Clinical Interviewing and Hypothesis Building - Psychological assessment and hypothesis testing model - Wright - 2011

Summary with the article/chapter: Clinical Interviewing and Hypothesis Building - Intro part 1 - Wright - 2011 - Article

Psychological assessment is used to make clear what an individual needs, wants and how her/his life can be better. This example shows why psychological assessment can be an important aspect in people's life; When a child is showing disruptive behavior at school, psychological assessment can help this child by identifying what is causing this disruptive behavior, such as an attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

What is psychological assessment and why do we use it?

There are six processes that make up a psychological assessment:

1. Conducting a clinical interview
2. Choosing a battery of tests
3. Administering, scoring and interpreting the tests
4. Integrating and conceptualizing information gathered from test results, the clinical interview, behavioral observations, and other sources
5. Writing a psychological assessment report about the observations
6. Providing feedback to the individual assessed and/or the referral source

Psychological assessment is most of all used to give a more detailed understanding of how people interact, function, especially the parts that they are not entirely aware of. But nobody can be conscious of everything that is happening inside themselves and that is also why multiple methods of evaluation (self-reports, objective measures, clinical observation, and projective measures) are used. But no evaluation can be made or is perfect, so there are always some kind of biases or 'blind spots'. 

What is the hypothesis testing model?

The hypothesis testing model uses the best parts of all the individual measures that are used. The basics of the hypothesis testing model are as follows:

• Step 1: Clinical Assessment. In the clinical assessment you take interviews and information from other sources to be able to make hypotheses about the individual that is being assessed. It has two goals; (1) assessing impairment in functioning, and (2) generating hypotheses. You have to make sure to also look at signs that there are underlying problems within somebody, because sometimes the things that are causing the individual's impairment are more subtle. For the second goal you have to know a lot about different theories of behavior to be able to make good hypothesis about somebody's behavior.

• Step 2: Selecting Tests. Once you have made the hypothesis about the behavior of the individual you have to select different tests to be able to test the behavior and be able to find evidence for or against these hypotheses. 

• Step 3: Testing. After choosing the right test battery, administration and scoring of the chosen tests are the next step. It is very important to make sure the administration and scoring of the tests is done absolutely perfect because otherwise you can influence possible outcomes regarding the individual that is assessed. 

• Step 4: Integrating of All Data. This is seen as the most delicate step. The results of the test and the behavioral observations made at step 1 come together and are combined to answer the hypotheses and be able to put the evidence in favor or against the hypotheses. 

• Step 5: Writing the Assessment Report. When you are writing the assessment report as a researcher the most difficult part is that you want to be clear and use professional language, but not too much psychological jargon so that people who are not psychological educated also understand what you want to say. 

• Step 6: Providing Feedback. It is often the most important part but researchers often forget to talk about it. For an individual it can be a big relieve to hear why he/she is having difficulties or is acting different compared to other people.