Online Psychological Assessment Course

• Learn how Psychological Assessments are carried out.
• Professional Development Course for anyone working in Psychology, Counselling or Management
• Self paced study, 100 hour course, Personal tuition from professional psychologists

Psychological tests assess and evaluate information that is given to the examiner by the client. This information is in the form of answers to interview questions or as answers on paper—or on a computer—to specific questions. Ultimately, a test’s accuracy depends on how carefully and seriously the client answers the questions they are asked.

A psychological assessment is when a skilled psychologist uses the techniques and tools of psychology to learn general or specific facts about another person, either to information others how they function or to predict their behaviour and functioning in the future.

A psychological assessment is when a skilled psychologist uses the techniques and tools of psychology to learn general or specific facts about another person, either to information others how they function or to predict their behaviour and functioning in the future.

Assessment is usually for the point of diagnosis or classification. That is, placing a person into a loosely or strictly defined category of people. This allows us to understand what they are like in general and assess the presence of other relevant characteristics based on people similar to them.

There are 7 lessons in this course:

1. Introduction
   • What is psychological assessment
   • Types of psychological tests
   • Achievement tests
   • Aptitude tests
   • Intelligence tests
   • Occupational tests
   • Personality tests
   • History of psychological testing
   • Justification for using tests
   • Advantages and disadvantages of using psychometric testing
   • Ethnicity and different cultures
   • Psychological testing of language minority and culturally different children
   • Why your child should be tested
   • Why it is important for parents to know about testing
   • Validity and reliability
   • Construct, discriminant and convergent validity
   • Test retest reliability
2. Context of Clinical Assessment
   • Ethical practice
   • Confidentiality
   • Case study: confidentiality
   • Informed consent
   • Record keeping
   • Dual relationships
   • Professional boundaries
   • Selecting tests
   • Case study: ethics and lie detection
   • Computer assisted assessment
   • Virtual reality; new tool for psychological assessment
   • Personality traits and designing a questionnaire
   • Weaknesses
   • Ambiguity and bias
   • Closed and open questions
3. The Assessment Interview
   • The interview
   • Screening for psychological disorders
   • Structured and unstructured interviews
   • SCID
   • Assessing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans
   • Screening and referral procedure overview
   • If patient refuses referral to mental health care
   • Use of a primary care screen
   • Discussing screening results with patients
   • Discern if traumatic events are ongoing
   • Making a recommendation
   • Scheduling a follow up
   • Psychomentric properties of SCID
4. Behavioural Assessment
   • Behaviourism
   • Kinds of consequences
   • Reinforcers
   • Intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcers
   • Consequences and timing
   • The premack principle
   • Extinction
   • Criticisms of behaviourism
   • Methods of behavioural assessment
   • The focus of assessment
   • Functional analysis
   • Analysis of problem behaviour
   • Motivational analysis
   • Behavioural vs traditional assessment
5. Wechsler Intelligence Scales
   • Introduction
   • Measuring intelligence
   • Cognitive, cognitive contextural and biological theories
   • Psychometric theories
   • Wechsler Intelligence scales
   • Normal results
   • Sub tests, verbal subtests, performance subtests
   • Cultural bias
   • Precautions with intelligence testing
   • The intelligence test as a tool
6. Wechsler Memory scales
   • Memory
   • Wechsler Memory test
   • Wechsler Memory Scale III
7. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
   • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Assessment
   • Problems
   • False negatives; false positives

Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.

Aims:

• Explain the main kinds of psychological tests and why they are used, and meaning of test reliability and validity
• Explain ethical and other factors that constrain clinical assessment
• Describe a structured and an unstructured interview
• Explain behavioural assessment and how it can be conducted
• Discuss Wechsler scales in detail
• Explain the purpose and use of the Wechsler Memory Test
• Explain the purpose and usage of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory

For more information on this course, please request your free course information pack.