TECHNIQUES OF

ASSESSMENT
MODULE 3
 Clinical interview
An interview is a conversation which has a purpose or goal (Bingham & Moore, 1924; Matarazzo, 1965).

Interviews so closely resemble other forms of conversation makes them a natural source of clinical
information about people, an easy means of communicating information to them, and a convenient context
for attempting to help them

Clinical interviews are often considered unique in two ways.

• First, the type of information clients report to the clinical interviewer is almost never shared.
• Self-doubts, anxieties, guilt, sexual difficulties, and the like are rarely confessed to others.
• Second, the initial interview is often therapeutic for the client.

The interviewer must also have the clinical skills to draw out a highly distressed individual, while at the
same time reducing that distress and leaving the client with some optimism
• One skill which is not required is clinical intuition: the unspecified ability to “read” the client.
 Intake
• The client contacts the clinician because of some problem
in living
• The intake interview or interviews are designed mainly to
establish the nature and context of the problem
• Information gathered may be used by the interviewer to
decide whether or not she or he is an appropriate source
of help, further assessment services
Clinical interview situations
Termination
• In research settings, a termination interview is usually referred to as
“debriefing.”
• includes a full explanation of the project in which the volunteer
client has participated and revelation of any deceptions employed
in it.
• Debriefings can be more complete and detailed than the research
orientation interviews which precede them.
• Completion of clinical treatment which may have been quite
intensive and/or extended also requires some form of termination
interview
• : There is gratitude and affection to be expressed and accepted,
reminders to be given about the handling of future problems, plans
to be made for follow-up contacts, and reassurance given to the
client about his or her ability to “go it alone.”
• they serve the important purpose of making the transition from
treatment to posttreatment as smooth and productive as possible.
Problem identification
• interviews may be focused entirely upon identification or
elaboration of the client’s problems
• When the interviewer is oriented toward or is asked for a
classification of the problem, “diagnosis” ofsome sort
usually occurs
• Less psychiatrically oriented clinicians and those not
required by their work setting to classify people
commonly use problem identification interviews to
develop broader descriptions of the client and the
environmental context in which his or her behavior
occurs
• Interviews focused upon describing a client and his or her
problems in broader, more comprehensive terms usually
occur in the context of the full-scale clinical exploration
Crises
• When a person’s problems in living are of a highly
immediate, stressful, and pressing nature and normal
problem-solving skills prove inadequate to deal with the
situation, the person is said to be in a crisis
• people in crises appear for help at clinical facilities or call
a “hot line,” suicide prevention center, or other 24-hour
crisis service (see Chapter 12). In such cases, the
interviewer does not have the luxury of scheduling a
series of assessment sessions to be followed, perhaps, by
some form of treatment. The crisis must be dealt with on
the spot, often in only a few minutes, and several
interview goals which would otherwise be distributed
over sessions must be combined
• The interviewer attempts to provide support, collect
assessment data, and take some action to help
Orientation
• many clinicians conduct special interviews (or reserve
segments of interviews) for the purpose of acquainting
the client with the assessment, treatment, or research
procedures to come to make these new experiences less
mysterious and more comfortable,
• Orientation interviews can be beneficial in at least two
ways
• client is encouraged to ask questions and make
comments, misconceptions or misinformation which
might obstruct subsequent sessions can be dealt with
and corrected
• orientation interviews cqn communicate new, adaptive
expectations designed to facilitate later interactions
• The prospective client learns what is coming and what
will be expected in the way of cooperation, effort, self-
disclosure, honesty, and the like.
Observation
• the interview merely provides a context for observation of
the interviewee’s reaction to stressful, ambiguous,
conflict-laden, or other situations
Interview
Structure
basic variable in clinical interviews conducted for any purpose is structure: the degree to which the interviewer
determines the content and course of the conversation
• nondirective interviews
• the clinician does as little as possible to interfere with the natural flow of the client’s speech and choice of topics
• aimed primarily at client comfort
• highly structured interviews
• rigid, question-and-answer format, resemble a kind of interrogation
• designed primarily to gather a maximum amount of specific information
• Eg: a mental status interview
• In between are many blends guided or directed interviews.
• Most clinical interviews are semistructured

The structure of a given interview is heavily dependent upon its purpose.

• orientation interviews may require more interviewer guidance than do conversations aimed at problem identification. Similarly, crises often demand
more structure than might be needed during a routine intake interview

Structure also depends, in part, upon the theoretical orientation, training, and personal preferences of the interviewer
• In general that followers of Rogers’s version of the phenomenological approach tend to provide the least interview structure
• Freudians usually provide somewhat more. Other phenomenologists, neo-Freudians, and social¬ learning types are likely to be the most verbally
active and/or directive
Samples of
different interview
structures
 STAGES IN THE INTERVIEW
Intake or problem-identification interviews are most
likely to pass through three fairly clear segments.
However, such neat stages may not be present or
discernible in all instances. The interview is often
seen to consist of three phases (cf. Benjamin, 1974):
 (1) the opening phase
Once the process
Interviewer and client must agree on the purpose and goals is agreed to, the
of the interaction. Most clients have had no experience client is asked to
with therapy and do not know what to expect. describe the
problem.

