Psychological assessment refers to the |
a. procedures used to summarize a client’s problem. |
A person comes to a mental health professional with a certain complaint. The professional attempts to understand the nature and extent of the problem. This process is called |
b. assessment. |
Why is it important to have an appropriate classification of the presenting problem? |
d. All of the above. |
Dr. Vera says, "It may only provide a limited view of a person’s problems, but it is important for planning appropriate treatment. Administratively, it is essential so that a facility can know what kinds of problems clients need help with. Even if we don’t want to do it, insurance claims require it." What is Dr. Vera is referring to? |
a. formal diagnosis |
Which of the following statements regarding assessment is true? |
c. An adequate assessment should include as much information as possible. |
What role does the social context play in assessment? |
b. An evaluation of the environment in which the client lives is necessary in order to understand the demands they face, as well as the supports that are present. |
Which of the following is a true statement about assessment and professional orientation? |
b. The focus of the assessment will be largely determined by the professional orientation of the clinician. |
The need for rapport between a clinician and a client means |
d. the client must feel comfortable with the clinician and the assessment. |
Which of the following demonstrates reliability? |
d. When an IQ test is administered to the same person repeatedly, the results do not differ. |
A valid test |
a. measures what it is designed to measure. |
Which of the following statements about reliability and validity is true? |
b. Valid tests are usually reliable. |
Psychological test results are often compared to each other to determine a mid-range, or normal point. In order to accomplish this, test administration must be completely consistent from one person to the next. What is this process called? |
b. standardization |
Which of the following would be used to reveal a dysrhythmia in brain activity? |
b. EEG |
Which of the following makes it possible to see all but the most minute abnormalities of brain structure? |
c. MRI |
Dr. Smith believes that a decrease in frontal lobe function underlies the cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia. He has hypothesized that effective drug therapy serves to selectively increase metabolic activity in this part of the brain. Which of the following is Dr. Smith most likely to use to test his hypothesis? |
c. positron emission tomography (PET) scans |
One advantage of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) over the CAT scan is that the MRI |
b. provides better differentiation and clarity. |
Dr. Bruce says "Its beneficial features are the ability to map ongoing psychological activities of the brain without injecting radioactive substances into the patient’s body. In addition, they are much more widely available procedures than what was used before." What is Dr. Bruce describing? |
b. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) |
The fMRI technique cannot currently be used as a diagnostic tool. This is because |
c. it is very difficult to interpret the results. |
Dr. Kim is a psychologist who uses a number of tests to measure a person’s cognitive, perceptual, and motor performance to detect brain damage. Dr. Kim is probably a specialist in using |
a. neuropsychological assessment. |
While neurological assessment procedures evaluate the brain’s physical properties, neuropsychological assessment focuses on |
Answer: c. client performance. |
Because his psychologist suspects he might have substantial brain damage, Tony was given a five-hour battery of tests that included listening to rhythmic beats presented by tape recorder and putting different shaped blocks into grooves while blindfolded. The procedure Tony experienced is called the |
c. Rhythm Test |
Ed has suffered a head injury in a car accident. He is referred to a psychologist to see what types of impairment now exist and to get some suggestions for treatment. The best assessment strategy would be |
b. neuropsychological tests. |
In which of the following circumstances would a psychosocial assessment clearly need to be used? |
c. Ever since the divorce, James has been sleeping less and less. |
A psychosocial assessment typically begins with |
d. an interview. |
Under what circumstances is a structured interview most likely to be used? |
a. When consistent information is needed for research purposes |
. Which of the following is a drawback of a structured interview? |
c. Interviews may include questions about areas that are of no concern to the patient. |
Which of the following best illustrates high reliability? |
b. Two interviewers diagnose the same disorder after talking to the same |
Dr. White is doing research in which she must diagnose clients at a mental health clinic. Because diagnostic reliability is of great concern in research, she will most likely establish diagnoses by using |
b. standardized structured interviews. |
The reliability of the assessment interview may be enhanced by the use of |
d. rating scales. |
Shanna goes to Dr. Henderson for a first interview. He diagnoses her with a depressive disorder. She then goes to Dr. Smithson, because her friend recommended her. Dr. Smithson diagnoses Shanna with an anxiety disorder. This demonstrates a problem with |
c. reliability. |
