Chapter 3
Clinical Assessment
Slides & Handouts by Karen Clay Rhines, Ph.D.
Seton Hall University
Clinical Assessment
• ______________: to determine how and
why a person is behaving abnormally
• tools:
– ____________
– Tests
– _________________
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Psychology, 3e
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Psychology, 3e
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Clinical Interviews
• Face-to-face encounters
• personal history
• Conducting the Interview
– Focus depends on _______________
– _________ interviews: open-ended
questions
– structured interviews: ______
questions
– May include __________________
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination:
Appearance and Behavior





Hyperactivity
Psychomotor agitation
Psychomotor retardation
Catatonia
Compulsions
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Content of Thought
•
•
•
•
_______________
Delusions
_______________
______ Thinking
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Affect and Mood
• Affect: _________________________
o Inappropriate
o Blunted or Flat
o Exaggerated, Heightened, or Overdramatic
o Decreased Mobility
o Excessive Mobility
o Restricted Range
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Affect and Mood
• Mood: ________________________
Euthymic = _____________________
________ = Unpleasant feelings
_______ = Cheerful, elated, possibly
even ecstatic
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Perceptual Experiences
• Hallucination: _________________
 Auditory
 Command
 Visual
 Olfactory
 Somatic
 Gustatory
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Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Orientation
• Time
• Place
• Identity
Comer, Fundamentals of Abnormal
Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Thinking Style & Language
• incoherence: speech that is • _____________: speech
____________________.
that is indirect and delayed in
reaching a point because of
• loosening of associations:
irrelevant and tedious details.
flow of thoughts that is
________________________ • ________: the experience in
___________.
which a person seemingly
“loses” a thought in the midst
• _______ thinking: thinking
of speaking, leading to
characterized by
seconds or minutes of silence
contradictions and erroneous
conclusions.
• _______________: going
completely off track and
never returning to the point.
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Psychology, 3e
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• __________: sound, rather
than word meaning,
determines content of
individual’s speech.
• ____________: fabricating
facts or events to fill in voids
in one’s memory; not
conscious lies but attempts
to respond with
approximations of the truth.
• ___________: persistent
repetition of someone else’s
words or phrases, as if
mocking or sarcastic.
• ____________: fact-paced
speech marked by
acceleration, abrupt changes
of topic, and plays on words.
• _________ of speech:
speech rapid and driven, as if
individual is compelled to
utter stream of nonstop
monologue.
• perseveration: _________
of the same idea, word, or
sound.
Comer, Fundamentals of Abnormal
Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
o
Motivation
o
impairment can
make even ordinary
life tasks seem
insurmountable.
• Sense of Self (sense
of who I am)
– Depersonalization
– Identity confusion
Comer, Fundamentals of Abnormal
Psychology, 3e
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Mental Status Examination
Cognitive Functioning:
• Level of ___________
evidenced by details
such as memory and
abstract ability.
• Problems might include
__________
impairment
Insight and Judgment:
• ___________________
_________________.
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Psychology, 3e
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Characteristics of Assessment Tools
• _______________ : performance serves
as a common standard (norm)
• Reliability – _______________
• _________ – accuracy of results
– measures what it is supposed to be measuring
Comer, Fundamentals of Abnormal
Psychology, 3e
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Clinical Tests
Intelligence Tests
 assess both verbal and non-verbal skills
 Generates an intelligence quotient (IQ)
 Most popular: Wechsler (WAIS, WISC)
I.Q. =
Mental Age
Chronological Age
Comer, Fundamentals of Abnormal
Psychology, 3e
X 100
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Clinical Tests
 Personality Inventories
•
–
–
measure broad personality characteristics
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Hypochondriasis (HS)
Depression (D)
Conversion hysteria (Hy)
Psychopathic deviate (PD)
Masculinity-femininity (Mf) Paranoia (Pa)
Psychasthenia (Pt)
Schizophrenia (Sc)
Hypomania (Ma)
Social introversion (Si)
Derives ten clinical scales:
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Psychology, 3e
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Clinical Tests
 Response Inventories
– ________________________________
• Affective inventories (Ex. BDI)
• Social skill inventories
• Cognitive inventories
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Psychology, 3e
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Psychology, 3e
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Clinical Tests
• Projective tests
– ___________________________________
_____________________________
• Rorschach Inkblots
• Thematic Apperception Test
• Sentence Completion
• Drawings
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Psychology, 3e
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Rorschach Inkblot
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Psychology, 3e
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Behavioral Assessment
• Behavioral Self-Reports
– Behavioral
Interviewing
– ________________
– Behavioral Checklists
and Inventories
• Behavioral Observation
– ________
– _______
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Psychology, 3e
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Environmental Assessment
Environmental
Assessment:
A form of measurement
examining the
___________________
___________________
___________.
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Psychology, 3e
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Physiological Assessment
Many psychological disorders occur in the presence of
______________________________
Disturbances may be:
– localized in brain, perhaps as _________________ or
– _______________ (e.g., diabetes, AIDS) that may alter
psychological functioning.
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Psychology, 3e
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Physiological Assessment
• Psychophysiological
techniques
– Measure
______________
response
• HR, BP,
temperature, etc.
• Physiological
Techniques (_______
assess brain function)
– Brain Imaging:
• EEG, CT, MRI, PET
• Most popular =
________________
_______________)
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Psychology, 3e
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Neuropsychological Assessment
Neuropsychological
assessment:
____________ assess
brain function by
assessing cognitive,
perceptual, & motor
functioning
– Most widely used =
Bender-Gestalt
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Psychology, 3e
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