“Small talk” about the

Most clinicians see the
weather, difficulty in Several other office
establishment of rapport—a
finding the office, features characteristics can aid
harmonious and
of the building, or other rapport. The height, relative
comfortable working
topics also ease the client’s comfort and placement of
relationship—as their main
transition into the interview chairs provide good
task during the first part of
situation and make it less examples
initial interviews
strange and foreboding
 (2) development and elaboration
Having stated the The interview
Combining
problem in general proceeds from the
Nondirective Techniques Directive Techniques Interview Tactics
terms, the client is general to the
required to provide specific; the client’s
more specific report goes from
information about its overview to detail,
development and and the interviewer’s
ramifications, conceptualization
personal life proceeds from rough most interviewers
the clinician usually
situation, and other categorization to supplement nondirective
wants to avoid asking Directive techniques
factors. unique portrait. tactics with those of a
clinical interviewers “binding” questions continue to be mixed
supplemented by a variety of tactics designed both more directive nature.
begin the second stage which may (1) damage and blended with less
to help the client express herself or himself freely These typically take the
with nondirective rapport and (2) bias directive tactics. A
and fully and to enhance rapport by communicating form of questions, their
techniques, usually an assessment data by prime example of this is
the clinician’s understanding, interest, and form, length, wording,
open-ended question or forcing the client to provided by the concept
acceptance. and content are often
request choose a possibly of repeated scanning
the result of careful
artificial or inaccurate and focusing.
(though usually on-the-
response
spot) planning

active listening,
includes both verbal and A related strategy is
nonverbal elements.. called paraphrasing, the
Verbally, active clinician restates what
listening involves the client has said in
responding to the order to (1) show that
client’s speech in ways she or he has been
which, without listening closely, and (2)
interrupting it, indicate give the client a chance
understanding and to hear and possibly
encouragement to go correct the remark
on.
 (3) closing
involves something Consequently, the
of a role reversal therapist must share
the clinician
for the interviewer his or her initial
devotes as much
and client. Almost ideas with the
care to the final
every client has client, and indicate
the clinician gets several things across here. stage of the
major concerns what types of
interview as to
about what the treatment are
those which
problem “really is ’ applicable and what
precede it
and what can be prognosis the client
done about it. can expect

Third, a plan for the

final minutes is
Second, the client is may sometimes
suggested; it
praised for evoke unexpected,
includes an
cooperativeness unusual, and
First, the impending opportunity for the
and, at the same important client
conclusion of the client to pose
time, reassured that behaviors. It is not
interview is questions or make
the clinician unheard of for a
signaled. comments which
understands that the client to “drop
may have been
interview has been bombshells” during
formed before and
stressful. this period
during the
interview
Interview process
the heart of the interview is the verbal interaction between client and interviewer.

The interviewer must be able to ask appropriate questions, answer questions, deal with problems
such as silences and crying, probe in difficult areas without arousing too much distress, and so on
 Asking Questions.

closed-ended Vs open-ended questions. direct Vs indirect questions. There are several types of questions
which most interviewers try to avoid
the interview is
designed to Closed-
gather Conversely, Indirect
ended questions Giving the
information. So, open-ended Sometimes,
much of it must questions stimulate the client the
questions statements asking
involve a will yield client to talk answer to the
generally which end in “Why?”
question-and- Open-ended specific data without the Indirect question
answer process. prompt the question typically
Closed- questions are but will also pointed questions rather than
client to marks and produces
ended more general result in nature of which refer letting him
speak more include terms discomfort
questions ask and do not concrete, direct to the client’s or her
freely and such as and/ or
for specific require terse questions. apparent generate a
extensively “when,” simply
information specific data responses. Rather, they feelings (e.g., response
—to talk “where,” wastes time
in response. This is are “You must (e.g., “Did
about the “how,” and while the
especially nondeclarati be angry”) you quit
topic—but “why” are client
true of yes- ve statements are known as school
usually do direct searches for
no questions to which reflections because you
not produce questions. some
(e.g., “Did some client were afraid
specific hypothetical
you go to response is of failing and
factual explanation
class required, having to
information
yesterday?”). such as, face your
“That must father?”)
really make serve as one
They can
you angry,” of the basic Indirect
sometimes
“I wonder tools of questions are
suppress the

The interview process

how you feel client- usually good
flow of
about that,” centered alternatives
conversation
or “Tell me therapists
something
about your
parents.”
 Problem Situations
Direct questions Questions about
Silences Emotional outbursts
from the client personal life

