UNIT 3

• Psychological evaluation

  Assessment interview is the single most important means of data collection, providing valuable information such as behavioral observations, idiosyncratic features, and reactions to current life situations
• Interview


  Clear sequence, organized around specific, relevant themes, meant to achieve defined goals
• Goals of any interview

  • Assessing client's strengths
  • Level of adjustment
  • Nature and history of the problem
  • Diagnosis
  • Relevant personal and family history
• Unstructured interviews

  • Offer flexibility, high rapport, ability to assess how clients organize responses, potential to explore unique details of a client's history
• History of obtaining information from clients started with clinical interviewing, influenced by psychoanalytic theories
• Standardized psychological tests were developed to overcome limitations of unstructured interviews
• Researchers and clinicians in the 1940s and 1950s investigated critical dimensions of interviews
• Non-directive approach in interviews was found to create favorable changes and self-exploration of clients
• Considerable research was stimulated by C. Rogers in understanding interpersonal ingredients necessary for standard care
• Development of behavioral assessment in the 1960s focused on understanding current and past reinforcers and establishing workable target behavior
• Child assessment in the 1960s was primarily conducted through interviews with parents
• Trends, concepts, and instruments developed in the 1960s and 1970s were further refined and adapted for the 1980s
• Single-session therapy in the 1990s illustrated the potential brevity of information required before making therapeutic interventions
• Managed health care emphasized the cost-effectiveness of providing health services, requiring the development of required information in the least amount of time
• Halo effects and confirmatory bias are issues related to validity and reliability in interviews
• First impressions have been found to bias later judgments (W. Cooper, 1981)
• Confirmatory bias might occur when an interviewer makes an inference about a client and then directs the interview to elicit information that confirms the original inference
• Research on interview validity has typically focused on various sources of interviewer bias
• Reviews of interview validity show tremendous variability ranging from -.05 to +.75
• Information derived from unstructured interviews should be treated cautiously and as tentative hypotheses that need to be supported by other means
• Biographical Information from interviews can be used to help predict future behaviors; what a person has done in the past is an excellent guide to what he or she is likely to continue doing in the future
• Assets and Limitations of Structured and Unstructured Interviews

  • Structured Interviews
  • Unstructured Interviews
• Structured Interviews

  • Psychometric Precision
  • Reliable ratings
  • Reduced information variance
  • Consistent diagnostic criteria
• Unstructured Interviews

  • Subtle non-verbal cues can be observed
  • Focus on the individual rather than comparing them to the normal group
  • Rapport
• Interviewer Bias

  Halo Effect, Confirmatory Bias, Primacy Effect
• Structured Interviews result in considerable variability for both reliability and validity as well as in difficulty comparing one subject with the next
• Structured Interviews require length of time for administration
• Computer-assisted programs like (DIS) Diagnostic Interview Schedule (DICA) Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents can be used for structured interviews
• Unstructured Interviews may overlook idiosyncrasies and richness of a person
• Interviewer style is strongly influenced by Theoretical Orientation
• Client Centered vs. Behavioral approaches can be used in interviews
• Diagnostic Interview (DSM IV) vs. Informal Interview can be conducted based on client needs
• Essential aspects of interviews include sincerity, acceptance, understanding, genuine interest, warmth, and positive regard
• Patient's idea of quality interviewing involves understanding emotions, detecting partially expressed emotional messages, inferring problem emotions from para/non-verbal expression
• Interview Tactics include clarification statement, verbatim playback, probing, confrontation, understanding, active listening, reflection, feedback, random probing, self-disclosure, perception checking, use of concrete examples, therapeutic double blind, eye contact, self-disclosure, reviewing interview tapes, touch
• Preliminaries of an interview include organizing the physical characteristics of the room, introductions, purpose clarification, explaining how information will be used, confidentiality, explaining instruments and activities, fee arrangements
• Directive vs. Non-Directive Interviews are determined by Theoretical/Practical considerations
• Behavioral Interviewing vs. Psychodynamic approaches can be used in interviews
• Sequence of Interview Tactics goes from Open Ended to more direct questions, hypothesis, further questioning, intermediately structured responses, facilitation, clarification, confrontation, empathetic statements
• Comprehensiveness in interviews focuses on using a checklist, general questions, observations, responses, review