Rorschach Inkblot Essay

Butcher, J. N., Hooley, J. M., & Mineka, S. (2013). Abnormal psychology (16th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

The MBTI is utilized in variety of ways throughout our society. In particular, it is used

The mental status examination is a useful assessment tool used for gathering objective information that help in determining ethology, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, and to deal immediately with any risks of violence or harm (Kneisl & Trigoboff, 2009).

According to Retzlarff, (1996) there are several potential uses for the MCMI-III. In his article MCMI-III Diagnostic Validity: Bad test or bad validity study, Retzlarff described one of the uses as “attempts to predict the dichotomous presence or absence of a clinical disorder through the use of base rate scores”. Even though Millon constructed this assessment to evaluate and individuals’ personality, it has been known to facilitate in many different scenarios in which a psychological evaluation or consultation is needed. Some of the scenarios as described by the original manual include forensic settings, neuropsychology, substance abuse, PTSD, correctional settings, marital counseling, treatment planning, and psychotherapy (Millon, 1997).

Axis ? refers to the description of symptoms that causes significant impairment. Axis II defines long-term problems that are unnoticed in the presence of Axis I disorders. Personality disorders can have a deep effect on how a patient relates to the world, for example antisocial personality disorder. Axis III offers information about any medical conditions that could be present. Axis IV describes the psychosocial and environmental factors influencing the person. Axis V allows the clinician to rate the client's overall level of functioning. It uses a rating scale called the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF). This rating scale goes from 0 to 100 and provides a way to summarize how well the person is functioning overall.

There are hundreds of different types of clinical test, but one type of testing is projective tests. Projective tests are when the subject is required to interpret any ambiguous and/or vague stimuli, or must answer open-ended questions. An example of this type of testing is the Rorschach test, otherwise known as the inkblot test, in which the individual will view different ink blots and are to describe what they see. Whereas another type of clinical test, would be personality inventories. This form of self response testing looks too measure a person’s personality, behaviors, beliefs, and feelings. An example of this type of testing is the Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (MMPI), in which the subject will answer approximately 500 statements

According to the American Psychiatric Association, the DSM 5 is the standard classification of mental disorders, which is being used by American mental health providers. It includes a list of diagnostic criteria for every psychiatric disorder discovered by the U.S. healthcare system. The DSM 5 is presently used in clinical and community services settings. Creating a tool like this was a need, due to the fact that providers need to collect and communicate statistics about psychiatric disorders.

A personality assessment is the measurement of personal characteristics ("personality assessment | psychology"). Personality tests provide measures of characteristics like, feelings and emotional states, preoccupations, temperament, interests, motivations, attitudes, and approaches to interpersonal relations. A personality is a complex pattern of characteristics that are relatively stable over time and that uniquely distinguish the emotional reactions and behaviors of one individual from others (PowerPoint). Personality assessments assist counselors in understanding the behavior of a particular individual, coming to a conclusion about a possible future course of action for the patient, and making predictions about a person’s unique future behavior. There are several instances in which a personality assessment might be used. A career counselor might give an inventory in order to help a person choose a career. A psychologist may want to look at symptoms to possibly diagnose a psychological disorder, so they will administer a personality assessment. A neurophysiologist might administer this type of assessment to determine the extent of possible brain injury. There are a number of different methods in which personality assessments are administered. Some methods include, behavior observation, and interviews. The most common methods are objective tests, and

The DSM is the short form used for the Diagnostic and Statistical Manal of Mental Disorders. It is the most prominent tool used by mental health professionals for the diagnosis of Mental Disorders. It is used by psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counsellors, doctors, and nurses. It includes the diagnostic information for all of the mental disorders that are recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. It has evolved over time and has changed according to the developing social norms. The DSM uses documented evidence-based treatment. It also offers a consistent diagnosis for the mental disorders. It offers the diagnostic classification and the criteria for each diagnostic. For each of the approximate 297 disorders listed in the DSM-5, it lists the symptoms present for a diagnoses, a timeline for the symptoms, and lists of other disorders that should be ruled out before a person can be diagnosed with that particular mental disorder. The criterion used in the DSM essentially gives each trained professional the same diagnosis for a same patient.

This widely used 21-item self-report inventory measures depression in adolescents and adults. Aaron Beck created this self-report inventory in 1961; it was later revised in 1996. The questionnaire consists of 21 questions, each having a set of at least four possible answer choices, ranging in intensity. Each answer is scored on a scale from zero (symptoms not present) to 3 (symptoms very intense). Total scores can be from zero to 63, higher total scores indicate more severe depression symptoms. A person experiencing minimal depression is expected to score between zero and 13, where an individual with symptoms of severe depression is expected to score between 29 and 63. Items on the questionnaire include feelings of sadness, feeling like a failure, disappointment, sleep loss, and appetite loss. A limitation of this self-report measurement is that scores can be easily minimized. The BDI-II (Beck, 1996) is highly correlated with the Hamilton Depression Scale (Hamilton, 1960); it also has a high test-retest reliability and high internal

Ten years after the initial release of the DSM, a second edition was created, DSM II in

Computerized testing methods have long been regarded as possessing the potential to enhance and advance the field of psychological assessment (Butcher, Perry & Hahn, 2004). Their popularity is due chiefly to the level of repeatability of results with which they commonly are associated. They were first introduced to the field of psychology in the 1950s (Butcher, Perry & Hahn, 2004).

The MCMI-III is the recent development that is also preferred by psychologist in the evaluation of psychiatric patients. The MCMI-III is used to assist clinicians in making these diagnoses, and also to select the best treatment methods that are in alignment with the personality of the individual being tested. The Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI) can also be paired with other tools to effectively diagnose and treat clinical problems that may arise. The MCMI has some characteristics that are similar to the MMMPI. They both contain true or false questions and measure different skills in the test. The MCMI like the MMMPI has a scale that is used to determine the individuals approach to the test. The MMMPI is a new development to the

These assessments assist in identifying symptoms and their severity, personality characteristics, and other aspects such as memory, attention and intelligence level that are important in understanding the patient at a specific point in time (Weiner, I. B. 2003). Contemporary psychologists use one or more of these instruments in clinical assessments for screening purposes of their clients. “Therapeutic use of assessment involves a presentation of results including assessment materials such as test protocols and forms directly to the patient in terms of patient defined assessment goals” (Goldstein, G., & Hersen, M.

The Rorschach is a projective personality test, which measures personality functioning and assess personality structure. This instrument was published originally in 1921 by Rorschach. Although there were inkblot tests existed prior to the Rorschach, this was the first empirically based system. The assessor interprets the client’s responses to 10 bilaterally symmetrical inkblot images (Groth-Marnat, 2009). The images are ambiguous and non-figurative in nature. Some of the images are in black and white and others contain colors. The Rorschach differs from other projective tests such as Thematic Appercepetion test (TAT). The Rorschach is known as a type of associative or structural technique whereas TAT is a type of construction technique (Campos, 2011). The scoring of responses is done according to the location (or the