Psychological assessment

Systematic collection and interpretation of information about psychological functioning. Interviews, observations, records and tests provide complementary evidence; a questionnaire score does not by itself determine diagnosis, mechanism or treatment.

A change in performance resulting from prior exposure to the assessment or related procedures. Repeated measurements can support developmental inference while also changing task familiarity.

Measurement of understanding under specified text, question, response and timing conditions. An inference about general comprehension requires adequate sampling and evidence that the score is not dominated by an unintended demand.^[ref]

A task requiring restoration of omitted text elements. The amount of surrounding context and the response format determine whether local word knowledge, grammar or wider discourse integration is needed.

Meeting a specified symptom or diagnostic threshold used to define eligibility or outcome. Crossing a questionnaire threshold and satisfying a diagnostic interview are different operational definitions.

Repeated measurement of outcomes during ordinary clinical care. It can reveal trajectories, deterioration and lack of progress; an additional design is required to establish that acting on the information improves outcomes.

The proportion of a clearly specified clinical population with usable outcome measurements. High coverage among treated patients does not establish coverage among all referrals, all people needing care or a common long-term endpoint.

Providing clinicians or patients with interpretable progress information, sometimes including alerts for trajectories at risk of poor outcome. A trial of feedback linked to supervisory action tests that arrangement, rather than measurement in isolation.^[ref]

A trajectory classified by a specified rule as unlikely to reach an expected outcome. An alert should prompt clinical review; its validity, false alarms and feasible responses require evaluation.

Obtaining outcome measures at successive attended sessions. It can supply a last available score when a planned final contact is missed, while differing endpoint timing and people who never enter treatment remain important limitations.^[ref]

A self-report measure used to assess paranoid thinking, including ideas of reference and persecution. The total score and a persecution subscale should not be substituted for each other after a trial has specified its primary outcome.^[ref]

A structured clinical rating instrument assessing dimensions of psychotic symptoms. A specified delusion-conviction item and an aggregate delusion-severity score are different endpoints.^[ref]

Suspicious or persecutory thinking, varying in severity and conviction. A dimensional paranoia score in a nonclinical sample should not be equated with a diagnosis or with a persistent persecutory delusion.

Recognition or interpretation of one's experiences and their implications for help. Clinical insight is multidimensional and variable rather than a complete, all-or-none measure of a person's reasoning or agency.

A questionnaire developed to measure health anxiety across relevant clinical and medical contexts. A score quantifies aspects of the psychological response to illness-related concerns; it does not determine the presence of physical disease or replace clinical diagnosis.^[ref]

A structured observational procedure using episodes of caregiver presence, separation and reunion to assess attachment-related behavior. Interpretation concerns the organized pattern of behavior in context rather than assuming that either distress or absence of distress alone establishes security.

Classification of a presentation using specified diagnostic criteria. A diagnosis groups observed features; it does not, by itself, identify the causal processes maintaining a particular person's difficulties.

Co-occurrence of more than one disorder or clinically relevant condition. Selecting one principal diagnosis does not make additional difficulties irrelevant to formulation, outcomes or access.

The diagnosis designated primary under a stated assessment rule. Losing the principal diagnosis does not necessarily mean losing all comorbid disorders.

A structured or flexible interview used to investigate experiences, meanings and processes. It can identify candidate barriers and explain implementation without by itself estimating their population prevalence or the causal effect of an intervention.

A structured opportunity to approach a feared stimulus or situation, with behavioural performance and fear measured according to a specified protocol. Novel-context tasks can assess transfer; willingness, safety constraints and task demands still affect the result.

A bodily symptom, without presupposing its cause. Describing a symptom as somatic does not establish whether it arises from medical, psychological or interacting processes.

Clinician-rated global severity and improvement measures. A rating of much or very much improved on the improvement scale is a response endpoint, not automatically freedom from the original diagnosis.^[ref]

Interference with everyday activities, relationships or participation. Symptom reduction can occur without full restoration of functioning, so both outcomes are informative.

A task scored by observed responses under specified conditions. Choosing task content, response format and a scoring criterion determines which abilities and method demands can influence the score.

Information a person provides about their own experiences, characteristics or behavior. Response style, self-knowledge and interpretation affect scores; self-perceived ability is not equivalent to demonstrated ability.

A clinician-rated measure of obsessive-compulsive symptom severity used to monitor outcomes. Its interpretation depends on assessment and the trial's specified response or remission criterion; a symptom score is not identical to functioning or quality of life.

A testable account linking a person's difficulties to relevant precipitating, maintaining and protective processes. A formulation guides intervention and should be revised when predicted effects do not occur; it is more informative than merely repeating the diagnosis.

A requirement for support or treatment assessed through difficulties, distress, impairment, risk, context and preferences. Actual service contact is an imperfect proxy because access, willingness and discrimination affect who receives care.

A distinguishable element of an intervention, such as exposure, attentional training or organizing skills. Evidence that a package works is different from evidence that one component is necessary or sufficient.

A process relevant across more than one diagnostic category. A shared safety behavior or attentional process can justify common intervention principles while its feared meaning and context differ between individuals.