At times, the the

client is
the interviewer
interviewer the clinician
Some simply Providing ordinarily
should
reluctant to must tries to
clients do become opinions generally
deal with refocus on
not speak some issue or more active, The most common The interviewer must gauge the often has the client, as
avoid It is
freely, and is present finding emotional reaction amount of distress to determine how an undue by the
personal considered
the influence topics during preferable
under duress. other ways is crying, which to act: response, I
the interview.
interview This type of to ask can range from a on clients, really
The focus is,
to refocus
is silence is a questions minor sniffle to a since it is couldn’t say,
after all, on on the
periodicall clear form of and complete difficult for but what do reason for
the client; the
resistance, stimulating breakdown in you think you
y which the communication
them to go should do?”
interviewer the client’s
interrupted conversatio against the should not question
interviewer or “That must
by periods must either n when clinician’s really be a
use up time
silences discussing
of silence resolve or judgment hard choice
other matters.
temporarily occur. for you to
circumvent make.”
by changing or shift gears
the subject. remain silent
and provide
until the client continue with

The interview process

therapylike
regains the interview,
support and
composure,
understanding
 Observation
“the selection, provocation, recording, and encoding of that set of behaviors and settings concerning organisms ‘in situ’ which
is consistent with empirical aims”
• The clinical observer must first select those persons, classes of behavior, events, situations, or time periods which are to be the focus of attention
• A decision must be made about whether to provoke (i.e., artificially bring about) behaviors and situations of interest or to merely wait for them to happen
naturally
• Plans must be made for the way in which observations are to be recorded:
• Observer memory, audio or video recording devices, physiological monitoring systems, timers, and counters are all possible choices
• A system for encoding raw observations into usable form must be developed
• the most difficult and technically demanding aspect of any observational procedure

Observation provides a direct, firsthand look at behaviors of clinical interest and, in the process, provides a rich source of
clues about the causes of those behaviors

the goal is either to

• (1) collect information which is not available in any other way
• (2) supplement other kinds of data as part of a multiple assessment approach.

Some see the client’s overt behavior as providing only supplementary clues to personality traits and dynamics

For others, observable behavior plays a larger role in guiding inferences about underlying personality or pathology and may
even be given a weight equivalent to self-reports or test scores

Many clinicians and researchers regard observational data as behavior samples which represent the most direct, important,
and scientific assessment channel available.
 APPROACHES TO CLINICAL OBSERVATION
One of the most important ways in
The clearest way to organize array of
which these variants differ from one other significant observational
observation appraoches is in terms of the
another is in terms of the observers’ dimensions include
settings employed.
role

• Naturalistic observation • Participant observers are visible to • The characteristics of the recording
• where the assessor looks at behavior the clients being watched and may system (human, mechanical, or both)
as it occurs in its most natural even interact with them in some cases. • A decision about whether data are used
context • Nonparticipant observers are not as signs or samples.
• Controlled, or experimental, visible, although, in most cases, the
observation clients are aware that observation is
• Here, the clinician or researcher sets taking place
up some sort of special situation in
which to observe behavior
• Often certain aspects of each of these
classic approaches are blended to
handle specific assessment needs, and
there are many versions or subtypes
of both naturalistic and controlled
observation
 Naturalistic Observation
Watching a client behave spontaneously in a natural setting such as his or her home, school, or job
has some obvious advantages.
• it is realistic
• relevant for understanding the nature of the client’s behavior and its factors
• may be done in subtle ways
• there is great potential for long-term, even continuous, observation,
• Since the natural environment is present all the time

The classic case of naturalistic observation is the anthropological field study

• a scientist literally joins a tribe, subculture, or other social unit of interest in order to observe its characteristics and the
behavior of the individuals within it
• the observer is a participant in every sense of the term, and observations are usually recorded informally in anecdotal notes
which later appear as a detailed and organized account called an ethnography
When Prophesy Fails by Festinger, Riecken, and Schachter, provides an insider’s look at the social
processes which take place when important beliefs are disconfirmed.
• The authors without identifying their profession, they joined a group of people who firmly believed that the world was
about to come to an end.
Limitations of naturalistic observations
The amount of data generated by these procedures is staggering. Voluminous amounts of reliable data that cannot
be summarized maybe as useless as unreliable data

Observation systems aimed at specific categories of behavior which are thought to be indicative of particular
stages or levels of physical, cognitive, and social functioning are useful to focus on important aspects
• The targets of naturalistic observation in clinical psychology are primarily the nature of and/or changes in problems which brought the client to
the clinician.

Another problem with observation is that

• Observers interpret what they see. When they make an interpretation, they tend to overlook facts which do not fit the interpretation, and they
may even invent facts needed to complete the event as interpreted
• To reduce unsystematic selection and reporting of client behaviors, most modern clinical observation schemes purposely focus the observer’s
attention on behaviors of particular interest. Some versions of this approach employ retrospective procedures
• life records may be scanned to gather information about particular behaviors in a client’s past. School, police, court, and juvenile authority
records have been used as a means of evaluating preventive and remedial treatment of delinquent and predelinquent children
• More commonly, , retrospective observation involves asking persons familiar with the client to report on the presence, frequency, intensity,
duration, or form of specific categories of behavior as displayed in the recent past
 Naturalistic observation situations
Hospital Wittenborn Psychiatric ward staff observe a data are translated into scores on ten dimensions
observations Psychiatric hospitalized client several times per day including excitement, hostile belligerence,
Rating Scales or week and then choose the statement in paranoid projection, grandiose expansiveness,
each scale which best describes the disorientation, and conceptual disorganization
client’s behavior

Inpatient seventy-five items, each of which is data are translated into scores on ten dimensions
Multidimensi either rated by the observer/ interviewer including excitement, hostile belligerence,
onal on 5 or 9 point scales or responded to paranoid projection, grandiose expansiveness,
Psychiatric with a “yes” or a “no” disorientation, and conceptual disorganization
Scales

newer systems involve immediate, not retrospective, observation. They require the observer to look at a client’s
behavior and to record or encode that behavior as it occurs without drawing inferences. When such observations are
made at regular intervals (e.g., once per hour), the process is called time sampling. When only certain activities are
observed (e.g., mealtime interactions, cigarette smoking), it is usually called event sampling. Often both techniques
are involved, as when observations are made once per minute during particular events such as mother-child
interactions.
Behavioral Study Form (BSF) developed by Schaefer and Martin uses immediate observation
School Observations

• recording and coding

systems designed by Bijou
and O Leary use symbols
to represent the behavior
of children and the adults
around them during time-
sample observations
collected several times
each minute
 Home Observations
observation packages
designed by Gerald
Patterson for use in the
homes of young
predelinquent boys
places trained observers in the client’s living
area for an hour or two, usually just before
dinner.2 The observers avoid interacting
with the family and concentrate on
recording the behavior of one member at a
time during successive 5-minute periods.
Each type of behavior observed (e.g.,
talking, crying, hitting, laughing, ignoring)
is summarized by one of twenty-nine
symbols
Lewinsohn and Shaffer
(1971) had observers
record family interactions
at mealtimes on a time-
sampling basis.
The encoding system categorized verbal
behavior as self-initiated actions (e.g.,
questions, comments, requests for
information, complaints) or positive and
negative reactions to the behavior of others
(e.g., approval, laughter, criticism,
disagreement). These and other dimensions
(such as speed of reaction to others) were
then used to examine differences between
depressed and nondepressed persons (e.g.,
Libet & Lewinsohn, 1973) as well as
changes in depressed behavior as a function
of treatment
Gottman (1974) has used
a similarly complex
coding system for the
assessment of couple
interactions.
Each verbal statement is
categorized in terms of its (1)
content (e.g., question,
opinion, command, feedback),
(2) affect (positive, negative,
or neutral), and (3) impact, or
intent (e.g., puts spouse down,
puts self up).
 Controlled Observation
One sets up special circumstances under
which to observe a client’s behavior as
she or he reacts to planned, standardized
events, called controlled observation.
• To guarantee the occurrence of an event
• To control extraneous variables/disturbances
• For precise measurement of client improvement or
deterioration during treatment or over time
Controlled observations are also referred
to as situation tests, miniature situations,
analogue assessments, and contrived
observations.
During World War II, military
psychologists devised controlled
observations which were aimed at
assessing personality traits as well as
objective behavioral capabilities.
• In the Operational Stress Test, for example, would-
be pilots were placed in a flight simulator and asked to
manipulate various controls

Traits of initiative, dominance, In current clinical and research settings

cooperation, and group leadership were
inferred from another series of wartime
observational assessments developed by
the staff of the Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) to help select espionage
agents and other special personnel
• included group tasks such as transporting a log across
a stream (without going in the water) and moving a
heavy object over an imaginary chasm between two
10-foot-high walls.
controlled observations take many forms,
• the “control” involved consists merely of asking
clients (usually couples, families, or parent-child
pairs) to come to a clinic or laboratory and have a
discussion, attempt to solve a problem, or just talk
while under observation by TV cameras, tape
recorders, or human coders
• the client or clients are presented with a structured
task or situation designed to elicit behaviors of
relevance to clinical assessment.
The clinician and/or several other persons may create a make-believe situation in which the client is asked to
role-play his or her typical behavior Role-Playing Tests
• common use of role-playing in controlled observation has been in the assessment of social competency, self-expression, or assertiveness.

in the Situation Test (ST) developed by Rehm and Marston (1968) to explore college males’ social skills.

• In the ST, the client sits with a person of the opposite sex and listens to a tape recorded description of the scene to be role-played. The
woman (an assistant to the clinician) then reads a question or statement such as “What would you like to do now?” or “I thought that was a
lousy movie,” and the client is asked to respond as if the situation were real.

In the Social Behavior Situations Test (SBT; Twentyman & McFall, 1975), social situations are also created
via tape recording, but the client listens alone.
• The tape may contain material such as: “You are on a break at your job. You see a girl who is about your age at the canteen. She works in
another part of the store and consequently you don’t know her very well. You would like to talk to her. What would you say?” After hearing
the tape, the client is asked to act as if he were actually in the situation and to carry on an interaction over an intercom with a female
assistant in the next room
The Forced Interaction Test (Twentyman & McFall, 1975) in which a female assistant enters a room and sits
down next to the male client. The client’s task is to imagine himself in a classroom and to initiate and
maintain a 5-minute conversation with the assistant.

