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LESSON 15
CLASSIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT
Assessment is the process of gathering information from a new patient. It is the systematic collection and analysis of information about a person’s characteristics and behaviors.
A classification system consists of a list of various types of problems and their associated symptoms. In Diagnosis we identify or recognize a disorder on the basis of its characteristic symptoms.
A classification system is used to subdivide or organize a set of objects. Classification system can be based on various principles, and its value will depend primarily on the purpose for which they were developed. Different classification systems are not necessarily right or wrong; they are simply more or less useful. Clinical assessment and diagnosis are centered to the study of the psychopathology. Clinical assessment refers to systematic evaluation and measurement and psychological, biological and social factors in an individual presenting with a possible psychological disorder. Diagnosis is the process of determining whether the particular problem that the individual has needs all the criteria as given in DSM-IV-R in the classification of disorders.
Example A Suppose your class fellow experiences sensations that make her believe she is having a heart attack. Difficulty in breathing, rapid heart beat and burden on her chest. She is taken to the emergency of a hospital and she is told that the problem is psychological and physically she is al right.
Example B Your aunt is depressed, she has lost her husband. She does not eat, does not sleep, and does not go to her work. You are worried. You want her to return to normal.
Example C A teacher observes that one of her students is disruptive, unpopular with the class. What should be done and how the problem should be treated.
When we frequently come across medical problems, psychological problems, social problems or a combination of either of the two, we frequently ask how can we decide? How can we be sure , what treatment is needed? How can we differentiate between different types of psychological disorders? In the mental health field, we describe, classify, explain, select, predict, plan and evaluate to do all these tasks; we need procedures and methods to measure and define psychological disorders.
Tools for Assessment Assessment is the systematic collection and analysis of information about a person’s characteristics and behaviors. There are several assessment procedures, such as:
- Interviews
- Questionnaires
- Psychological tests
- Rating Scales
- Observation
- Behavior samples
Each assessment procedure is to judge according to the following criteria which includes
- Reliability
- Validity
- Standardization
4. Utility docsity.com
1. Reliability Reliability refers to consistency or repeatability of the results. Reliability is computed by several statistical procedures. Reliability is expressed as a matter of degree. Usually, on a continuum of 0 to 1 where one means perfect reliability, this is a rare thing. There are three types of reliability. a. Test Retest b. Internal consistency c. Inter rater reliability
Test retest: is the consistency of a test results over time. The same test questionnaire or an interview should yield the same results, when used on the same person twice (tested on two different occasions). This type of reliability is important when compulsive behavior is being measured or anxiety is being measured.
Split Half (Internal consistency) A type of reliability is internal consistency or correspondence (correlation) between test items. A questionnaire intended to measure potential for child abuse so we focus on the concept of child abuse, now every item of the questionnaire should relate and measure the concept of child abuse. If all the items on the questionnaire contribute to identify this concept then individual item- item correlation will be high and individual item to total item score will be high.
Inter rater reliability A type, of reliability is Inter rater reliability or consistency among scorers or observers. Independent judges, who are observing a person’s behavior, come to the same conclusion. This kind of reliability evaluates the agreement between two raters administering the same interview, rating the same video of a person’s behavior or observing a person’s behavior in a particular setting. High inter rater reliability increases the confidence that the procedure is measuring, what it is suppose to measure. It is clear that an instrument measuring a behavior should be high in reliability if we want to draw conclusions from it. For example: an intelligence test demonstrates low test retest reliability. It clearly shows that it is not measuring intelligence. While two observers, observe the same child in the classroom and agree in their ratings that his intelligence should be high.
2. Validity Validity is a method, which means does the test measure, what it has been designed to measure i.e. an intelligence should measure intelligence, a personality test should measure personality then it is a valid measure and it will give valid and accurate results. Suppose that a bag of sugar when put on the scale should read its weight, every time the same bag of sugar is put on the scale should give the same reading. Then the weighing scale is valid. Kinds of Validity: a. Face validity b. Criterion (Predictive validity and Concurrent validity) c. Content validity d. Construct validity
Face validity does not by itself establish the test’s trust worthiness. It simply conveys that the test and its items should appear making sense to the test taker. This is not validity in the real sense. It’s simply means that a test on depression should include questions about how often a depressed individual cry or weeps. So face validity is the apparent sense the test makes to the person who is taking it.
Predictive validity is a test ability to predict a person’s future characteristics or behavior. We could establish predictive validity by administering a test to a group of school students and predict their performance for the future senior school i.e. predictive validity makes prediction about the individual’s future behavior based on his present behavior. When we ask questions like, Is an individual likely to become anxious or depress in future? We are dealing with the concept of predictive validity. Concurrent Validity: A test designed to measure student’s present or current anxiety state e.g. should
produce anxiety scores that agree with school counseling records and parent’s reports. docsity.com
