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Lecture Notes Presentation

Chapter 4
Clinical Assessment Procedures

Abnormal Psychology, Eighth Edition

by

Gerald C. Davison and John M. Neale

Lecture notes created by Paul J. Wellman, Texas A&M University

2000 John Wiley & Sons,

Ch 4

Reliability
Reliability refers to consistency of measurement
Types of reliability:
Interrater reliability refers to the degree of agreement
between 2 observers
Test-retest reliability refers to the extent to which scores
are similar for a person being observed twice or taking
the same test twice
Internal consistency reliability examines whether the
items on a test are related

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Ch 4.1

Validity
Validity assesses the extent to which a test
or instrument fulfills its intended purpose
Some tests are designed to assess an inferred
dimension referred to as a construct
Anxiety is an inferred construct

The validity of an instrument is constrained by

the reliability of the instrument
Unreliable measures will not have good validity

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Ch 4.2

Forms of Validity
Content validity refers to whether a measure
adequately samples the domain of interest
Criterion validity refers to whether a measure
is associated in an expected way with another
measure (the criterion)
Construct validity refers to whether a measure
of a construct is supported by other measures
of that construct

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Ch 4.3

Psychological Assessment
The goal of psychological assessment is to
determine cognitive, emotional, personality
and behavioral factors in psychopathology
Techniques of assessment include

Clinical interviews
Psychological tests
Behavioral assessment procedures
Cognitive assessment procedures

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Ch 4.4

Clinical Interviews
An interview is any interpersonal encounter in
which language is used to gather information
about a client
A clinical interviewer pays attention to how the client
answers questions posed by the interviewer
Clinical interviews involve a degree of empathy for
the problems of the client
Clinical interviews can be highly structured or very
informal

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Ch 4.5

Psychological Tests
Psychological tests are standardized procedures
designed to measure a persons performance on a
task or to assess his or her personality
Psychological tests include:
Personality inventories
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Projective personality tests

Rorschach Inkblot test

Intelligence tests

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Ch 4.6

Projective Tests
Projective tests provide ambiguous stimuli that
are interpreted by the test subject according to
unconscious needs/impulses
Rorschach Inkblot Test: person is asked to explain
each of 10 ink blots (half of the blots are in color
while half are black and white)
Thematic Apperception Test: person is shown a
series of pictures and asked to explain the story
behind each

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Ch 4.7

Intelligence Tests
Intelligence (IQ) tests can be used to
provide a standardized assessment of a persons
current mental abilities
diagnose learning disabilities
determine whether a person is mentally retarded
identify intellectually gifted children

IQ tests typically have good reliability and

criterion validity

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Ch 4.8

Behavioral Assessment
Behavioral and cognitive assessments are made using the
SORC system:
S (Stimuli): refers to the environmental situations that precede
the problem
O (Organismic): refers to physiological and psychological factors
operating under the skin
R (Overt Responses): what are the responses and are these a
problem?
C (Consequent Variables): are there events that are punishing or
reinforcing for the client?

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Ch 4.9

Behavioral Methods
Direct observation of behavior
Self-monitoring
Reactivity: behavior changes during monitoring

Interviews
Self-report inventories
Other procedures
Thought listing

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Ch 4.10

Neurochemical Assessment
The biological view is that neurotransmitters and
receptors are key to understanding normal/abnormal
behavior
Postmortem studies: brain is removed and chemical
analyses are performed to
Determine specific amounts of transmitter in specific brain
regions
Determine amount of transmitter metabolites
More metabolite suggests the presence of more transmitter in brain

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Ch 4.11

Human Brain Structure

Figure 4.a

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Figure 4.b

Ch 4.12

Neuropsychological
Assessment
A Neuropsychologist is a psychologist who
studies how brain damage alters the way we
think, behave and feel
A neurologist studies brain diseases
Neuropsychological tests assess behavioral
disturbances caused by brain dysfunction
Halstead-Reitan battery
Luria-Nebraska battery

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Ch 4.13

Psychophysiological
Measurement
Psychophysiology is concerned with the bodily
changes that accompany psychological events
or a persons psychological characteristics
Measures includes:
Heart rate (EKG)
Skin conductance (GSR)
Brain electrical activity (EEG)

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Ch 4.14

The Autonomic Nervous System

Figure 4.c
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Ch 4.15

Cultural Bias in Assessment

Cultural bias can occur because of
language differences, differing views of competition,
differing religious/spiritual views

Clinicians can avoid cultural bias by

making efforts to learn about the culture of the client
determining the clients preferred language
ensuring that the client understands the assessment task
establishing a rapport with the client

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Ch 4.16

Is Human Behavior
Consistent?
A key issue in clinical assessment is the
extent to which human behavior is
consistent/variable over time
Trait theory: people possess certain levels of
characteristics that remain constant over time
Mischel: argued that traits are not important
determinants of a persons behavior
People are inconsistent across situations

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Ch 4.17

Copyright
Copyright 2000 by John Wiley & Sons, New York, NY. All
rights reserved. No part of the material protected by this
copyright may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by
any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying, recording or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without written permission of the
copyright owner.

2000 John Wiley & Sons,