Before the psychotherapy begins, psychologists conduct psychological testing and assessment. But do you know what this process is and why it is important?
Simply defined, psychological assessments are conducted to gather detailed information about any mental health diagnosis. In this post, we will discuss the process in detail.
Psychological assessments: An introduction
It evaluates individuals' mental health and behavioral functioning through standardized tests, observations, and other methods. The assessment result helps psychologists diagnose mental health conditions, determine treatment options, and measure progress.
Different types of psychological testing and assessments
Psychoeducational evaluation
In this assessment, individuals undergo testing for a learning-based disorder. The method revolves around intellectual testing and achievement measures. The assessment compares between individuals' intellectual abilities and their academic skills.
If there is a large difference between them, it becomes a basis for diagnosing a specific learning disorder. Discrepancy exists when the ability of a person is significantly lower than what is expected.
Emotional and/or personality functioning evaluation
This assessment is conducted to understand individuals' emotional and/or personality functioning. The best part about this method is that it helps learn about the individual more comprehensively in less time.
The result of this assessment helps in recommending mental health treatment, including medications and therapy. These findings also help other specialists in the treatment process. Primarily, this assessment method includes questionnaires that have to be completed by patients only.
Neuropsychological assessment
As one of the popular psychological assessment tests, neuropsychological assessment helps measure more detailed aspects of cognitive functioning. Common cognitive functioning aspects include executive functioning abilities, attention, learning, memory, and motor coordination.
It's mostly conducted in medical-based settings and captures individuals' functioning more globally with measures of intelligence, academic achievement, neurocognitive abilities, and personality and emotional functioning.
What to expect during psychological assessments?
For in-depth psychological testing and assessment, it may take a few hours after visiting the clinic. During these hours, psychologists present a series of standardized written tests to patients. These tests are in the form of questionnaires, ability ranking lists, surveys, and checklists. These tests are generally uniform to check ability within a certain age bracket.
Sometimes, individuals take tests independently and visit the clinic for follow-up interviews. If the sessions seem lengthy, psychologists break them into two or three appointments. They later use the information gathered to write an overall evaluation, determine a diagnosis, and develop a treatment plan.
Psychological assessment tests are like surprise tests. You cannot prepare for them. You may not arrive at a true evaluation if you know and practice the questions beforehand. The answers should be spontaneous, with honesty and mindfulness.
The objective of psychological assessments is for psychologists to understand how patients think and what they perceive. They get every detail to treat the problem.
Conclusion
Psychological testing and assessment are for the right diagnosis and treatment. So, take up the assessment if you or someone in your family don't feel good mentally. If you want to go for psychological assessments, contact Pegasus Integrated Health Inc.
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