Psychological assessment

Psychological assessment reports are written by psychology professionals who work in a variety of settings. In addition, professionals in many different subfields within psychology, education and health must be able to read, understand and apply information provided in psychological assessment reports in order to effectively serve their clients. For your Final Assignment, you will demonstrate your knowledge of psychological assessment by applying the information you have learned throughout this course in the interpretation and write up of a psychological assessment report.   Your Final Project will be based on one of the case information/data tables that have been provided in the course.  The three cases consist of one adolescent assessment, one adult assessment, and one geriatric assessment.  It is expected that your Week Five final project case will be the same case that you selected in Week Two and that you incorporate feedback provided to you by your instructor on the Week Two assignment when developing your final project. To complete this assignment, you will choose the client from the list below which you chose for your Week Two assignment.

Timothy Childers (Adolescent Male)

• Butcher, J. “Contemporary Use of the MMPI-2 in Forensic Assessment”, Continuing Education Course presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 2014. ABS 300 Week Five Sample MMPI-A School Adolescent Male Interpretive Report Timothy Childers [PDF].
• Kennedy, N. & Harper, Y. (2014). ABS 300 Week Five Final Paper Adolescent Male Case Study Timothy Childers [PDF]. College of Health, Ashford University: San Diego, CA.

Mr. Kyle Jones (Adult Male Personal Injury Case)

• Butcher, J. “Contemporary Use of the MMPI-2 in Forensic Assessment”, Continuing Education Course presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 2014. ABS 300 Week Five Sample MMPI-2 Adult Male Personal Injury Interpretive Report Mr. Jones  (Links to an external site.)[PDF].
• Kennedy, N. & Harper, Y. (2014). ABS 300 Week Five Final Paper Adult Male Personal Injury Case Study Mr. Jones [PDF]. College of Health, Ashford University: San Diego, CA.

Mr. Jeremiah Smith (Geriatric Male Case)

• Butcher, J. “Contemporary Use of the MMPI-2 in Forensic Assessment”, Continuing Education Course presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, Washington, DC, August 2014. ABS 300 Week Five Sample MMPI-2 Geriatric Male Interpretive Report Mr. Smith [PDF].
• Kennedy, N. & Harper, Y. (2014). ABS 300 Week Five Final Paper Geriatric Male Case Study Mr. Smith [PDF]. College of Health, Ashford University: San Diego, CA.

As you write up your assessment report you will be taking on the role of a clinician who is conducting an assessment and providing treatment recommendations for the client that you choose from the list provided. You must use the information provided in case history and identify the most salient information that belongs in each section. Do not simply copy and paste the information provided. You must make a professional judgment about which information is the most important information to include in the psychological report and where to include that information in your report. Your assessment report must follow the format below and it must include each of the sections and their headings listed below:

I. Identifying Information 
Within this section, you will record basic information on your client including the person’s name, sex, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, handedness, and occupation or grade level. For the purposes of this assignment, you are free to create any relevant demographic information that is not explicitly stated in the case scenario. All information you create must be consistent with the information provided and any conclusions you draw in subsequent sections of your paper.
II. Reason for Referral
Within this section describe the referral source and the purpose of the assessment. The information you provide in this section must justify the decision to conduct a formal psychological assessment based and must model ethically and professionally responsible assessment practices.
III. Current Symptoms/Presenting Concerns
The information in this section of the report would typically come from an interview with the client and family (if applicable, e.g., if the client is a child or person with suspected dementia).  You must use the information provided in case history to identify the most salient information that belongs in this section. Choose information to include in this section based on the consistency with the reason for referral and purpose for testing. Here is where you will apply your methodological and theoretical assessment formulations of the client that will justify the decision to conduct a psychological evaluation on this client.
IV. Psychosocial History (complete each of the sections below based on the information in the case you selected)

• Educational history
• Occupational history
• Medical history (including substance use/abuse)
• Psychiatric history
• Social history

V.  Interpretation of the Results
In this section explain your interpretation of the results in the data table provided for the case you selected.   Utilize the information available and create appropriate subheadings to organize the results.   For example, if your data table contains information on intelligence and achievement, then you should create appropriate subheadings to organize your findings in this section of the report. Create a sufficient number of subheadings to allow you to provide interpretations for all assessment instruments administered. If you have more than one measure of a particular psychological construct (e.g., personality and emotional functioning), present your interpretations of all measures that apply to that construct under the same subheading.
VI. Diagnostic Impressions
Based on the history provided and interpretation of test results, use the DSM-5 to provide a diagnosis (or diagnoses) for the client in a manner that demonstrates the ethical and professional use of assessment results.  You must justify your diagnostic conclusions based on your knowledge of the validity and reliability of the assessment instruments.  If there are multiple potential diagnoses to consider, then these must be explained and justified as well.   Also include information about alternative diagnoses and why these were not chosen.
VII. Recommendations
Within this section, provide treatment recommendations for the client based on the diagnosis and information about the client’s current living situation.  Develop recommendations that are evidence-based and include peer-reviewed articles that support your choice(s).

The Assignment:

• Must be 5 to 7 single-spaced pages in length (not including title and reference pages).
• Must include a separate title page with the following:
  • Title of assignment
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must use at least 5 scholarly sources, including a minimum of 2 peer-reviewed articles published in the last 10 years from the Ashford University Library.
• Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
• Must include a separate title page and reference page that is formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. (Links to an external site.)

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.) for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment.