Psychological assessments can be determined through clinical interviews, personality tests, cognitive and neuropsychological tests, direction observation of behavior, experience sampling, and self-report questionnaires. Each method of assessment provides a different approach to assessing and determining the correct psychological assessment. The purpose of clinical interviews is to establish rapport, empathize with client experiences, and to encourage the client to elaborate on concerns. Most clinicians in clinical practice assess DSM symptoms in an informal manner. Structured interviews are standardized interviews that ask the same questions in a predetermined order and have good interrater reliability for most diagnostic categories. They are used more in research settings. Interviews are used to assess stress with stress identifying as the subjective experience of distress in response to perceived environmental problems while life stressors are environmental problems that trigger the subjective sense of stress. The Bedford College Life Events and Difficulties Schedule was a semi-structures interview covering over 200 stressors that evaluated the importance of an event in the context of a person’s life circumstances. It carefully dated when a life stressor occurred and excluded life events that were consequences of symptoms.
Personality tests include personality inventory, MMPI-1-RF, BFI-2, and NEO-PI. The personality inventory is a standardized self-report questionnaire in which a person’s responses can be compared with the statistical norms. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2-Restrucutred Format has validity scale to detect over- or underreporting of symptoms and yields the profile of psychological functioning. The Big-Five-Inventory-2 and NEO Personality Inventory both asses he broad “big” five domains of personality. That include openness to experience neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness.
Intelligence tests are used to assess current cognitive abilities and predict school performance, diagnose learning disabilities or intellectual ability, and are included in neuropsychological examinations. While they explain only a small part of school performance and are impacted by stereotype threat, they are highly reliable and have good validity. Neuropsychological tests are based on the idea that different aspects of cognitive functioning are tied to different parts of the brain and can give clues as to where in the brain damage may have occurred which can be followed up with brain imaging techniques. They also pinpoint specific areas of cognitive functioning impairment and detect brain dysfunction and reveal performance deficits.
The direct observation of behavior is the observation and assessment of behavior as it occurs that determines the frequency and form of problematic behaviors and the antecedents and consequences of problematic behaviors. The methods involve direct observation and interviews and self-report that are often in a lab setting. For example, a mother and child may interact in a lab living room while the interaction is observed through a one-way mirror or videotaped for later coding. Experience sampling, also known as ecological momentary assessment (EMA), is when individuals self-monitor and track their own behaviors that include moods, stressful events, thoughts, etc. A person is signaled and asked to enter responses directly into the device in real time. Self-report questionnaires have formats often similar to personality tests. They are used to help plan treatment targets and can help determine if changes occurred in response to an intervention.
The big five personality test is one of the most used clinician personality tests. The five traits of the big five personality test are openness to experience, neuroticism, conscientiousness, extraversion, and agreeableness. A research study observed how exhibited personality traits affected performance scores. The purpose was to observe the relationship between school director candidate’s performance and their personality traits. This is done by 145 female school direction and 130 male school directors who were instructed to take The Big Five Personality test during training. The results showed a positive correlation between participants contentiousness and their academic test and workshop notes. Workshop notes and oral practice also displayed a positive correlation with openness. Neuroticism displayed a negative correlation with workshop notes and oral performance. This suggests that personality traits are valid indicator of individual’s academic performance (Hsieh, 2021). The big five personality test is a useful tool that can be used to predict numerous outcomes of a person’s behavior depending on what traits they display.
Hsieh, M., & Juan, H.-C. (2021). An Examination of the Effects of Personality Traits on Performance Scores. InternatIonal Journal of IntellIgent TechnologIes and ApplIed StatIstIcs. https://doi.org/10.6148/IJITAS.202103_14(1).0003