In the Behavioral Assertiveness Test (Eisler, Miller, & Hersen, 1973; Eisler, Hersen, Miller, & Blanchard,
1975),
• for example, hospitalized males were prompted to respond to a female assistant in various make-believe social situations (e.g., a person
steps in front of the client in a supermarket check-out line; a steak ordered rare arrives well done)

The Behavioral Role-playing Assertion Test

• Clients’ responses to these situations are usually recorded and then rated for overall assertiveness, response latency, disfluency, response
duration and other related factors.

The Extended Interaction Test provides an example of one approach to assessing the generality of client
behavior through controlled observation, but there are others as well
• It involves creating a staged naturalistic event (Gottman & Markman, 1978) consisting of controlled observational circumstances of which
the client is either unaware or about which he or she has been misinformed
 Performance Measures
There are other procedures, however, in which the client is actually faced with some version of a clinically relevant situation so that her or his
behavior can be observed.

Some of these observations are focused upon social interaction

• A client may be asked to carry on a real conversation with a person who is not programmed to respond in any particular way or a couple may be given an issue to discuss

Controlled observations of performance have also focused upon consummatory behaviors such as eating, drinking, or smoking
• Alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinkers have been observed in specially constructed cocktail lounges or living rooms located in hospitals

Another important and increasingly popular type of performance measure in controlled settings is the physiological activity which appears in
relation to various stimuli and situations
• heart rate, respiration, blood pressure, galvanic skin response, muscle tension, and brain waves

to assess overt anxiety in relation to specific objects and situations. Tests called Behavioral Avoidance Tests (BATs) are employed
• they confront the client with the very thing which he or she fears and then record the type and degree of avoidance displayed
• Usually, the client is asked to approach the feared target but, occasionally, BATs are set up to measure how long the client can look at a frightening stimulus or how close the client
will allow that stimulus to approach her or him

Controlled performance tests have also been developed to assess fear of certain situations rather than small animals.
• Paul’s (1966) use of contrived test speeches to assess clients’ discomfort about public speaking was an early example of this type of assessment
 Behavioural assessment
With the considerable influence of the behavioral movement in the 1960s and 1970s, many clinical
psychologists have altered their assessment approach. In some instances, behavioral procedures have
replaced traditional psychological testing.

The behaviors to be treated are directly assessed.

• For example, if a client experiences fear of heights, his or her behavior in high places will be observed and recorded. This
includes not only motor responses but physiological responses (e.g., heart rate) and verbal reports as well.

The importance of the direct measurement of behavior has even affected the psychiatric
establishment. Its influence in the field of education is even more striking.
 Brief History
Lang and Lazovik’s (1963) classic paper “Experimental Desensitization of a Phobia.” Mention there was made of
three assessment strategies now routinely used in behavioral research, especially with phobic subjects.
• Fear survey schedule (known as FSS-I)
• a paperand-pencil test consisting of fifty common fears rated by the subject on a scale of 1 to 7
• Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT)
• an objective (i.e., motor) strategy for evaluating a subject’s ability to approach a phobic object (Example, a harmless, nonpoisonous snake
securely caged in a glass terrarium)
• The Fear Thermometer
• initially described by Walk (1956) in his evaluation of airborne parachute trainees. In the BAT situation the Fear Thermometer is used by
asking the subject to evaluate, on a ten-point scale, the degree of discomfort experienced at the closest approach point to the snake

Applied behavior analysts have made a great contribution to the methodology of measuring ongoing overt behavior.

The strong interest in behavioral assessment in the 1960s and 1970s and the decline in traditional testing can be
explained by five related factors. They are
• (1) the discontent of clinical psychologists with their professional roles in some settings;
• (2) the often unclear relationship between psychological testing and treatment;
• (3) the growing dissatisfaction with projective tests;
• (4) the greater predictive value of direct assessment procedures
• (5) the unreliability of standard psychiatric diagnosis
Features of behavioural assessment: philosophical
tenets of behavioral practitioners

The behavioral assessor

is interested in the direct
evaluation of clients.

It is completely
integrated with the
therapeutic process.

• with the integration of assessment and treatment, the therapist’s hunches about the client can
Each case may be repeatedly be verified or discomfirmed.
• And in the event of failure, the behavioral approach is flexible enough so the therapy can be
conceptualized as an changed
• Formalized in a scientifically rigorous manner and is known as the single case experimental
individual experiment design

In attempts to classify what actually happens
during a behavioral assessment, many
behavioral schemes have been presented
Cautela describes behavioral assessment as
consisting of three phases
• The first phase, the therapist identifies maladaptive client
behaviors.
• The second phase involves choosing and implementing
treatment strategies
• the treatment is tailored to the maladaptive response.
• Final phase consists of a formalized and precise follow-up
evaluation of the client
• the therapist is cautioned to pay attention to a wide array
of the client’s behaviors: dreams, imagery, motor and
physiological responses, cognitions, and others.
Lazarus multimodal approach
 General steps in behavioral assessment
Then one of four
During the early basic
Interviewing as the First Step Motoric Measures stages of measurement
assessment, approaches must
be selected;

most motor
assessments
Through therapist- the job consists of
require human (1) permanent
client discussion, . Client Many behavioral codes have been narrowing the
observers, the Behaviour can be products, (2)
the problem is complaints during developed by clinicians to study a client’s
behaviors under assessed in both event recording,
narrowed until the the interview may variety of motor behaviors in clients. complaints and
study are natural and (3) duration
specifics needed be organized into However, there is no viable code for identifying
precisely defined controlled settings recording, and (4)
for a behavioral five categories: every problem behavior. behaviors to be
as to time, interval recording
analysis emerge. modified.
distance, and
motion.

