clinical psychology is the ____ of human behaviour applied to real-world concerns with mental health and well-being
science
what does a clinical psychologist do?
clinical psychological science encompasses a wide range of activities with the common goal of improving mental health and well-being
anecdotal method
say that something works because someone told me that it worked, often accompanied by the placebo effect
confirmation bias
the tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories
informing case conceptualization
gathering info about the individual (ex., the magnitude and degree and type of symptoms)
diagnosis
short hand of communicating symptoms
5 components of problematic behaviour
- statistical infrequency
- violation of norms
- personal distress
- diagnosis by expert
- dysfunction
statistical infrequency of problematic behaviour
- behaviour should be unusual or rare
- pros: objective
- cons: what is rare or unusual (has cultural influence)
problematic behaviour, violation of norms
- abnormal = violation of cultural norms
- pros: uses context to define
- cons: definition may be used as social control
defining mental disorder: personal distress
- suffering as a result of behaviour(s)
- pros: avoids cultural constraints
- cons: cons: may not be evident
defining mental disorder: diagnosis by expert
- behaviour is an aspect of a psychological disorder
- pros: objective
- cons: hazy clarity for criteria
harmful dysfunction
a disorder exists when the failure of a person’s internal mechanisms to perform their functions as designed by nature impinges harmfully on the person’s well being as defined by social values and meanings. the order that is disturbed when one has a disorder is thus simultaneously biological and social; neither alone is sufficient to justify the label disorder
Wakefield’s dysfunction
a scientific and factual term based in evolutionary biology that refers to the failure of an internal mechanism to perform a natural function for which it was designed, and harmful is a value term referring to the consequences that occur to the person because of the dysfunction and are deemed negative by sociocultural standards
assessment
the systematic evaluation and measurement of symptoms and possible causal factors for symptoms
4 goals of clinical assessment
- understand the symptoms
- predict behaviour
- plan treatment
- evaluate treatment outcomes
reliability
the degree to which measurement is consistent
inter-rated reliability
two or more judges who administer and score a test come to similar conclusions
test-retest reliability
test produces similar results when given at two points in time
internal reliability
different parts of the same test produce similar results (need large data pool)
alternate form reliability
two versions of the same test produce similar results
validity
the degree to which a test measures what it is designed to measure
face validity
test appears to measure what it is supposed to measure
content validity
test assesses all important aspects of a phenomenon
predictive validity
test predicts the behaviour it is supposed to measure
