Quite often you might have asked yourself a simple but profound question ‘’Why did I do this?’’ Or perhaps “Why do I act the way I do?”
Furthermore, concerns about potential-self have been a source of worry such as what would be the right stream in college? Or what profession would align with my interest and skills?
From very early on in life, a person continuously processes information about oneself. If you’ve asked yourself similar questions, you are not alone.
When we wonder who we are, what are our typical emotional states, needs, goals, values, beliefs, approach to relationships and behavioural patterns, a notion of personality comes into play. To find an answer to these questions, psychologists take the help of psychological assessment popularly known as personality tests or psychological tests. They help us understand not only who we are, but also provides information about our strengths, weakness, adaptive and maladaptive characteristics.
In clinical setting, psychological testing helps to build on existing information about the patients and improves the planning and execution of their clinical management.
Let us learn about psychological assessment in a step wise manner!
What is Psychological Assessment?
Psychological assessment involves gathering and combining information from numerous sources to achieve a comprehensive understanding of an individual. It is a broader term which includes information from three sources: clinical interviews, behavioural observation and psychological tests. They are usually administered by licenced mental health professionals which include Psychiatrists and Clinical Psychologists.
One important thing to notice is that they are scientific and cannot be manipulated or faked. Yes, they are as reliable and validas your blood and X-ray reports. Moreover, they are guided by strong ethical and legal codes.
Let us look at each component briefly.
Clinical Interview
The clinical interview is an elaborate form of interviewing that involves a verbal and nonverbal exchange between a psychologist and the client. Sometimes it might also involve family members, teachers, friends and relatives, of course, with the client’s consent. Unlike a normal conversation, clinical interview is structured, time bound, and goal directed. It is designed to obtain information that facilitates greater understanding in both the clinician and the client about client’s strengths, problem behaviour, and provide direction and support in helping the client deal with problem behaviours.
Behavioural Observation
Clinical psychologists and Psychiatrists are specifically trained to observe and record client’s verbal and nonverbal behaviours such as physical appearance, attitude toward testing, content, quality and spontaneity of speech, amount of motor activity, eye contact, fatigue, cooperation, attention to tasks etc. All these provide important information about client’s present state of mind in the real setting and enrich the data.
Psychological Testing
There are feelings, thoughts, and urgesthat are outside of our conscious awareness and couldn’t be assessed directly. Psychological tests facilitate assessment of these supressed emotions as well as those which are more evident and observable.
It is an objective and standardized measure of an individual’s mental and behavioural characteristics. There are two major types of psychological tests:
- Cognitive Tests: As the name suggests, it includes test of intelligence (popularly known as IQ tests), attention, memory, language, processing speed, and planning. They are highly structured tests.
- Non- Cognitive Tests: It includes test of personality, emotions, interests, attitudes and values. They could be structured, unstructured or semi structured.
Why is it done?
Psychological Assessments are used in clinical, forensic, educational, legal and organizational settings. They aid in decision making regarding psychiatric and non-psychiatric matters such as:
- Making psychiatric diagnosis and assessing severity of the illness.
- Facilitating diagnostic clarification in complex situation where there is overlap between symptoms of two or more disorders.
- Choosing treatment that leads to more desired outcomes.
- Selecting vocation that aligns with one’s interests, abilities and skills
- Identifying individuals with a high degree of general mental ability or extraordinary ability
- Distinguishing individuals who have difficulties in intellectual and adaptive functioning.
- Identifying individuals with learning disability
- Facilitating early intervention by identifying risks in the vulnerable population
- Identifying the extent to which an individual might experience deterioration in his or her ability to manage important aspects of living after an accident, trauma, disability etc.
- Selection of suitable candidate for particular types of roles or occupations such as those that involve high risk or extreme stress or where human error could have catastrophic effects. For example: Defence Personnel
The foregoing list is certainly not exhaustive. One thing that could further refine this is learning about the process of psychological assessment and its outcome.
What is the process?
Psychological Assessment usually begins with referral through competent authorities. In case of children, schools usually make referrals for those having significant academic difficulties or behavioural problems. Referrals can be made by allied medical professional who could not find any physiological reason to the existing medical problems. Further, a psychiatrist or clinical psychologist could suggest psychological assessment to aid treatment process.
What is its importance in clinical setting?
Just like we do blood tests and scans for the physical health, we want to do psychological testing for mental health disorders. These assessments support, delineate, and sometimes even highlight the psychopathology which may have been missed or was unclear on clinical assessment. Additionally, some of the tools not only diagnose but they are therapeutic in nature. These tests improve self-awareness and give a much wider wholesome perspective about self to the client.
Let us understand it with an example. Suppose there is a patient with multiple episodes of depression who doesn’t seem to have achieved premorbid recovery despite best medical treatment. When we go deeper into the clinical history we may find, there could be some underlying maladaptive personality traits or unhealthy coping mechanisms which are proving serious roadblocks to the recovery. With the right psychological assessments, we can quickly, clearly, and confidently pick these maladaptations and start working on them.
Psychological assessment is one of the most effective clinical tools in the mental health armamentarium to diagnose and manage mental health disorders.
Wishing you the best of mental health today and always!
Huda Naaz
Apala Aggarwal Tuteja