Clinical Psychologist Assessment
Although biomedical care is essential in providing mental health care, it is not sufficient on its own. A pediatrician’s interactions with his patient must be fully informed by a psychosocial understanding. There is a need to integrate biomedical, psychosocial, and behavioral knowledge in understanding how the human brain works and interacts and how that results in either normality or abnormality. Biological, psychosocial, and behavioral aspects interact in an interdependent and systematic manner to cause illness or maintain good health. In a scenario, where an eleven-year-old girl is having behavior and academic problems in school, clinical health psychology plays a significant role in determining the presence or absence of a mental disorder. The patient, therefore, needs to first consider seeking attention from a clinical psychologist before submitting to any form of medical prescription.
Change in behavior is a common sign in mental disorders but it may not be precise to conclude that that the patient is indeed suffering from a mental disorder. It would be a misguided attempt to prescribe Ritalin to the eleven-year-old girl for assuming that she may be suffering from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behavioral health care is the basis of psychosocial practice. Psychology as the study of behavior and mental processes emphasizes the need to understand the social behavior, personality, cognition, and attitudes of individuals. Also, this science strives to understand how social, biological, and behavioral factors interact to influence illness and health (Wenzel, 2017). Thus, consulting a clinical psychologist, who is a behavioral health provider, plays a significant role in understanding the extent to which the various factors influence health.
A clinical psychologist is equipped with knowledge and skills to understand how certain behavioral and cognitive aspects such as personality and cognition, lead to mental dysfunction. A clinical psychologist is trained to perceive how the functions may be altered, the cause for the alteration, and the diagnosis and treatment for the dysfunctions. In dealing with the eleven-year-old girl’s scenario, the clinical psychologist would be expected to use some psychological, psychotherapeutic, psycho-diagnostic techniques to help establish the alterations contributing to the patient’s change in behavior and academic problems. The clinical psychologist might need to engage the patient or a third-party in a clinical interview to help gain a comprehensive understanding of the patient. This is mainly done to ascertain the mental state of the patient and determine whether the individual poses a risk to self as well as others, and to evaluate the extent to which her ability to function has been altered such that she may require any medical intervention (Wenzel, 2017). More formalized psychological procedures may then follow which include The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-A) test to assess behavior and personality, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC-IV), and the Woodcock-Johnson IV (WJ IV) cognitive tests to assess intelligence.
The MMPI-A test is involved in the assessment of personality traits and psychopathology (Framingham, 2018). The test includes a set of questions designed to test the probability of a mental disorder. After the test is completed, the psychologist gives a report which comprises interpreting test results that are in relation to the patient’s background and existing psychological issues. The MMPI-A test tool is useful in guiding diagnosis and treatment in that, it is designed in several clinical scales that help assess human behavior. They include: Depression (D) scale – used to measure depression; Hysteria (Hy) scale – used to measure nervousness, self-doubt, or neuroticism; Psychopathic Deviate (Pd) scale – used to measure general social disturbance; Schizophrenia (Sc) scale – used to measure unusual thoughts/perceptions, difficulties in concentration, lack of interests, and social alienation; Social Introversion (Si) scale – used to measure social interactions of an individual; and other scales (Framingham, 2018). The psychologist, therefore, will be able to perceive various behavioral factors of the individual through the MMPI-A test and understand the extent to which the various factors influence the patient’s mental health.
The psychologist may tend to ground the academic problem in the construct of intelligence and decide to use The WISC-IV test for intelligence. The process would involve issuing of intellectual subtests to the eleven-year-old girl to measure her IQ level. The standardized scores obtained from the subtests are used to determine the Comprehension Level, Perceptual Reasoning, and General Ability Index of the patient (Na and Burns, 2016). This scale proves to be useful in guiding diagnosis and treatment in that it reveals the components of intelligence within an individual and their level of intelligence. Since we define learning disability in terms of IQ scores, modern tests such as WISC-IV are the best scales used to measure IQ. The intelligence test will help make judgments and predictions on the degree of supports that the patient needs to achieve a normal life. In the case of the eleven-year-old girl, her IQ may help predict her academic abilities. A more comprehensive assessment would help determine any form of mental impairment and help execute a plan for medical intervention.
The WJIV test is a valid and reliable tool used to assess the cognitive and achievement abilities among children (Schrank and Wendling, 2018). The test is based on the modern theoretical model of intelligence. The WJIV proves to be one of the best diagnostic tools used to identify exceptional cases that include high incidences of disabilities like ADHD and brain injuries, and low incidences of disabilities like autism and visual impairment. The WJIV test is useful in guiding diagnosis and treatment in that, it aims at determining the intellectual level and academic capabilities of the student through tests, especially children with academic problems. Some of the exceptionalities easily identified by the test include learning disabilities, intellectual disabilities, giftedness, and hearing impairment. The WJIV test is unique in its highly distinguished features which include; supplementary tests and interpretive procedures; a comprehensive system used to measure General Intellectual Ability; and direct comparison of subject scores hence a high degree of accuracy (Schrank and Wendling, 2018).
There is a need to understand the role of behavioral, social, and psychological factors in the maintenance of mental dysfunctions. Dysfunctions are not necessarily a result of disorders and therefore, a clinical psychologist has to be consulted before seeking any medical attention on matters of individual behavior. Psychologists are better skilled to diagnose any behavioral aspect of mental illness. Psychological and psychotherapy tests have been designed to help evaluate the many behavioral aspects that influence an individual’s functioning including her cognitive abilities, emotional adjustments, among others. In the case of the eleven-year-old girl, it would be more appropriate to measure the validity and reliability of an ADHD diagnosis before sending the patient for medical intervention. This would help differentiate the disorder from other psychiatric disorders that affect children at an early age. The listed diagnostic tools may help identify the symptoms that may possibly help differentiate ADHD from other conduct disorders through a conditional probability procedure that works both in the presence or absence of the symptoms.
References
Framingham, J. (2018). Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Psych Central. Retrieved January 28, 2019.
Wenzel, A. (Ed.). (2017). The sage encyclopedia of abnormal and clinical psychology (Vol. 1). SAGE Publications.
Schrank, F. A., & Wendling, B. J. (2018). The Woodcock-Johnson IV. Contemporary Intellectual Assessment: Theories, Tests, and Issues, 383.
Na, S. D., & Burns, T. G. (2016). Wechsler intelligence scale for children-V: Test review. Applied Neuropsychology: Child, 5(2), 156-160.