A clinical psychologist notes that a client wears his clothes inside out, that his hair is matted, and there is dirt under his fingernails. This information is known as |
a. clinical observation. |
Dr. Lo asks Julie to pretend that he is her father as part of his psychosocial assessment of Julie. Which of the following would this be an example of? |
b. an analogue situation |
In which of the following circumstances would a clinician be most likely to use self-monitoring? |
b. To find out what situations are likely to elicit problematic behavior |
A behaviorally oriented clinician tells her alcohol dependent client: "Here is a checklist I want you to fill out each day. Whenever you feel you need a drink, you should indicate what you were thinking, where you were, who you were with, and whether you went ahead and drank." What procedure is the clinician using? |
a. Self-monitoring |
Which of the following is NOT a reason for using rating scales in clinical observation and self reports? |
c. to decrease objectivity |
Danielle is having problems with drinking. She goes to a psychologist who gives her a form to fill out. It has a list of statements about drinking and problems associated with drinking. She is to rate each item between 1 and 3 – 1 meaning it is not a problem for her, 3 meaning it is a very big problem for her and 2 is in between. This is an example of |
a. a rating scale. |
Joanne says that she cannot say "no" to her intrusive mother. Her therapist has her pretend to engage in such an interaction to assess how weak Joanne’s assertiveness skills really are. This illustrates the use of |
b. role-playing. |
The use of standardized psychological tests |
b. permits the clinician to determine how a client’s behavior compares to some reference group. |
Psychological tests |
Answer: b. are dependent on the competence of the clinician who interprets them. |
Intelligence and personality tests can best be described as |
a. indirect means of assessing psychological characteristics. |
What would determine whether the WISC-IV or the WAIS-IV is used to test |
c. The age of the client |
There are two general categories of psychological tests used in clinical practice. They are |
a. intelligence tests and personality tests. |
Which of the following statements about individually administered IQ tests is correct? |
d. They are expensive. |
Which of the following is an unstructured approach to studying personality? |
d. the TAT |
Which of the following would be an example of a projective technique? |
d. A child is asked to draw her family. |
"Projective" and "objective" are two types of ________ tests. |
c. personality |
The aim of a projective test is to |
b. assess the way a patient perceives ambiguous stimuli. |
Which of the following is a type of test that tries to find ways in which a person’s personality and past experiences cause them to understand and perceive their world? |
Answer: d. Projective tests |
Which of the following is a projective testing method that has been adapted for computer interpretation? |
a. the Rorschach Test |
Which of the following best explains why the Rorschach is less likely to be used today? |
b. Treatment facilities often require other types of information than the Rorschach provides and insurance companies do not pay for it. |
Which statement about the Rorschach is accurate? |
b. A considerable amount of training is required to administer and score it accurately. |
Research by Exner and others has shown that the Rorschach |
c. can be scored by computer, thereby increasing its reliability. |
The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) has been used to assess all of the following EXCEPT |
b. intelligence. |
Several clinicians look at the TAT results of a hospitalized patient. The patient described the characters on the card as not speaking to each other. One clinician says this means the patient has a lot of unresolved anger. Another says it means the patient has a lot of social anxiety. The third says he thinks it means the patient is uninterested in people and prefers to be alone. This demonstrates the following problem with the TAT: |
a. Scoring and interpretation is very subjective. |
Which of the following would best address recent criticisms of the TAT? |
c. Use more modern pictures |
Which of the following statements about projective tests is correct? |
d. They are time-consuming |
The MMPI is |
a. a structured approach to personality assessment. |
Which of the following is an objective test? |
Answer: d. MMPI-2 |
The empirical keying approach to making a test like the MMPI involves |
c. picking items that differentiate between different groups, no subjective judgment is needed |
What does it mean if Carol scores high on the Schizophrenia scale of the MMPI? |
d. Carol’s answers were comparable to those given by a group of people with schizophrenia. |
Mike decides he is going to try to look mentally ill when he goes for his disability evaluation. He takes the MMPI-2. He most likely |
Answer: c. will be caught by specialized scales on the test. |
The text presented the case study of Andrea C, a twenty-one-year-old student from Colombia. The MMPI-2 computer-based report was typical of such reports because |
Answer: c. the report provided diagnostic and treatment considerations. |
Why was the MMPI-2 needed? |
d. The original MMPI was created over 50 years ago. |
A key feature of the MMPI-2 is that |
a. the clinical scales measure the same properties of personality organization as they always have. |
