Psychological assessment
Introduction
According to Goodwin (2004), psychological assessment refers to the process of testing that uses several techniques to arrive at some hypothesis about an individual and their behaviour, capabilities and personalities. Psychological assessment is also known as psychological testing. There are different psychological assessments, such as personality tests, clinical interviews, mental ability tests, neuropsychological tests and achievement tests. In most nations, only licensed psychologists conduct psychological evaluations and tests. Psychologists are the only professionals who are trained expertly to perform as well as interpret psychological tests.
Nevertheless, psychological testing should never be carried out in a vacuum. It should always be done first before a psychological assessment is carried out. Psychologists always seek to take the information they gather from the testing and weave it into a complete picture of the tested individual. The recommendations are centred on all the assessments and crucial discussions with family members and peers.
Anna O. case (Bertha Pappenheim) psychological assessment case
The background of the case
Anna O.’s real name is Bertha Pappenheim. She was born and raised in Vienna, Australia. In 1880, Anna’s father contracted tuberculosis. Anna devoted her time to take care of her sick father, who was mostly limited to his bed. Regrettably, her father’s condition worsened, and he died in April in 1881. Her father’s death made Anna develop some symptoms, and she decided to consult Josef Breuer, a psychologist, as her symptoms were persistent. Breuer worked closely with his colleague Freud for the psychological assessment and treatment of Anna O. The psychologist noted that before Anna’s illness, she had lived a healthy life with an active imagination. The devotion and her father’s sickness hugely contributed to Anna’s mental disorder. Anna experienced symptoms such as anxiety, nervousness, and shortness of breath, fainting, and insomnia. Goodwin (2004) noted that the psychologist conducted a series of assessments on Anne and eventually diagnosed Anna with hysteria. Hysteria is a mental disorder that is hugely triggered by trauma or repeated instances of being sick. Anna’s panic was triggered by the sickness of her dad and his eventual demise.
Legal implications
No room for discrimination
Discrimination is against the code of ethics for psychologists and counsellors globally. A psychologist may not conduct psychological testing on a patient if the assessment outcome is biased due to the person’s place, origin, gender, religion, or race. Psychologists have the role of ensuring that they can prove the test performed is valid, and no form of discrimination will occur. Patient’s rights in the psychological assessment are respected, and their results should never be used against the client’s best interests (Domino & Domino, 2006). The law has set specific guidelines and boundaries for psychological assessments. It stipulates that the tests must be standardized and should not exclude any individual based on their gender, race, colour or nationality.
A duty to uphold the patient’s fidelity
It involves telling the truth and keeping promises between a patient and the psychologist. It is a simple concept that can easily be violated if there are no legal implications. Psychologists are required by the law to uphold fidelity in all their assessments and clients’ treatments. The psychologists are necessary to resolve the needs and concerns of a patient, and the information should not leak to the public. Through signing a consent form during a psychological assessment, the patient is assured that the information will not be accessible to any unauthorized individual. The legal professional of psychologists and counselors requires them to uphold fidelity, and if such a law is not upheld, a psychologist can be prosecuted for breach of contract.
An analysis of the biases related to the assessments in the case
Gender bias
Disparities are hugely evident and widespread in diagnosing and treating mental disorders globally (Hurt et al., 2013). Anna O. was discriminated against due to her gender, and this further affected her mental health. The psychologist made unwarranted judgments that were based on Anna’s gender. She received low levels of standards of treatment due to her gender. Anna’s psychologist believed that if a man was nursing his dad, he could not have suffered from hysteria. Gender bias leads to old-age stereotypes and prejudices that affect individuals’ mental health when they seek the services of psychologists and counselors. Also, gender bias leads to oppression of one gender. For instance, Anna was oppressed due to her gender when seeking help. She was considered the weaker sex due to her deteriorating mental health and increased series of hallucinations.
Cultural bias
It refers to the prejudice and unfairness individuals receive when seeking psychological assessment services based on their culture. Cultural bias is most prevalent between psychologists and minority groups in society. Cultural bias is hugely compounded by factors such as information availed by a client, depth of assessments, and a client’s openness. Anna was prejudiced due to her cultural background. Also, the language barrier between a psychologist and a client can be crucial to cultural bias in psychological testing. Psychologists cannot fully understand the clients. Cultural bias only benefits a small group of people and leaves the majority in a society highly disgruntled.
The ethical implications for diverse populations in relation to the case
Informed consent
A patient must give their support to be psychologically assessed. The patient can also withdraw their consent at will. Suhr (2015) alleged that the psychologist undertaking psychological testing should explain to their patient in a simplified language what all the different tests entail. One of the critical aspects of psychology is informed consent. It is morally right for the patient to be informed of the psychological assessment. It may also lead to legal problems if permission is not given, and a psychologist goes on to carry out assessments.
Patient confidentiality
The test results should never be shared with a third party unless the client approves such a move. With the patient’s consent, the information might only be shared with a professional in the field of psychology. Also, the assessment results should only be used to help the client and not for other purposes. Confidentiality is vital as it offers significant credit to the psychological assessment and testing field and profession. Nevertheless, a psychologist is sometimes allowed to break confidentiality where they believe that their client is in danger. In such a circumstance, the psychologist can consult a client’s family members and close friends.
The role of norming in creating bias
It standardizes the symptoms of every individual
Norm groups are assessment and test-takers, representing the rest of the population who have not been assessed. A thorough psychological assessment should also incorporate a complete medical examination to rule out an illness’s possibilities, organic or medical cause to a person’s symptoms. Norming assumes that every person has the same mental health problem and like everyone else. It hugely leads to wrong assessments being administered to different people (Maruish, 2017). It leads to patients’ misdiagnosis as other individuals have various disorders, although the symptoms may be similar. Different people should be assessed differently as no patient portrays the exact symptoms; thus, standardization may lead to the wrong treatment.
The use of pre-determined results
Norming facilitates the usage of pre-determined results as it allows a psychologist to use the past results of individuals who had similar mental health issues. Psychologists take advantage of such as they save time for assessments and tests. It hugely leads to biasness as different people may have additional mental health problems. For instance, a person may be having anxiety and the other bipolar disorder, but since a psychologist is using past results due to their symptoms, he might misdiagnose them.
Conclusion
The purpose of psychological assessment is to determine an individual’s mental health and offer the necessary therapy for them to heal. A psychologist may advise one to evaluate when they realize one is portraying some signs of mental health disorders. Some of the health disorders that may necessitate a person to take a psychological assessment include; anxiety, social withdrawal, hallucinations, rampant incidents of sadness and change in sleeping and eating habits. The psychological evaluation takes different forms, such as verbal and written questionnaires and medical lab tests. The type of psychological testing on an individual hugely depends on the severity of the symptoms. Different medications and therapies are administered to patients for their recovery, which relies on a particular case’s magnitude. Anti-depressants may be given to individuals with anxiety and hallucinations.
References
Domino, G., & Domino, M. L. (2006). Psychological testing: An introduction. Cambridge University Press.
Goodwin, C. J. (2004). A history of modern psychology. Wiley.
Hurt, S. W., Reznikoff, M., & Clarkin, J. F. (2013). Psychological assessment, psychiatric diagnosis, and treatment planning. Routledge.
Maruish, M. E. (2017). Handbook of psychological assessment in primary care settings (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis.
Suhr, J. A. (2015). Psychological assessment: A problem-solving approach. Guilford Publications.