PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT TUBA

Definition

Psychological assessment is a process that involves the integration of information from

multiple sources, such as psychological tests, personal history, description of current
symptoms and problems by either self or others, and collateral information.

OR

The gathering and integrating of psychological data for psychological evaluation, through the
use of tests, interviews, behavioural observation, and specially designed apparatuses and
measurement procedures

Explanation

A psychological assessment is the attempt of a skilled professional, usually a psychologist, to

use the techniques and tools of psychology such as tests , interviews ,behavioral observation
and other techniques to learn either general or specific facts about another person, either to
inform others of how they function now, or to predict their behavior and functioning in the
future.
THE PROCESS OF PYSCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT.

STEP 1: DECIDING WHAT IS BEING ASSESSED
First a psychologist formulates an initial question or set of questions .These questions are
typically developed in response to a referral or request for help made by either an individual
or by others on behalf of the individual (e.g. concerned family member, parents and
physician)
STEP 2: DETERMINING THE GOALS OF ASSESMENT
Second the psychologist generates the set of goals for collecting the information that the
psychologist hopes to accomplish during the assessment process.
STEP 3: SELECTING STANDARDS FOR MAKING DECISION
The third step in the assessment process involves the identification of standards for
interpreting the information that is collected
STEP 4: COLLECTING ASSESSMENT DATA
 Fourth the psychologist must collect the relevant data .This step includes collecting
information about the person and the environment and carefully describing and recording
what is observed.
STEP 5: MAKING DECISIONS
The fifth step in the assessment process involves making the decision and judgement on the
basis of the data that have been collected
STEP 6: COMMUNICATING THE INFORMATION

Finally , a psychologist must communicate these judgements and decisions to others typically
in the form of psychological report

Techniques of psychological assessment

Some of the techniques of the psychological assessment are given below
 Psychological tests
 Clinical interview
 Observation
 Behavioral and cognitive assessment techniques
 Biological assessment
1)Psychological Tests
Psychological tests are written, visual, or verbal evaluations administered to assess the
cognitive and emotional functioning of children and adults.
Or
A psychological test is essentially an objective and standardized measure of a sample of
behavior.
Types of psychological tests

1)Neuropsychological tests:
These tests are used to measure a psychological function known to be linked to a
particular brain structure or pathway. 
Examples:  
 Animal Naming in both adults and children
 Aphasia Screening Test in above 5 years
 Category Test in above 15 years
 Children’s Memory Scale (CMS) in 5-16 years
2)Personality tests:
Personality tests are designed to measure human personality construct. Personality test is
divided into Projective tests and Objective tests.
a)Projective test
Projective test is a personality test designed to let a person respond to ambiguous stimuli,
presumably revealing hidden emotions and internal conflicts projected by the person into the
test .Frank introduced the term projective methods .
Examples: 
 Rorschach test.
 Holtzman Inkblot test
 Sentence completion test
 Thematic Apperception Test
 Child Apperception Test
 Human figure drawing
b)Objective tests: An objective test is a test that has right or wrong answers and so can
be marked objectively. 
Examples:
 16 PF
 California Psychological Inventory 
 MMPI 
3)Intelligence tests:
Intelligence is the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think
rationally and to deal effectively with his environment. (Wechsler)

Intelligence tests are psychological tests that are designed to measure a variety of mental

functions, such as reasoning, comprehension, and judgment.

Examples:
 Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale 
 Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children 
 Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test
 Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children 
4)Aptitude tests:
An aptitude test is a test that is specifically designed to find out how easily and how well you
can do something. It is a component of competence to do a certain kind of work at a certain
level. 
Example: 
 Numerical Reasoning Test
 Verbal Reasoning Test
 Abstract Reasoning Test 
 Spatial Reasoning Test 
5)Achievement test: Achievement tests are designed to measure the attainment of skills
taught within the schools or training programs. 
Example: 
 Iowa Test of Basic Skills
 Iowa Test of Educational Development
Test of Achievement and Proficiency

Clinical interview

Interview

An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the

interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the
interviewee.

