preview

Assignment 7 Ap Psychology Case Study

Decent Essays

Assignment 7 Clinical psychologists have a very difficult job. They have to be able to determine the difference between normal behavior and psychopathological behavior. The chances are the clinical psychologist has had no previous interaction with the client, meaning that there isn’t a dual relationship and he doesn’t have prior history with the client. Therefore, the psychologist has to be able to determine the client’s normal behavior without truly knowing them in the beginning stages. This is one reason of why the initial interview is so important. An initial interview is a great place for a psychologist to start building rapport with the client and get a better picture of how the client acts on a daily basis under normal conditions. Even …show more content…

Some clients Google their symptom and listen to Google instead of asking an actual professional. So if a client comes to a clinical psychologist with a self diagnosis, a psychologist shouldn’t take the clients word for it. They should still conduct their assessment and make their diagnosis. However, a psychologist should keep in mind that the clients did go out of their way to see what they think is wrong with them meaning that they are probably truly wanting to get better. Normalcy is the state of being typical. For example, if a client came to a psychologist and said that they get a feeling of anxiety when their parents visit them from out of town. A psychologist would probe and ask why would do they feel like that. If the client says because I haven’t seen them in years and I want to impress them. Then that’s normal behavior, but if a client said its because they make me want to hurt myself. That’s when a psychologist would start with right there and start probing. That’s not typical behavior and can be a great place to start with simple questions such as why do they make you want to hurt yourself. The abnormality in this particular example is that the client isn’t able to function properly. Anything that deviates away from ideal mental health is …show more content…

The client’s pathology of his mood is simply what caused it. In regards to the previous statement above someone would say that the pathology of the client is his parents coming to visit him. However this might now be the case, the psychologist has to ask the right questions. Which would probably be what don’t you like about your parents or the situation that makes you want to hurt yourself? The pathology is not always as clear as it seems, it could be something that has happened to the client when he was just nine years old. His parent could have told them that he should kill himself or he could be under severe stress about them visiting, or even depressed because he feels like he is not living up to his parents standards. The psychologist has to probe and generally it will never happen in one session. There is a variety of reason for it, the client may not feel comfortable opening up or they may not even want to tell you. As a psychologist, you have to find a way to get to the answer so you can start formulating a treatment plan. The concept of impairment in psychology is such a general term. Impairment means that the client is unable to live his or her life as they normally would such as driving a car or eating. So for a person who is depressed their impairment is that they are depressed and unable to eat or bath like they

Get Access