One limitation of the MMPI-2 is that it |
d. requires an individual to be literate. |
Computers are excellent devices for storing information on large numbers of people’s characteristics and test score patterns. Whenever a person turns up with a specific test score pattern, the computer can print out an appropriate description. This illustrates |
a. actuarial procedures. |
One of the problems with actuarial data for an instrument like the MMPI is that |
c. the profiles of many subjects do not "fit" the profile types for which actuarial data are available. |
Which of the following would be an important factor to keep in mind when assessing behaviors exhibited during an assessment and how those behaviors might be interpreted? |
d. The theoretical orientation of the clinician |
Why is classification a necessary first step in developing an understanding about abnormal behavior? |
b. Communication about abnormal behavior cannot be effective unless what is being discussed is clear. |
Which of the following is an assumption of a categorical approach to abnormal behavior? |
b. Each disorder has unique symptoms. |
Which approach to the classification of abnormal behavior uses statistical criteria to differentiate between normal and abnormal? |
b. Dimensional |
If a diagnosis is made by comparing subjects to a "model" of an illness, which type of classification scheme is being used? |
b. dimensional approach. |
While the DSM is designed to be a categorical classification scheme, |
d. the existing criteria tend to lead to a prototypal approach. |
Symptoms are to signs as ________ is to ________. |
a. subjective; objective |
Which of the following is an example of a symptom? |
b. The client reported hearing voices. |
Since it was first published, the DSM has |
a. become more objective. |
A clinician was in an assessment interview with a woman of Asian descent. The clinician realized there might be some cultural values and attitudes that could influence how questions were interpreted and answered. Which of the following would help the clinician obtain information about the potential impact of the woman’s culture on her mental health care? |
c. CFI |
. A clinician is in an assessment interview with a new client. The clinician is having trouble determining an exact diagnosis, but must put something down before the client can receive treatment. What is one reason for this? |
d. The clinician has to provide this information to the medical insurance |
Shondra is in fourth grade and has been having trouble sitting still and remaining focused on her schoolwork. Her teacher speaks with her parents about this, and suggests they see a clinician for an assessment. What is one problem with the DSM system that would make her parents reluctant to send her for an assessment? |
a The diagnosis would become a label that would stick with Shondra. |
The number of disorders has _______from earlier versions of the DSM to the DSM-5. |
c. Increased |
In DSM-5, criteria for Persistent Depressive Disorder combines criteria from Dysthymic Disorder and which other disorder? |
b. Chronic Major Depression |
A clinician sits down with an individual and conducts an assessment interview. The clinician arrives at a diagnosis of schizophrenia. While writing up the notes on this interview, the clinician is mindful of preferred terminology by mental health professionals. What is the preferred way to refer to the individual in the assessment? |
c. client with schizophrenia |
One criticism of diagnostic labels is that |
a. they can influence both other people’s and the diagnosed person’s perception of themselves in negative ways. |
The DSM acknowledges that |
d. a DSM diagnosis is only the first step, much more is needed to determine treatment |
As in assessment, diagnostic interviews can be |
Answer: a. structured or unstructured. |
When a psychologist is informed of the issues involved in multicultural assessment, this is known as __________ . |
Answer: cultural competence |
The term MRI in assessment of the brain means __________ . |
Answer: magnetic resonance imaging |
The projective test called the __________ is the inkblot test used in personality assessments. |
Answer: Rorschach |
. Today, there are two major psychiatric classification systems in use: the ICD-10, and the ______. |
Answer: DSM-5 |
Why is the establishment of trust important when conducting a psychological assessment? |
When conducting an assessment, a clinician wants to develop as clear of a picture of the client’s situation as possible. The client needs to understand that the information gained in the assessment process will aid the clinician in determining how best to address his or her problem. Providing feedback to the client during the assessment process may even lead to some improvement as the client’s self understanding increases. By establishing a trusting relationship with the client, the clinician increases the likelihood of eliciting useful information. |
What are the purposes of the initial clinical assessment of a person? |
To make a diagnosis, predict the course of the disorder, to decide on treatment, and for use in research. |
What is validity? |
In the context of diagnosis, validity refers to the extent with which a diagnosis, a classification, provides useful information. If a label provides no meaningful information, if it offers no information with clinical utility, it is not v |
Abnormal Psych ch 4
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