Psychological evaluation or assessment is a process that involves the integration of information from multiple sources, such as psychological tests, and other information such as personal, medical, academic or work history, description of current symptoms and problems by either self or others, and collateral information (interviews with other persons about the person being assessed). A psychological test is one of the sources of data used within the process of assessment and assessments use multiple psychological tests as part of evaluations. At our clinic we generally are involved at some level of assessment when providing services to clients or patients, and may use for example, simple checklists to assess some traits or symptoms, but psychological assessment is a more complex, detailed, in-depth process. Typical types of focus for psychological assessment are to provided a diagnosis, assess level of function or disability, help direct treatment, and assess treatment outcome.
When patients seek treatment at our clinic, we usually start off with a psychological evaluation. This will involve several self report tests, a clinical interview, and sometimes we might involve a spouse or family member in order to provide a more comprehensive view point about an individual.