Assessment and Diagnosis

• An evaluation of an individual's strengths and
weakness
• A conceptualization of the problem at hand (as
well as possible etiological factors)
• Some prescription for alleviating the problem
• Lead us to a better understanding of the client
• Assessment is not something that is done once
and then is forever finished, it's ongoing
process
• Whether the clinician is making decisions or
solving problems, clinical assessment is the
means to the end
 Psychological assessment is never done in
vacuum.
 Formulate some hypothesis and then test that
hypothesis.
 Used to answer the referral question.
 Used for screening purpose.
 Helps in formulation of diagnosis.
 Psychological assessment also guides in
formulation of appropriate therapeutic plan and
we can also assess whether the therapeutic plan
is appropriate for the individual or not.
 Can also serve as a legal document about the
client.
 Clinical assessment starts when client comes to us.
Sometimes we formulate decision about the client in
our first meeting which is inappropriate because it
leads to bias judgment about the client and affects our
clinical judgment. In clinical settings we should avoid
such erroneous judgments.
 Halo effect in which we form judgments on just

listening the qualities of the person. We form
judgments that best suit our own schemas.
 Another factor that effects our appropriate judgment is

that if individual is different from us on cultural basis
we formulate stereotype judgment due to it.
 Judgment can be affected by the therapist mood.

 Blind spot is another important factor which effects our
judgment as therapist in which we avoid major flaws in our
beloved ones.
 If somehow we know the client we will avoid seeing real flaws in his
personality which will then affect in making appropriate judgment.
 We should also avoid projection in which we project our own

feelings on the client as if our mood is bad we say that client’s
mood was bad today. This hinder in making right judgment.
 We should also avoid primacy and recency effect.

 Primary effect means making judgment on the basis of first impression
that you had about the client.
 Recency effect means that you make judgment on the basis of last
impression that you had about the client.
 All these factors are important and they affect our clinical
judgment so they should be considered while making
judgment and seen whether any of these factor is affecting
our judgment.
The assessment interview is at once the most basic
and the most serviceable technique used by clinical
psychologist
General characteristic of interviews :

1. An Interaction
2. Interviews versus tests :
interviews are more purposeful and organized than
conversation but sometimes less formalized or
standardized then psychological test
3. The art of interviewing
computer-assisted interview assessment :

many nonverbal cues, only clinicians are able to
apply "clinical judgment", only clinicians can encode &
process information
Face-to-face
interaction
Structured
interviews
Unstructured
interviews
 The physical arrangements
 Few patients are likely to be open and
responsive
 Take place anywhere that 2 people can meet
and interact, & Privacy and protection from
interruptions
 Note-Taking & recording

 To recall much from the earlier interviews
1. Beginning a session
2. Language
3. The use of question
4. Silence
5. Listening
6. Gratification of self
7. Impact of the clinician
8. The clinician's values and
background
 Behavior assessment distinguishes itself from other
assessment methods by being both a set of specific
techniques as well as a way of thinking about behavior
disorders and how these can be changed.
 Traditional and behavioral approaches have now come to

resemble each other in many areas.
 Behavioral assessment has gone through both a turning

inward (e.g. cognition) as well as a turning outward (e.g.
concerned with traditional psychometric considerations).
 The assumptions and perspectives of behavioral

assessment have resulted in an extremely diverse number
of approaches and an even wider variety of specific
techniques.
Behavior assessment can be best understood
by contrasting it with traditional assessment.
Behavior assessment Traditional assessment
Concerned with antecedents and Behavior is the result of

consequences of behavior. underlying traits.
It is more direct, utilitarian and Focus is on unobservable

functional. focus on observable phenomena
phenomena’s
Directive towards treatment Had little direct relevance

towards treatment
 Achenbach Child Behavior Checklist (1992)
 Conners Rating Scale
 Missouri Children’s Behavior Checklist.
 Withoutintervention/ Naturalistic
observation
 Passive recorder
 Observe relationship as it occurs
 Study relationship among variables
 Establish external validity of research findings
 With intervention
 Participate or cause an event that infrequently
occurs
 Investigate systematically
 Gain access to situations not accessible
 Establish comparison or effect by manipulating
 Three methods
 Participant observation
 Structured observation
 Field experiment
 Undisguised participant
 Disguised participant
 May lose objectivity
 Observer experience is similar
 Identify people experience
 Size of group
 Not accessible
 Clinical and developmental psychologist
 Difficulty in interpreting
 Both natural setting and laboratory setting
 Researcher manipulate independent variables
in a natural setting
 Confederate research assistant
 Experimental situation
 Comprehensive behavioral record
 Selective behavior record
 Results depend on record
 Analysis and interpretation
 Narrative Records--- detailed description,
audiotapes, videotapes
 Classify and organize data
 During / soon after
 Field notes--- trained observer
 Portable
 Obtain representative sample of behavior
 Generalization & validity based on sampled
behavior
 Time Sampling
 Either systematically or randomly
• Event sampling
 Records each event
• Situation sampling
 Reduce chance effect
 Inter observer reliability
 Influence of observer
 Reactivity
 Demand characteristics
 Controlling reactivity
 Observer Bias
 Expectancy effect
Intelligence tests
Two general categories
of psychological tests
for use in clinical
practice are
Personality tests
 Bayley Scales of Infant Development: Second
edition (1993)
 Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of
Intelligence (3-7 years)
 Projectivetests 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)
 Children’s Apperception Test: child is shown a series

of pictures and asked to explain the story behind each
 Draw-a-Person (DAP) test:

 “Draw a person”
 “Draw another person of the opposite sex”

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• An evaluation of an individual's strengths and

 Halo effect in which we form judgments on just

 Another factor that effects our appropriate judgment is

 Judgment can be affected by the therapist mood.

 We should also avoid projection in which we project our own

 We should also avoid primacy and recency effect.

General characteristic of interviews :

computer-assisted interview assessment :

 Note-Taking & recording

 Traditional and behavioral approaches have now come to

 Behavioral assessment has gone through both a turning

 The assumptions and perspectives of behavioral

Behavior assessment Traditional assessment

Concerned with antecedents and Behavior is the result of

It is more direct, utilitarian and Focus is on unobservable

Directive towards treatment Had little direct relevance

 Rorschach Inkblot Test: person is asked to explain

 Children’s Apperception Test: child is shown a series

 Draw-a-Person (DAP) test:

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