Читать книгу Abnormal Psychology - William J. Ray - Страница 156

As a clinician, people come to see you in a variety of ways. Some people set up an appointment and tell you about how they are feeling distressed. They may tell you about feeling anxious or sad. If you work in a hospital, people may be brought to you by others who are concerned by the behaviors they display or the experiences they describe. As a clinician, it is your job to make sense of the information you are given. The first task is that of assessment.

During the clinical interview, mental health professionals gather information about the status of an individual they are working with.

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Psychological assessment is simply the process of gathering information about a person so that you can make a clinical decision about that person’s symptoms. In the process, you may create a variety of hypotheses about the possible causes of the symptoms. Had the person taken drugs that were causing the behavior? Did the person suffer a negative experience such as being robbed or raped? Is the behavior part of an underlying physical or mental disorder? Part of the task of the clinical assessment is to gather data necessary to rule out or support the possible causes of the symptoms.