(1) behavioral
deficits, (2)
behavioral
excesses, (3)
problems in Thus, during
some innovation
environmental behavioral
may be required in
stimulus control, assessment, a new
developing
(4) inappropriate measurement
assessment
self-generated approach is often
strategies.
stimulus control, necessary.
and (5)
inappropriate
contingency
arrangements
 Permanent Products
Any measurable or observable
trace, artifact, or change in the
environment which is the result of a
specifiable behavior.
• Such a result or product of a
behavior may be permanent or
short-lived.
• Examples include blood alcohol
levels as a result of drinking,
weight loss as a result of dieting,
and a wet bed as a result of
nocturnal enuresis
A permanent products assessment Nonetheless, there are a few
strategy has certain advantages. drawbacks.
• First, observer time is minimized • The most important one is that the
since only the end product must behavior is inferred rather than
be noted. The behavior is inferred directly seen; thus, there is no
from the product. guarantee that the target behavior
• Second, extremely high inter-rater was performed appropriately—or
agreement is common since the at all.
end product is clearly described.
In some cases gauges (e.g., a scale
for assessing weight) are used for
measurement. Also, the permanent
product is easily quantifiable (e.g.,
enuretic episodes per week).
• Third, this assessment strategy is
easy to implement and to teach
both to professionals and
nonprofessionals
 Event recording simply
involves tallying the rate
of the targeted behavior. Event
the rate of gagging in a case of “conversion reaction”
plotted per day during baseline and treatment phases Recording
and per week during the follow-up period
For a low-frequency behavior, a longer time
period is required for representative
measurement (gags per week in follow-up)
However, for a high-frequency
behavior, a shorter time period (gags per
day in baseline and treatment) is needed
When several behaviors are targeted for
baseline assessment, they can be observed
simultaneously if they are precisely
defined
Note that event recording is appropriate
only when the targeted behaviors have
clear beginning and end points.
Duration Recording
Duration recording requires the targeted behavior to have discrete
limit

Duration data can be presented in several ways.

• First, the duration of a high-frequency behavior can be calculated (using a stop watch)
each time it occurs. An average of the durations may then be obtained.
• Second, by adding each duration for each occurrence, a cumulative duration of the
behavior is presented.
• Third, the cumulative duration of the behavior may be presented as a fraction (i.e.,
percentage of time that the behavior occurred compared to total time measured).
• Thus, the total time interval is divided by the cumulative number of minutes that the
behavior was observed and multiplied by 100.
 Interval Recording
However, there is one
A stopwatch is
Some trial and error major disadvantage:
For certain behaviors, commonly used for
may take place while Interval recording Interval recording does
the discrete limits and interval recording;
the time interval to be strategies have several not allow for
rate of occurrence are however, this may
used for observation is advantages. differentiation as to
difficult to determine prove distracting to the
chosen. frequency versus
observer.
duration per interval.
Generally, however, Thus, if the
In such cases, an First, high inter-rater
high-frequency and reliability is usually behavior occurs
interval recording
short-duration obtained. once in the first
strategy (also behaviors will require interval and three
known as time short observation times in the next
sampling) is more periods (five to
Better yet are Second, several interval, the rating
appropriate. twenty seconds).
prerecorded behaviors (up to five for each interval is
audiotapes, which or six may be rated the same (i.e., one
delineate the preset simultaneously) check mark to
With this strategy,
time intervals with By contrast, low- indicate that the
the observer
a beep or buzzer frequency and high- Third, the strategy is a behavior occurred).
chooses a time
duration behaviors time saver since only a Similarly, whether
interval and simply small portion of the
require long the behavior lasts
notes whether the observation periods time is spent five or twenty
targeted behavior twenty-five seconds observing (hence the seconds, this factor
occurs or fails to or more) designation time
does not appear.
occur sampling).
Reliability (Inter-Rater Agreement)
Except for permanent products measurement, where gauges are some¬ times used, most motor indices require
human observers.

To minimize the possibility of error, very precise definitions of target behaviors are given and the observers are
generally pretrained. How¬ ever, even with such precautions, error can always occur

Therefore,as a convention, behavioral assessors require two observers.

The primary observer makes all the observations needed. The independent observer (the checker) then rates one-
third to one-half of the observation periods.
• the two independent sets of observations are evaluated by a Pearson ProductMoment correlation. If the resulting correlation coefficient is equal
to or greater than r - 0.80, then an acceptable level of reliability between the two observers has been achieved
Data obtained from interval recording (i.e., occurrence-nonoccur¬ rence) are evaluated differently. The inter-rater
agreement percentage is calculated as follows: Also, by convention, inter-rater agreements of 80 percent or more
are considered acceptable.
Types of tests in clinical
settings
 Intelligence
Intelligence testing is a twentieth-century development. Historians of psychology justifiably consider it an outgrowth of the interest in individual differences,
which is attributed to such nineteenth-century figures as Galton, Cattell, and others.

