METHOD OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT ( BOTH FORMAL AND INFORMAL ASSESSMENT)

Psychological assessment

Psychological assessment: systematically gather information about any psychological disturbance to reach the conclusion. Psychological testing is a part of psychological assessment.

Types of assessment

1)      Formal assessment

2)      Informal assessment

• Formal assessment:

Standardized and objective assessment that is done under controlled environment is called as formal assessment. i.e. psychological test includes HTP ( house-tree- person test), TAT( thematic apperception test) and WAIS  etc. formal assessment is done by using following steps administration, scoring and interpretation. Standardized tests are interpreted in two ways to have results.

Qualitative results: 

the results are in numerical form, in the form of facts and figures. For example, the results for BDI test may have scores as 38 which means the individual is having severe depression.

Quantitative results: the items are listed in the test to interpret the results, which item is above the score that helps to identify the area of damage that needs to be treated. For example HTP method has qualitative results.

In Pakistan, Psychologist prefers informal assessment than the formal assessment because of cultural barriers. Mostly the tests are developed by the western society in their language and according to their culture. Different researches are conducting to remove this barrier.

• Informal assessment:

Subjective testing that are conducted in natural environment without any hard and soft rules. Informal Assessment has different methods like informal rating, behavioral observation and mental status examination.

1) Informal rating:

it is not standardized method. In this psychologist rate the behavior (either positive or negative) within the scale to check the level of severity. For example; Likert scale. Rate individual on scale between 1-10.

Target behavior: behaviors that psychologists need to focus in term of frequency and duration is considered as target behavior. Target behaviors can be positive or negative. For example; social behavior is the target behavior of any individual that needs to improve.

• Positive behavior: protective, favorable and desirable behaviors being in term of normal way in social situation are called as positive behavior. For example; anxiety during exam is normal behavior but not having anxiety on any situation is even considered as abnormal.
• Negative behavior: non protective, unfavorable and undesirable behavior that hindered normal functioning of individual. This abnormal functioning may be dangerous for individual and others that must be reduced. For example; smoking, depression and disturbances in sleep pattern.

• 3) Behavioral observation:

There are different types of behavioral observation

i)                    Covert behavioral observation: not observable behavior, hidden feeling and emotions.

ii)                  Overt behavioral observation : observable behaviors, actions of individual

iii)                Verbal behavioral observation: language related behaviors like words, speech tone and speech intensity etc.

iv)                Non verbal behavioral observation: includes eye movement, hand movement etc.

Psychologist focuses on how client talks, hand and eyes movement, either client tries to resist the communication, how client walks, appearance of client, orientation and pitch or tone of client during informal assessment. Example; mania patient have hyperactive behavior and he/she jumps from one topic to the other.

3) Mental status examination:

It is the oldest form of examination. It includes

• Appearance: apparent condition of client, how he walks, dresses and behaves.

• Mood: subjective mood; mood explained by client him/herself. Objective mood: observed by the psychologist.

• Thought patterns: what type of thoughts client have like either obsessive thoughts, negative thoughts, suicidal thoughts or delusional thoughts.

• Orientation: either the client have orientation or able to recognize time, person and place.

• Attention span: span of attention of the client is observed.

• STM (short term memory): ask question about recent event

• LTM (long term memory): ask question about past.

• Abstract thinking

• Judgment abilities

• Insight

4) Baseline:

Baseline is like a chart that explains your client. Information is taken about 3 to 7 days. Baseline can be filled by client or informant by him/herself. Baseline gave information about the level of target behavior. Baseline includes for important elements that gave the picture to start the therapy. Chart help to understand the nature of client’s problem. Baseline help to decide about the treatment and therapy goals and develop therapeutic plans.

• Frequency
• Duration
• Latency

Baseline Example

Day	Situation	Frequency	Intensity	Duration	Reaction	Recovery
Tuesday	Doing comprehension on tapping plants and was not able to understand the information about the pitcher plant and was not able to comprehended	4 times she do that wrong	6/10	For about half an hour	She becomes irritated and does not pay attention	She understands that by the help of tutor who gave her multiple examples to understand that.
Thursday	Learning answers by heart along with diagram	4-5 times answer and have same mistakes	6/10	Almost 40 mins	She becomes irritated	She recovered when help is provided (teach word by word)
Friday	Learning about filament and circuit and was not able to understand it.	3-4 times comprehended wrongly	5/10	Half an hour	She becomes irritated	Reinforcement is  given along with attention and help
Saturday	Learning the names and spellings of planets and was not able to memorize it	5-7 times recite wrongly	7/10	45 mins-1 hour	She becomes irritated and crying	Reinforcement is given along with attention and help