Psychology 2030A/B Chapter : Chapter three- Clinical Assessment

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2030A/B
• Professor: David Vollick

Document Summary

Clinical assessment: systematic evaluation and measurement. Diagnosis: degree of fit between symptoms and diagnostic criteria. Purposes of clinical assessment: to understand the individual, to predict behaviour, to plan treatment, to evaluate treatment outcome. Analogous to a funnel: starts broad, multidimensional in approach, narrow to specific problem areas. e. g. test-related, inter-rater reliability: consistency across time/various tests/etc. Validity: what the test measures and how well it does so. e. g. content, concurrent, discriminant, construct, and face validity. Standardization: standards and norms help ensure consistency, examples include administration procedures, scoring, and evaluation of data. Clinical interview: most common clinical assessment method, structured or semi-structured. Mental status exam: rule out toxicity, med. Side effects, etc: oriented x 3 = ability to identify person, place, and time. Behavioural assessment: focus on here and now, tends to be direct and minimally inferential. Identify antecedents, behaviours, and consequences = functional analysis.