Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
Psychological Assessment Report
A psychological assessment report is created by psychology professionals to inform groups or individuals of the assessments appropriate for their current needs. This type of report also includes a summary of the services provided to these groups or individuals. This evaluation is used by the various entities to assess basic needs, competencies, preferences, skills, traits, dispositions, and abilities for different individuals in a variety of settings.
Psychological reports vary widely depending on the psychology professional creating it and the needs being assessed. Some of the psychology professionals who create this type of report include counselors, school psychologists, consultants, psychometricians, or psychological examiners. This type of report may be as short as three pages or as long as 20 or more pages depending on the needs of the stakeholders. Many reports include tables of scores that are attached either in an appendix or integrated into the report. Despite the many variations in assessment reports, most include the same essential information and headings.
Permalink:
Students will choose one of the personality assessment scenarios from the discussions in Weeks Two, Three, or Four to use as the basis of this psychological assessment report. Once the scenario has been chosen, students will research a minimum of four peer-reviewed articles that relate to and support the content of the scenario and the report as outlined below. The following headings and content must be included in the report:
The Reason for Referral and Background Information In this section, students will describe the reasons for the referral and relevant background information for all stakeholders from the chosen personality assessment scenario.
Assessment Procedures In this section, students will include a bulleted list of the test(s) and other assessment measures recommended for the evaluation of the given scenario. In addition to the assessment(s) initially provided in the personality assessment scenario from the weekly discussion, students must include at least three other measures appropriate for the scenario.
Immediately following the bulleted list, students will include a narrative description of the assessments. In the narrative, students will examine and comment on the major theoretical approaches, research methods, and assessment instruments appropriate for the situation and stakeholder needs. In order to defend the choice of recommended assessments, students will evaluate current research in the field of personality theories and provide examples of how these assessments are valid for use in the chosen scenario. For additional support of these recommended assessment measures, students will evaluate the standardization, reliability and validity, and cultural considerations present in these personality assessments that make them the most appropriate tools for the given scenario. Students will conclude the narrative by assessing types of personality measurements and research designs often used in scenarios like the one chosen and providing a rationale for why some of those assessments were not included.
Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
General Observations and Impressions In this section, students will describe general observations of the client during the assessment period provided in the chosen personality assessment scenario and explain whether the client’s behavior might have had a negative impact on the test results. Students will analyze and comment on how the APA’s Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct affected the implementation of the personality assessment during the initial process. Based on the observations and analysis, students will assess the validity of the evaluation and make a recommendation for or against the necessity for additional testing.
Test Results and Interpretations In this section, students will analyze the results of the assessment provided in the chosen personality assessment scenario. Based on the score, students will interpret the personality factors (conscientiousness, openness, emotional stability, introversion, extroversion, work drive, self-directedness, etc.) that are present.
Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
Note: Typically, this section reports test results and is the longest section of a psychological assessment report because the results of all the tests administered are analyzed and reported. Some psychologists report all test results individually, while others may integrate only a portion of the test results. However, in this report, only the assessment presented in the chosen personality assessment scenario will be included.
Summary and Recommendations In this section, students will summarize the test results. They will provide a complete explanation for the evaluation, the procedures and measures used, and the results and include any recommendations translating the evaluation into strategies and suggestions to support the client. Finally, students will provide any conclusions and diagnostic impressions drawn from the previous sections of the report.
Pathbrite Portfolio The Masters of Arts in Psychology program is utilizing the Pathbrite portfolio tool as a repository for student scholarly work in the form of signature assignments completed within the program. After receiving feedback for this Psychological Assessment Report, please implement any changes recommended by the instructor, go to Pathbrite and upload the revised Psychological Assessment Report to the portfolio. Use the Pathbrite Quick-Start Guide to create an account if you do not already have one. The upload of signature assignments will take place after completing each course. Be certain to upload revised signature assignments throughout the program as the portfolio and its contents will be used in other courses and may be used by individual students as a professional resource tool. See the Pathbrite website for information and further instructions on using this portfolio tool.
You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS
Discussion:Psychological Assessment Report
Discussion Questions (DQ)
Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation
Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality
Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes
I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy
For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy
The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.