CHAPTER  15

Clinical Assessment

OOne of the most important activities of the mental health professional is to assess the nature and extent of the problem for which help is being sought. Thus, Chapter 15 is devoted to a discussion of the goals, methods, and issues involved in clinical assessment. For a clinician, the primary goals of clinical assessment include an identification, description, and diagnosis of an individual's presenting symptoms, as well as evaluation of variables that might influence treatment, including potential causal and protective factors. Clinical assessment depends on data from observation and interviews, as well as psychological, often neuropsychological, and, in some cases, neurological tests. Chapter 15 describes what the different types of tests are, how they are constructed, and what types of information can be obtained from them. Additionally, this chapter discusses the increasingly common use of computerized psychological testing for aid in administration, scoring, and even interpretation of data. Given the far-reaching implications of a clinical assessment, it is important for clinicians to be aware of concerns of insufficient validity and bias on the part of both the clinician (e.g., theoretical orientation) and/or the instrument itself (e.g., culture bias). The chapter ends with an evaluation of the relationship between assessment and therapy. Many trained clinicians begin and continue treatment without incorporating conclusions from psychological testing, despite evidence that such testing, in and of itself, can be therapeutic.

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