1. Psychological Assessment Spring 2017
William P. Wattles, Ph. D.
Francis Marion University

2. Psycholgical Assessment

3. "When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep.
Not screaming like all the passengers in his car."

4. Quantitative Reasoning
Number Thinking
scale
Tiffany, Erin,

5. Human Behavior
Individual differences
Predict
Understand
Change

6. “The single most critical piece of equipment is still the researcher's own brain. All the equipment in the world will not help us if we do not know how to use it properly, which requires more than just knowing how to operate it. Aristotle would not necessarily have been more profound had he owned a laptop and known how to program. What is badly needed now, with all these scanners whirring away, is an understanding of exactly what we are observing, and seeing, and measuring, and wondering about.”
- Endel Tulving, 2002
Endel Tulving is an Estonian and Canadian experimental psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist whose research on human memory has influenced generations of psychological scientists, neuroscientists, and clinicians

7. Psychology
The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.

9. Welcome to Assessment Valuable skill Lots of work Three texts Quizzes
4-5 reports

10. What personal experiences have you had with generalities?
Profiling
Stereotypes

11. Generalize
The Academy of Behavioral Profiling is a professional association dedicated to the application of evidence based criminal profiling techniques within investigative and legal venues.
The American Civil Liberties Union today called on lawmakers to investigate the actions of air marshals who handcuffed and detained a 54-year-old Florida doctor of Indian descent because they “didn’t like the way he looked.”

12. Generalize a. To reduce to a general form, class, or law.
To form a concept inductively.

14. What constitutes psychological assessment?
How are we different from palm readers?
Tea leaf readers?

15. What constitutes psychological assessment?

16. Science
Dr. Michael Shermer will give the Hunter Lecture on 20 March 2012 (a Tuesday), at 7:30PM in the Lowrimore Auditorium.
Everyone is also welcome to attend a colloquium on 21 March at 11:30AM in the Lowrimore Auditorium. Dr. Shermer will discuss Why People Believe Weird Things with students reading it for their classes.

17. Clinical Judgment
What are the implications of relying on clinical judgment vs. actuarial data?

18. Perception vs. Sensation
Sensation one to one relationship with stimulus
Perception interprets sensation with historic and other information.

23. Is assessment useful? Pay for nothing. Shouldn’t we just treat?
May not be useful unless it relates to the problem and is presented in a timely and useful manner.

24. Importance of assessment
The theory and instruments of assessment are the foundation of clinical investigation, applied research and program evaluation.
In the early 1700’s Linneaus described a case of aphasia so well that it could easily be diagnosed today.

25. What constitutes psychological assessment?
 Careful Observation
trained to observe
inference based on experience and training
Interview
Testing
History and other sources

26. Role of the clinician
Clinicians must integrate a wide range of data and bring into focus diverse areas of knowledge.
Reports should be:
accurate
effective
concise
highly valued by the recipient

27. Assessment best practices
Assessment is good only if:
Competence
Privacy
Informed consent
Appropriateness
Feedback

28. Feedback and assessment
What happens if we give feedback to patients?
Do they give us feedback?

29. Computer aspects of class
First assignment send me an
Psy631 on subject line
Sign the
Submit reports as Word files attached to

30. Three texts
Assessment important and the texts are all references

31. Handbook of Psychological Assessment
Reference book
Instructional text
Organized along the sequence followed when performing an evaluation--practical in nature.
Goal: a realistic appreciation of the assets and limitations of assessment.

32. DSM-5 Official nomenclature
Designed first to be a helpful guide to clinical practice.
Brief
clear
explicit
Also designed to further research and support teaching.

33. DSM-5
Used by different practitioners: psychiatrists, other physicians, psychologists, social workers, nurses, OT and RT, counselors
Used by clinicians and researchers with different orientations: behavioral, biological, psychodynamic, cognitive and family systems.

34. DSM-5 The work of a hierarchical committee.
Input from 60 organizations
13 work groups reported to 33 members of the task force.

35. MMPI-2 Assessing Personality and Psychopathology
Textbook for graduate courses and also a reference guide for professionals.
The guiding principle in the book is presenting the material in a way that enhances learning and clinical use of the most widely used personality inventory.

36. Evaluating Psychological Tests
Mental Measurements yearbook
Theoretical orientation
the construct being tested
Practical considerations
cost
reading level, time to administer
training needed

37. Evaluating Psychological Tests
Standardization
adequate norms
administration
Reliability
Validity
If you choose the test it is unethical not to evaluate it.

38. Reliability Measurement error is always present
Goal of test instruction is to minimize measurement error
Reliability is the extent to which the test measures consistently
If the test is not reliable it cannot be valid or useful.

39. Reliability Test-retest Alternate form split-half
interscorer reliability

40. Validity Does the test measure what it purports to measure?
More difficult to determine than reliability
Generally involves inference

41. Validity and Learning Styles
Learning-styles hypothesis
Meshing hypothesis

42. Validity Content validity-does it cover the entire construct?
Face validity- does it appear to measure what it purports to measure. Not essential
Criterion validity
concurrent
predictive
Construct Validity

43. Validity in Clinical Practice
Incremental Validity-what does this test add?
Conceptual Validity-
Collect data
Form many hypotheses
Look for consistent trends

44. Improving clinical accuracy
Use structured interviews
Consider disconfirming evidence
Use DSM-5 specific criteria
Take notes
attend to base rates
seek feedback
read the literature

45. Phases in Clinical Assessment
Evaluating the referral question
Consider the content of the problem
Data collection
Interpreting the data

47. DSM-5 introduction We diagnose disorders not people a schizophrenic
an individual with schizophrenia

48. mental disorder
Not mere deviance

49. mental disorder
A clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome that is associated with present distress or disability (impairment in social or occupational functioning) or with a significant risk of suffering death, pain, disability or important loss of freedom.
Not culturally sanctioned (i.e. bereavement)

50. Classify disorders not people
DSM-5: What are being classified are disorders not people.

51. Enforcement push FBI Sampling of records
many lacked sufficient documentation of medical necessity
If it isn’t documented it didn’t happen
Practitioners should aim for meticulous compliance

52. Type I and Type II errors

53. Type I error
If we reject Ho when in fact Ho is true.

54. Type II Error
If we fail to reject Ho when in fact Ho is false

55. Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988
An employer … cannot, in any manner or for any reason, have an employee or prospective employee submit to a polygraph test
The act does not apply to the federal government who may use the polygraph in the interests of national security for counter-intelligence purposes.

56. The End