Question

Clinical Assessment, Diagnosis, & Treatment in Abnormal Psychology

Answer 1

Note: This is a reference for educational/studying purposes, not a question, please save all comments or questions for the end.

Answer 2

\({\bf{terminology}}\)

- clinical assessment: process to determine whether behavior is abnormal and how the patient can be helped
- reliability: how consistent the assessment is
- test-retest reliability: how well an assessment stays consistent between multiple administrations
- interrator reliability: how well a test is consistent between multiple people scoring/assessing it
- validity: how accurate the assessment is
- face validity: assessment seems valid on the surface level, may not be actually valid
- predictive validity: ability of assessment to predict future behavior
- concurrent validity: degree to which data from one technique agrees with other assessment techniques

Answer 3

\({\bf{clinical~interviews}}\) assessment technique in which the practitioner talks with client/asks questions to gain insight into their behavior, combination of structured/unstructured

- structured: prepared set of questions, ex. mental status exam
- unstructured: clinician can come up with questions on the spot

Criticisms: sometimes not valid/ patients can lie/disguise certain negative aspects of their behavior, interviewers can be biased towards certain demographics/certain psychological issues, not reliable (clinicians can get a variety of answers depending on how they word things, or how they present themselves during the interview)

Answer 4

\({\bf{clinical~tests}}\) assessment technique in which the clinician presents some sort of task/question list to assess cognitions/behaviors

- projective tests: client interprets a stimulus or follow instructions, ex. rorschach inkblot test, thematic apperception test, sentence completion, drawings
- personality inventories: range of questions about behaviors, beliefs, etc. ex: MMPI. higher in reliability than projective tests
- response inventories: questions about one specific area of functioning, ex: affective inventories, social skills inventories
- psychophysiological tests: measures physical responses ex: polygraph
- neurological/neuropsychological tests: measures brain structure + activity, ex: neuroimaging (CAT, MRI, fMRI, PET)
- intelligence tests: measures intellectual ability, ex: IQ tests

Criticisms: low interrator reliability, biased against certain demographics/cultures

Answer 5

\({\bf{clinical~observations}}\) assessment technique where client is observed by clinician

- naturalistic: takes place in "natural" setting for behavior
- observer drift: steady decline in observer accuracy b/c of fatique
-observer bias: observer judgments influenced by their previous expectations/information
- reactivity: client is aware that they are being observed, change behavior accordingly
- cross-situational validity: degree to which a client's behavior is constant in different situations/settings
- self-monitoring: people observe themselves and record their own behaviors/cognitions

Criticisms: validity/reliability problems, observer bias, clients can deliberately/unconsciously change their behavior under observations, results not always generalizable across situations

Answer 6

\({\bf{diagnosis}}\) determining whether a person's psychological problems constitute a certain disorder

- syndrome: (yes, like the Incredibles villain) set of symptoms that occur together
- DSM: Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (developed by APA)
- ICD: International Classification of Diseases (developed by WHO, includes medical and psychological disorders)
- categorical information: name of category/disorder that fits symptoms
- dimensional information: severity of symptoms

Problems with the DSM:
- sometimes vague/unreliable
- insufficient studies/data
- gender/racical bias
- diagnosing/misdiagnosing/labelling causes psychological harm

Answer 7

\({\bf{treatment}}\)

- favor empirically supported/evidence based treatment
- can be difficult to define/measure what "success" means in treatment
- treated people have better outcomes than 75% of untreated people
- 5-10% of people get worse after therapy
- rapproachment movement:seeks to identify which factors/strategies are common to effective therapy, ex. feedback, focus on clients' thoughts and behaviors, self-mastery
- combined approaches may be effective: ex. combining psychopharmacologist with psychologist

Answer 8

Anyway, that's all for this topic, I hope it was of use to you! If you have any questions I will address them to the best of my ability (you may have better luck contacting me on my main account, Vocaloid)

Source: Fundamentals of Abnormal Psychology, Eighth Edition, Ronald J. Comer