Good springboard for discussion
- I like… Men… My greatest fear… I regret… I can’t… My father… I secretly…
Describe the Draw-A-Person test. How is person evaluated?
- Details and shape of drawing
- Solidity of pencil line
- Location of drawing on paper
- Size of figures
- Features of figures
- Use of background
Describe the House-Tree-Person test.
- Person asked to draw a house, tree, person
- “Who lives in house?” “Why does the house look like that?”
What is a personality inventory?
A tests designed to measure broad personality characteristics consisting of statements about behaviors, beliefs, feelings that people evaluate as either characteristic or uncharacteristic of them (true/false questions)
