PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Mental Status Examination, System Model, Psychopathology

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jens C Pruessner

Document Summary

Today: multiaxial system: the system used in the dsm that provides assessment along 5 axes describing important mental health factors. Assessment: examination of a person"s mental state to diagnose possible psychological disorders. Mental status exam: provide a snapshot of mental functioning: behavioural observation. In a clinical interview, the 1st thing a psychologist asks is: current symptoms and recent experiences that might cause distress. Unstructured interviews are flexible, but are too highly dependent of the interviewer"s skill. In structured interviews, standardized questions are asked in the same order. The patient"s answers are coded according to a predetermined formula; the diagnosis is based on the patterns of responding. The most commonly used is the structured clinical interview for dsm (scid) Psychological testing: the minnesota multiphasic personality inventory (mmpi) (1930) which consists of 567 true/false questions and takes into account 10 clinical scales. Neuropsychological testing: each task requires ability such as planning, coordinating or remembering.