Interview

• Used to collect data to diagnosis and treatment planning
• Can be structured or unstructured

Behavioral Assessment

• A behavioral assessment consists of...
• Identify the target behavior
• Behavioral excess or deficit?
• Obtain a baseline
• Answer "who, what, when, where & how"
• Design an intervention
• Re-evaluate

Behavioral Assessment - Functional Analysis

• Antecedents
• Behavior
• Consequences

Behavioral Assessment - Self-monitoring

• The patient records the behaviors
• Requires motivation and training for accuracy

Tests for Depression

• Beck Depression Inventory - 21 items reflecting symptoms of depression experienced over the last week. Person chooses from 4 statements, each reflecting intensity of symptoms. Good reliability and concurrent validity. Problem: Face validity is too good.
• Hamilton Rating Scale - a structured interview, asking subjects about their mood
• Automatic Thoughts Questionnaire - Attempts to measure the degree to which a person experiences the cognitive distortions which accompany depression
• IPAT Depression Scale - yields a percentile for the test score compared with norms. The word "depression" does not appear on the test (no face validity problem of the Beck)

Tests for Anxiety

• State-Trait Anxiety Scale (Spielberger) - Distinguishes between situational anxiety and more stable, temperamental angst. 20 items, each with a four point rating scale. Good reliability/validity
• IPAT Anxiety Scale - Similar to the IPAT depression scale (yields a percentile score on level of anxiety). Appears to measure trait anxiety rather than state anxiety
• Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale - Taylor measured subjects’ ability to learn to blink in anticipation of a puff of air directed at their eye. Those with manifest anxiety learned to do this more rapidly than those without this trait
• Tests for specific anxiety disorders - Example: the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale

Marital Conflict/Satisfaction

• Jacobson believed that behavioral assessment applied to marital conflict
• Close to 1000 marital and family tests have been developed
• Tend to be either spouse completed or self-administered

Physiological Measures

• Used to understand/make use of physical reactions created by psychological conditions

Polygraph

• Measures respiration, galvanic skin response, and blood volume/pulse rate
• Administration and scoring of a polygraph are not standardized
• There is a high rate of false positives
• Polygraphers often have little training

Plethysmograph

• Measures blood volume in various body parts
• Has been used to measure anxiety and emotional lability
• Popular use is the penile plethysmograph, used with sex offenders

Voice Analysis

• Measures intensity and fluctuations of speech
• Less intrusive than GSR or other equipment
• Look for increases/changes in intensity, and pauses