However, it was not until the labors of Alfred Binet and his coworkers, which culminated in the publication of a full-fledged intelligence test in 1908 (a revision
of a cruder form which originated in 1905), that a standard instrument for the assessment of intelligence as such became available to the psychologists of that
time.

the StanfordBinet (SB) was a major tool of clinical psychology. Its applications went beyond the schools, where it originated, and the institutions for the
defectives. The clinic and the mental hospital became additional territories within the SB domain.

Major concern was with the evaluation of intellectual level as a guide for school placement.

• Related to this diagnostic application of the mental age and IQ (suggested by Wilhelm Stern) was the identification of the scholastically unfit and their designation as feebleminded.
• A further refinement of this procedure was the diagnostic labeling of defective subgroups based on their performance on the intelligence tests (i.e., morons, imbeciles, idiots).
• In other words, it became an aid for the classification of inmates within the institutions for the feebleminded and a guide in their training programs.

In the original manual of the SB, Terman (1916) considers the use of intelligence tests with the gifted, with delinquents, and in situations requiring decisions
regarding “vocational fitness,” in addition to the applications mentioned above.

A number of studies have, in fact, shown that the performance of patients with the SB spreads over a wide range of mental age levels ( scatter)

• This phenomenon was quite consistent with extant notions about deterioration in mental disorder and selective effects of psychosis on different mental function.

Studies with the intelligence tests also show what appears to be a selective deficit in function, especially on tasks involving “the most self-government or control,
in the so-called functional disorders.”
• Vocabulary emerges as relatively invulnerable to the effect of mental disorder and is defended as a base level for measuring functioning loss or inefficiency.
 Wechsler-Bellevue tests
problem of mental in most mental
impairment, disorders, the
deficit, or performance
deterioration. functions are
• assumes that the more impaired
process of “normal than the verbal The intratest
The qualitative
deterioration” due to ones. scatter which is
aging is similar to and “projective” There developed a
The WB was • In young delinquents made possible in
that found in the interpretation of shift in emphasis
standardized on more severe and adolescent the Wechsler type
the content of in diagnostic
adults, with psychiatric disorders. psychopaths, the of point scales
Thus, he tentatively performance level is responses, which testing from the
separate norms and the
suggests a dichotomy, higher than the verbal is not readily psychometric
for various age which later becomes level; moreover, a interpretation of
quantifiable and instrument—the
levels, from converted into a ratio modification of the the ordinal
rule-of-thumb pattern which depends test—to the
adolescence to of tests which “hold relationship of
up with age” and is again presented for greatly upon the human instrument
senescence. five diagnostic passes and fails
those which do not. clinician- —the tester.
• Among the former syndromes. within the same
interpreter.
are, of course, • V-P discrepancy of 15 subtest.
Information, points occurs 13
Vocabulary, etc.; times out of 100 in a
among the latter are normal population.
Digits (forward and
backward), Digit
Symbol, etc.
 Aptitude
Aptitude, intelligence, and achievement as psychological constructs are not easily distinguished

The traditional distinction was that achievement tests reflected the effects of past learning, whereas aptitude and intelligence reflected the
individual's potential for success.
• In this traditional view, both aptitude and intelligence were seen as relatively enduring traits of the individual, not easily modified by experience

The most important differences among aptitude, intelligence, and achievement have to do with how they are used and with assumptions about
antecedent experiences

Common features of aptitude models

• Expansive cognitive processes
• Intra-individual versus Inter-individual Differences
• Improved School Achievement
• Improved Overall Cognitive Functioning

