Psychological Assessment: Behaviors, Symptoms and Personality

Recommended Prerequisites

Basic knowledge in Psychological Assessment: Interviews, Observation, Tests; Developmental Psychology; Personality; Psychopathology.

Teaching Methods

Theoretical classes: expositive method supported by the presentation of slides; interrogative methods; oral or written reflection from the presentation of audiovisual materials.

Practical classes: active methodologies based on concrete materials, such as tests/inventories/questionnaires of behaviors, symptoms and personality; training of application skills and scoring of instruments results through exercises conducted in small groups; field work - administration and scoring instruments.

Learning Outcomes

1. Understand the process of Psychologic Assessment (PA) as a distinctive element of the scientific and professional activity of psychologists.

2. Identify essential technical, psychometric and ethical/deontological issues related to the adaptation, validation and use of PA methods/techniques/instruments and PR writing.

3. Understand objectives, theoretical and practical assumptions, advantages and specific limits of each of the PA methodologies and techniques referred in this curricular unit (tests, checklists, inventories/questionnaires of behaviors, symptoms and personality).

4. Develop/acquire basic knowledge and skills for the use of PA instruments of behaviors, symptoms and personality, with special focus on instruments standardized for the Portuguese population, and understanding the complexity of PR writing.

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Models, theories and techniques/instruments of PA: behaviors, symptoms and personality. Psychometric data: Construction and Validation.

2. Behavioral Assessment: Scales/Checklists/Questionnaires (ASEBA Model/CBCL/TRF/YSR, Conners' scales).

3. Symptoms Assessment: Inventories/Questionnaires (STAI, STAI-C, RCMAS, FSSC-R, CDI / CDI-2, BDI-2, HADS, SCL-90-R/BSI).

4. Personality Assessment:

4.1 Factorial inventories(questionnaires (EPQ-R, 16 PF, NEO-PI-R; NEO-FFI).

4.2 Clinical inventories/questionnaires (MCMI, MMPI-2 / MMPI-2-RF, PAI).

4.3 Projective techniques (TAT, CAT, CAT-H, RATC, Roberts 2, Family Drawing Test, Human Figure Drawing/Emotional Screening, Rorschach).

5. Communication of results: PR writing.

6. Ethical and deontological issues in PA process and PR writing.

7. Heuristics, errors and bias in PA process.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria João Rama Seabra Santos

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Laboratory work or Field work: 30.0%
Exam: 70.0%

Bibliography

Archer, R. P., & Smith, S. R. (Eds.) (2014). Personality assessment (2nd ed.). Taylor & Francis Group.

Cohen, R.J., & Swerdlik, M.E. (2018). Psychological testing and assessment (9th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Geisinger, K.F. (Ed.) (2013). APA handbook of testing and assessment in psychology (Vol. I-IV). APA.

Groth-Marnat, G., & Wright, J. (2016).  Handbook of psychological assessment (6th ed.). Wiley.

Haynes, S.N., Smith, G.T., & Hunsley, J. (2019). Scientific foundations of clinical assessment (2^nd ed.). Routledge.

Nichols, D. S. (2011). Essentials of MMPI-2 assessment (2nd ed.). New York: Wiley.

Schneider, W. J., Lichtenberger, E. O., Mather, N., & Kaufman, N. L. (2018). Essentials of assessment report writing (2nd Ed.). Wiley.

Weiner, I. B., & Greene, R. L. (2017). Handbook of personality assessment (2^nd ed.). Wiley.