Title 03 AbPsy - Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis.pdf ✅

Thought Processes Rate of speech, continuity of speech, and content of speech Loose Association / Derailment: disorganized speech patterns; noticeable in patients with schizophrenia Is there evidence of delusions or hallucinations? Mood and Affect Mood: predominant feeling state of the individual Affect: feeling state that accompanies what we say at a given point Intellectual Functioning Rough estimate of intelligence Type of vocabulary Use of abstractions and metaphors Sensorium General awareness of our surroundings In terms of person, time, and place — “oriented times three” PHYSICAL EXAMINATION Physical Examination – puts attention to the medical conditions sometimes associated with the specific psychological problem ● Hyperthyroidism: overactive thyroid gland ○ May produce symptoms that mimic certain anxiety disorders (GAD) ○ Might produce symptoms consistent with depression ● Certain psychotic symptoms might be associated with the development of a brain tumor ● Withdrawal from cocaine often produces panic attacks ● Clinician must ascertain whether it is merely coexisting or is causal, usually by looking at the onset of the problem BEHAVIORAL ASSESSMENT Behavioral Assessment – uses direct observation to formally assess an individual’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior in specific situations or contexts ● More appropriate when assessing individuals who are not old enough or skilled enough to report their problems and experiences ● Some clinicians go to the person’s home or workplace or even into the local community to observe the person ● Target behaviors are identified and observed with the goal of determining the factors that seem to influence them Observational Assessment – clinician’s attention is usually directed to the immediate behavior, its antecedents, and its consequences ● Informal Observation: relies on the observer’s recollection and interpretation of the events ● Formal Observation: involves identifying specific behaviors that are observable and measurable (operational definition) Self-Monitoring – when people observe their own behavior to find patterns ● Behavior Rating Scale: used as assessment tools before treatment and then periodically during treatment to assess changes in the person’s behavior ● Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: screens for moderate to severe psychotic disorders ○ Assesses 18 general areas of concern ○ Each symptom is rated on a 7-point scale from 0 (not present) to 6 (extremely severe) ○ Includes such items as ■ Somatic Concern: preoccupation with physical health, fear of physical illness, hypochondriasis ■ Guilt Feelings: self-blame, shame, remorse for past behavior ■ Grandiosity: exaggerated self-opinion, arrogance, conviction of unusual power or abilities ● Reactivity: can distort any observational data PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING Psychological Testing – used to assess psychological disorders ● Specific Tools: determine cognitive, emotional, or behavioral responses that might be associated with a specific disorder ● General Tools: assess long-standing personality features, such as a tendency to be suspicious Projective Testing – ambiguous stimuli are presented to people who are asked to describe what they see 2 | @studywithky
● People project their own personality and unconscious fears onto other people and things ● Based on psychoanalytic theory ● Rorschach Inkblot Test: developed by Hermann Rorschach to study perceptual processes and then to diagnose psychological disorders ○ One of the early projective tests ○ Includes 10 inkblot pictures that serve as the ambiguous stimuli ○ Lacks data on reliability or validity ○ Comprehensive System: developed by John Exner to administer and score the test ● Thematic Apperception Test (TAT): developed by Christiana Morgan and Henry Murray ○ Consists of a series of 31 cards – 30 with pictures on them and 1 blank card ○ Only 20 cards are typically used during each administration ○ Asks the person to tell a dramatic story about the picture ○ This is a test of imagination, one form of intelligence ○ Variations include the Children’s Apperception Test (CAT) and the Senior Apperception Test (SAT) Personality Inventories – self-report questionnaires that assess personal traits ● Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI): most widely used personality inventory ○ Developed in the late 1930s and early 1940s and first published in 1943 ○ Based on an empirical approach ○ The individual being assessed reads statements and answers either “true” or “false” ○ Originally had 550 items ○ MMPI-2: 567 items ○ MMPI-A: version of the MMPI that is appropriate for adolescents Intelligence Testing – tests that measure cognitive functioning ● Stanford-Binet Test: test that measured attention, perception, memory, reasoning, and verbal comprehension ○ Developed by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon ○ Revised and translated by Lewis Terman ● Intelligence Quotient (IQ): an estimate of how much a child’s performance in school will deviate from the average performance of others of the same age ○ Calculated by using the child’s mental age ○ Mental age was then divided by the child’s chronological age and multiplied by 100 ○ Deviation IQ: person’s score is compared only with scores of others of the same age ● Wechsler Scales: developed by psychologist David Wechsler ○ Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS-IV) ○ Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-V) ○ Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV) ○ Verbal Scales: measure vocabulary, knowledge of facts, short-term memory, and verbal reasoning skills ○ Performance Scales: assess psychomotor abilities, nonverbal reasoning, and ability to learn new relationships NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING Neuropsychological Testing – assesses the possible existence of brain impairment ● Assesses brain dysfunction by observing the effects of the dysfunction on the person’s ability to perform certain task ● Bender Visual–Motor Gestalt Test ○ Child is given a series of cards on which are drawn various lines and shapes ○ The task is for the child to copy what is drawn on the card ○ Provides a simple screening instrument that is easy to administer and can detect possible problems ● Luria-Nebraska Neuropsychological Battery: ○ Offers an elaborate battery of tests to assess a variety of skills in adolescents and adults ● Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery ○ Rhythm Test: asks the person to compare rhythmic beats, thus testing sound recognition, attention, and concentration ○ Strength of Grip Test: compares the grips of the right and left hands ○ Tactile Performance Test: requires the test taker to place wooden blocks in a form board while blindfolded, thus testing learning and memory skills NEUROIMAGING: PICTURES OF THE BRAIN Neuroimaging – takes accurate pictures of the structure and function of the brain ● Useful for identifying damage to the brain ● Also used to determine structural or anatomical abnormalities that might be associated with various psychological disorders ● Positron Emission Tomography (Pet) Scan: shows what parts of the brain are working and what parts are not ○ Useful in supplementing MRI and CT when localizing the sites of trauma resulting from head injury or stroke ○ Individuals are injected with a tracer substance attached to radioactive isotopes 3 | @studywithky