Differences among aptitude models

• assumptions about stability or modifiability;
• product versus process of cognitive activities;
• transfer of effects;
• standardized versus dynamic assessment procedures;
• applications to decisions.
 MODELS OF APTITUDE ASSESSMENT AND
INTERVENTION
Psycholinguistic and Perceptual-Motor
Aptitude by Treatment-Interaction Models Dynamic Assessment/Change Models
Models
• The primary PL model (Kirk, McCarthy, & • The modality-matching model generally • The function of assessment in this model is
Kirk, 1968), based on a communication focuses on three kinds of information- to identify efficient and inefficient
theory (Osgood, 1957), had three major processing strengths and weaknesses: (a) cognitive and motivational parameters of
components: (a) channels of auditory, (b) visual, or (c) kinesthetic. the individual; the parameters accessible to
communication (auditory-vocal and visual- • Children experiencing difficulty in mediation; and the kind and intensity of
motor); (b) communication process acquiring academic skills are assessed to mediated interventions needed to produce
(reception, association, and expression); determine strengths and weaknesses over change in accessible parameters.
and (c) levels of organization these processes, and then an instructional
(representational and automaticsequential). method that utilizes the child's strengths is
• The perceptual-motor assessment and prescribed.
intervention model emphasized processes
such as visual and auditory discrimination
and perception, visualmotor coordination
and integration, visual-auditory integration,
and motor skills\
• The PL and PM models are used to identify
intra-individual differences in processes
presumed to underlie overall cognitive
functioning and school achievement.
• The PL and PM models are highly
influential in the diagnosis of specific
learning disabilities (SLD).
 Interests
Numerous test authors used that
original item pool as the foundation
for development of their inventories
e.g.,
The first item pool of interest
activities was accumulated in a
seminar taught by Clarence S.
Yoakum at Carnegie Institute of
Technology in 1919. The 1,000-item
pool was developed using a rational
sampling approach designed to
represent the entire domain of
interests.
• Occupational Interest Inventory [Freyd, 1922-1923],
• Interest Report Blank [Cowdery, 1926];
• General Interest Survey [Kornhauser, 1927];
• Vocational Interest Blank [Strong, 1927];
• Purdue Interest Report [Remmers, 1929];
• Interest Analysis Blank [Hubbard, 1930];
• Minnesota Interest Inventory [Paterson, Elliott, Anderson, Toops, & Heidbreder, 1930]
 Theories of Vocational Interests
The earliest interest inventories were developed
using the atheoretical, empirical method of • The Strong Interest Inventory 1 (Harmon, Hansen, Borgen & Hammer, 1994), the Career Assessment
contrast groups that is based on an assumption Inventory TM2 (Johansson, 1975" 1986) and the Campbell Interest and Skill Survey TM (CISS(R~3;
that people with similar interests can be clustered Campbell, Hyne, & Nilsen, 1992).
together and, at the same time, be differentiated
from groups with dissimilar interests.

Anne Roe (1956) and John Holland (1959), for • (a) mechanical, (b) scientific, (c) social welfare, (d) aesthetic expression, (e) clerical, (f) business, and
example, used the factor analysis of Guilford and (g) outdoor work,
his colleagues, who found seven interest factors:

• Campbell Interest and Skill Survey TM

• Vocational Preference Inventory (Holland, 1985c), the Self-Directed Search (SDS) (Holland, 1971,
1987a, 1994), various forms of the Kuder, the Strong Interest Inventory TM, the Career Assessment
CURRENT INTEREST INVENTORIES Inventory TM, the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey (JVIS) (Jackson, 1977), the unisex version of
American College Testing's Interest Inventory (UNIACT) (Lamb & Prediger, 1981; Swaney, 1995), and
the Vocational Interest Inventory
Campbell Interest and Skill Survey
The CISS (R) profile includes three
types of scales: seven Orientation
Scales, 29 Basic Scales, and 60
Occupational Scales.
The 29 Basic Scales were developed
by clustering together homogeneous
items in content areas such as Sales,
Supervision, Adult Development,
International Activities, Science,
Woodworking, and Military/Law
Enforcement.
The Orientation Scales capture the
major interest factors that have been
identified through various statistical
clustering procedures
The Occupational Scales were
constructed using the empirical
method of contrast groups originally
refined for interest measurement by
E. K. Strong, Jr. Successful,
satisfied workers in each of 60
occupations were surveyed.
 Holland's Interest Inventories
Holland' s theory has led to
development of inventories
Based on interest data
and sets of scales to measure
collected with the VPI as well
his six types, for example, his
as data from other interest,
According to Holland, people Holland indicates that the own Self-Directed Search,
personality, and values
can be divided into six types types can be organized in the the ACT Interest Inventory,
inventories and from analyses
or some combination of six shape of a hexagon in the R-I- the Career Decision-Making
of the structure of interests,
types: A-S-E-C order; System-Revised (CDM-R)
Holland formulated his theory
(Harrington & O'Shea, 1993),
of vocational life and
the General Occupational
personality.
Themes of the Strong Interest
Inventory TM

the types adjacent to one

Realistic, Investigative,
Artistic, Social, Enterprising,
and Conventional.
another on the hexagon (e.g.,
Realistic-Investigative or
Enterprising-Conventional) are
more related than types that
are diametrically opposed to
one another (e.g., Realistic-
Social or Artistic-
Conventional).
 Projective tests
the term “projective” (as used in The textbook definitions of “projective
projective techniques) with the techniques” have indicate that they are
psychoanalytic mechanism of psychological measurement devices
“projection.” which are characterized
• (1) on the stimulus side by ambiguity
in the stimulus,
• (2) on the response side by the
multiplicity of responses permitted’
the subject in an open situation where
the responses do not have a right or
wrong character
• (3) in the interpretation aspect by the
interest of the interpreter in the
unconscious or latent aspects of
personality and in their amenability to
holistic personality analysis.
the ordinarily designated projective
techniques usually include the
• Rorschach and other inkblot
techniques
• The Thematic Apperception Test
(TAT) and
• Other picture story tests such as the
Make-A-Picture-Story (MAPS) Test,
• sentence-completion and story
completion procedures,
• word association tests,
• drawing and drawing-completion
tests,
• mozaic tests,
• the Picture-Frustration Study,
• miniature world tests,
• the Szondi Test