Clinical interview

A clinical interview is the dialogue between the psychologist and client that is designed to
help the psychologist to diagnose and plan the treatment for the client.

Types of clinical interview

1. Unstructured interview
2. Structure interview
3. Semi structure interview
1)Unstructured Interview
Definition
Interview in which the clinician adopts his or her own style of questioning rather than
following any standard format.
 Explanation
The term unstructured is used to indicate that the interviewer is free to ask the
question in any order. In this type of interview , the client is asked open ended
question .A significant part of unstructured interview is history taking ,which involve
asking the question related to personal history and family history.
2)Structure interview
Definition
Interview that follow the present series of questions in a particular order
Explanation
The structure interview give less freedom to the clinicians as it involves asking the
set of predetermined question in fixed order. Structured interview provide the highest
level of reliability and consistency in reaching diagnostic judgement.

3)Semi structure interview

Definition
Interview in which the clinician follows the general outline of questions designed to
gather essential information but is free to ask them in any order and to branch off in
other directions.
Explanation
In semi structure interview there is a pre list of questions but clinicians are able to
follow upon specific issue that catch their attention . A semi structure interview
provide more structure and uniformity but at the expense of some spontaneity.

3) Observation

DEFINITION

Observation isa visual method of gathering information on activities: of what happens, what 
your object of study does or how it behaves

EXPLANATION

Clinician has paid a considerable attention to the careful observation of behaviour in a variety
of setting. Through observation ,clinician can observe and quantify problem behaviour A
clinical observation is used by skilled clinicians, doctors, and therapists in order to glean
information about their patients or clients that are used in order to determine a diagnosis and
treatment plan

TYPE OF OBSERVATION

1)Naturalistic observation

Definition

Observation of behaviour in natural setting, without any attempt by the observer to

intervene .Explanation

In this method observer act as the passive recorder of what occurs .The events occur naturally
and they are not manipulated or controlled by the observer. Naturalistic observation is the
process of watching without interfering.

2)Participant observation

Definition

In participant observation ,the researcher participate in ongoing activities and record the
behaviour

Explanation

In participant observation the observer plays a dual role. They observe people ‘s behaviour
and participate actively in the situation .There are two type of participant observation

1)overt

2)over

3)Controlled Observation

Definition

An observation made under standard and systematic conditions rather than casual or
incidental conditions.

Explanation

Controlled observations are likely to be carried out in a psychology laboratory. The

researcher decides where the observation will take place, at what time and uses a
standardized procedure. Naturalistic settings often put clinicians at the mercy of events  ,in
order to overcome this, clinicians sometimes use controlled observation.

4)Self-observation/self-monitoring

Definition

The process of observing and recording one own thought , behaviour and emotion.

Explanation

when dealing with individual clients, it is often impractical or too expensive to observe them
as they move freely in their daily activities. Therefore ,clinicians have been relying
increasingly on self-monitoring in which individual observe and record their own behaviour,
thoughts and emotion.

4)Behavioral and cognitive assessment

It is used to assess individual behavioral and cognitive level , his personality structure and
traits.it lead the clinicians to assess four set of variables referred by the acronym SORC

S stand for stimulus

O stands for organismic

R refer to overt responses

C refer to consequent variables

5)Biological assessment

Clinicians has attempted to observe the functioning of brain and other part of nervous system
to understand normal and abnormal psychological functioning

Brain imaging and neuropsychological assessment is used in this regard

Cultural biases in assessment

Cultural and racial factors play a role in clinical assessment. Clinicians use various methods
to minimize the negative effects of cultural biases, when assessing clients .Sattler (1982)
makes some helpful suggestion in this regard

 Clinicians should make efforts to learn about the culture of the person being assessed
 It is essential for the clinicians to determine the client preferred language and consider
the testing in more than one language
 Assessment procedure can also be modified to ensure that the person truly understand
the requirement of the task.
 When the examiner and client have different ethnic background ,the examiner may
need to make an extra effort to establish the rapport that will result in the person’s
best performance.