Health and Psychology

Psychological assessment is a complex process that strives to clarify how an individual is, how they think, and how they perceive the world and things around them.  The assessment process then will compare this individual to others in known groups for similarities and differences.

I specialize in performing complex assessments.  This uses standardized psychological and neuropsychological test materials, self-report data, and clinical interviewing to generate hypotheses about the person being evaluated.  Those hypotheses then feed back into more tests designed to accept or reject those ideas.  Frequently we change the order, the sequence or the environment of the test taker to clarify what is happening in a situation.  It's a lengthy process that can take more than a single day.

The process starts with what the person wants to know.  For example:

• How smart am I compared to others?
• Why can't I pass this test in school?
• Was I hurt in the accident I had?
• How can I pick a partner I can get along with?
• What can I do to find a career for myself?
• How can I get along better with other people?

The assessment process may be interwoven with treatment.  For example if I'm treating someone for anxiety, depression, or trauma, I may want data to know how the treatment is progressing on a session by session basis.  I can then provide this information back to the person I'm treating to let them know their progress in that selected area.

In the fields of health and medical psychology the assessment process includes health promoting behaviors like compliance with treatment regimens, and healthy lifestyle behaviors.  It also includes medical information preferences such as how much involvement someone wants in the decision making process.  There are also personality characteristics that impact how someone can work with their treating provider(s) to maximize treatment efects.  In all of these areas an appropriate assessment can mean the difference from improving over time or reverting back to old behaviors.