Psychological Assessment I

Learn to assess the psychological status of people

Lay a foundation upon which to better understand psycho analysis, and develop your Professional Skills into the future

Gain deeper insights into human psychology and behaviour

Lesson Structure

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • What is psychological assessment
   • Types of psychological tests
   • Achievement tests
   • Aptitude tests
   • Intelligence tests
   • Occupational tests
   • Personality tests
   • History of psychological testing
   • Justification for using tests
   • Advantages and disadvantages of using psychometric testing
   • Ethnicity and different cultures
   • Psychological testing of language minority and culturally different children
   • Why your child should be tested
   • Why it is important for parents to know about testing
   • Validity and reliability
   • Construct, discriminant and convergent validity
   • Test retest reliability
2. Context of Clinical Assessment
   • Ethical practice
   • Confidentiality
   • Case study: confidentiality
   • Informed consent
   • Record keeping
   • Dual relationships
   • Professional boundaries
   • Selecting tests
   • Case study: ethics and lie detection
   • Computer assisted assessment
   • Virtual reality; new tool for psychological assessment
   • Personality traits and designing a questionnaire
   • Weaknesses
   • Ambiguity and bias
   • Closed and open questions
3. The Assessment Interview
   • The interview
   • Screening for psychological disorders
   • Structured and unstructured interviews
   • SCID
   • Assessing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans
   • Screening and referral procedure overview
   • If patient refuses referral to mental health care
   • Use of a primary care screen
   • Discussing screening results with patients
   • Discern if traumatic events are ongoing
   • Making a recommendation
   • Scheduling a follow up
   • Psychomentric properties of SCID
4. Behavioural Assessment
   • Behaviourism
   • Kinds of consequences
   • Reinforcers
   • Intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcers
   • Consequences and timing
   • The premack principle
   • Extinction
   • Criticisms of behaviourism
   • Methods of behavioural assessment
   • The focus of assessment
   • Functional analysis
   • Analysis of problem behaviour
   • Motivational analysis
   • Behavioural vs traditional assessment
5. Wechsler Intelligence Scales
   • Introduction
   • Measuring intelligence
   • Cognitive, cognitive contextural and biological theories
   • Psychometric theories
   • Wechsler Intelligence scales
   • Normal results
   • Sub tests, verbal subtests, performance subtests
   • Cultural bias
   • Precautions with intelligence testing
   • The intelligence test as a tool
6. Wechsler Memory scales
   • Memory
   • Wechsler Memory test
   • Wechsler Memory Scale III
7. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
   • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Assessment
   • Problems
   • False negatives; false positives

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims

• Explain the main kinds of psychological tests and why they are used, and meaning of test reliability and validity
• Explain ethical and other factors that constrain clinical assessment
• Describe a structured and an unstructured interview
• Explain behavioural assessment and how it can be conducted
• Discuss Wechsler scales in detail
• Explain the purpose and use of the Wechsler Memory Test
• Explain the purpose and usage of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

Some Sample Course Notes

TYPES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

The understanding behind psychometric tests is that if things such as intelligence and personality exist, we should be able to measure them. Difficulties with this will be discussed later.

Psychological tests fall into several categories:

Achievement tests are usually seen in educational or employment settings, and they attempt to measure how much you know about a certain topic (i.e., your achieved knowledge), such as mathematics or spelling.

Aptitude tests are also generally used in educational and employment settings, and they attempt to measure how much of a capacity you have (i.e., your aptitude) to master material in a particular area, such as mechanical relationships.

Intelligence tests attempt to measure your intelligence, or your basic ability to understand the world around you, assimilate its functioning, and apply this knowledge to enhance the quality of your life. Intelligence, therefore, is a measure of a potential, not a measure of what you’ve learned (as in an achievement test), and so it is supposed to be independent of culture. The trick is to design a test that can actually be culture-free; most intelligence tests fail in this area to some extent for one reason or another.

Neuropsychological tests attempt to measure deficits in cognitive functioning (i.e., your ability to think, speak, reason, etc.) that may result from some sort of brain damage, such as a stroke or a brain injury.

Occupational tests attempt to match your interests with the interests of persons in known professions. The logic here is that if the things that interest you in life match up with, say, the things that interest most school teachers, then you might make a good school teacher yourself.

Personality tests  attempt to measure your basic personality style and are most used in research or forensic settings to help with clinical diagnoses. Two of the most well-known personality tests are

•  the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), composed of several hundred “yes or no” questions, and
•  the Rorschach (the “inkblot test”), composed of several cards of inkblots—you simply give a description of the images and feelings you experience in looking at the blots.

Specific clinical tests attempt to measure specific clinical matters, such as your current level of anxiety or depression.

Want to Learn More?

If you are interested in this course, you may also be interested in- http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=359 Introduction to Psychology

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=515 Psychological Assessment

http://www.acsedu.com/Courses/product.aspx?id=361  Industrial Psychology

Our bookshop offers a range of counseling and psychology courses which you may find useful. You can see our range of books at –   http://www.acsbookshop.com/books_productcategory.aspx?id=14

Not sure whether counseling is the right career for you or if you would like to know more. You can find out more about careers in psychology and counseling at - http://www.thecareersguide.com/articles.aspx?category=14