Psychological tests are objective and standardized measures of a sample of behavior. Psychological tests are objective in how they are administered and scored. Psychological tests are used in a variety of settings like educational settings, clinical settings, organizational settings, and research settings. There are five major categories of psychological tests:

• Achievement tests
  • Measure learning in a specific academic area
  • Examples: ACT, GRE, tests in school
• Personality tests
  • Used to diagnose personality disorders (clinical) or describe a person (non-clinical)
  • Examples: Woodworth Personal Data Sheet (objective), MMPI (objective), NEO-PI-3 (objective), EPPS (objective), Rorschach Inkblot Test (projective), Thematic Apperception Test (projective)

Rorschach Inkblot Test Example Card

• Interests and attitudes
  • Used for career development
  • Examples: Strong Interest Inventory, Holland-based tools, CareerLocker Assessment Tools, MBTI Career Report, Career Genogram

Strong Interest Inventory Categories

• Neuropsychological tests
  • Measures brain functioning in clinical settings
  • Examples: Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery, Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test

Wisconsin Card Sorting Test Example. You have to figure out if the sorting rule is by color, shape, or number.

• Mental ability tests
  • Measures intelligence (IQ), creativity, and problem-solving
  • Used in screening for learning disabilities and giftedness
  • Examples: Stanford-Binet, WAIS

Hogan, T. P. (2013). Psychological testing: A practical introduction. (Third Edition). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.

In 1961, Dr. Joseph Wolpe published an article titled: The systematic desensitization treatment of neuroses. His findings changed the way counselors and therapists now help patients with anxiety disorders, or neuroses.

The process of systematic desensitization begins with relaxation training, where the therapist/counselor will train their patient on how to relax their body. Next, the patient and therapist will create a hierarchy of fear/anxiety. For example, if someone has a strong phobia of heights, their hierarchy of anxiety may first begin with something that produces a small amount of fear, like thinking about someone else walking on a bridge. The hierarchy continues until you get to the thing the patient would fear most. In this example, it may be imagining themselves standing on a tall building looking down.

After the hierarchy is complete, systematic desensitization can begin. First, the patient reaches a state of relaxation. Then, the therapist will guide the patient through their hierarchy with imagination. All the while, the patient is encouraged to stay relaxed, while they are imaging their fears.

While this method of counseling is effective, it does not always help every patient. It is important to note that there are many methods of therapy, and the solution is not one method fits all. Every individual is unique, so their therapy must be unique as well.

To learn more, check out these links:

• Summary of Wolpe, J. 
• Systematic Desensitization: Simply Psychology
• Citation: Wolpe, J. (1961). The systematic desensitization of neuroses. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 132, 189-203.

Overmier and Sleigram’s (1967) exposed dogs to unavoidable electric shocks in one situation and to avoidable electric shocks in another situation.  They found that dogs who had learned that they could not escape the electric shocks during a prior experience would not even try to escape in a later situation when escaping was actually possible.

Watch this video from The Awesome Life for more:

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87Vuqvp2V7w%20

In order to observe the societal perception of those with mental illness, David Rosenhan conducted an observational study. In 1973, there was a problem with properly diagnosing patients and their mental illness.  In 1973, David Rosenhan sought out to see what would happen if he placed pseudopatients in psychiatric hospitals and assessed how they were treated.

http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6bmZ8cVB4o%20

By placing eight individuals who have not been diagnosed with a mental illness in 12 different psychiatric wards across the country, Rosenhan observed how the individuals were treated while in the ward as well as after their discharge and how many days they stayed in the ward. The staff was unaware of the experiment and were under the assumption that the pseudopatients were experiencing signs of schizophrenia such as hearing voices which were unclear at times and they felt as though life was empty and hollow.

After admission, the pseudopatient ceased showing signs of their symptoms and behaved as though they would typically behave. They were unaware of when they would be discharged and had to be discharged through their own actions which took from 7-52 days.  The patients were not detected as not suffering from schizophrenia but were discharged due to their good behavior and cooperation. Each of the patients were discharged with schizophrenia in remission.

https://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic625827.files/On_Being_Sane_In_Insane_Places-1.pdf 

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) first appeared in 1952.  The goal of the DSM is the help psychiatrists, psychologists, and other clinicians diagnose patients with mental disorders.

That first version of the DSM only had 106 listed “reactions”. It also did not include child disorders, and was less than 150 pages long. It was also rooted heavily in Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis.

In 1968, the DSM came out with it’s second version, or DSM-2. This version listed 80 more disorders than the first DSM, including a group of disorders commonly diagnosed in childhood. This version also started to move away from psychodynamic perspective.

The DSM-3 arrived in 1980, which took on a more modern form. The goal of this DSM was to objectivity and to keep the theories unbiased/neutral. These theories were based off of field trials and experiments. They added about 100 more disorders (265), and had more than 500 pages. Seven years later, in 1987, the DSM-3-R was published, which added approximately 30 disorders.

The DSM-4 was released in 1994. The goal of this version was to have a systemic literature review, which is a review of empirical evidence of the listed disorders and treatments. The number of disorders decreased to 279. In 2000, the DSM-4-TR was published with very few revisions.

Finally, the DSM-5 was published in 2013, which is the most current DSM. The goal was to maintain consistency and continuity with the previous DSM. They made revisions based off of the scientific and empirical evidence. The disorders increased to 294, with almost 950 pages.

The categories listed in the DSM include…

• Depressive Disorders
• Anxiety/Fear Disorders
• Bipolar Disorders
• Personality Disorders
• Psychotic/Schizophrenia Disorders
• Addictive Disorders
• Feeding/Eating Disorders
• ADHD
• Autism
• Implies Control and Conduct Disorders
• Dissociative Amnesia
• And more!

For more information, check out these links!

• http://www.dsm5.org/Pages/Default.aspx
• https://psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/dsm/history-of-the-dsm
• http://www.apapracticecentral.org/reimbursement/icd-10-cm/dsm-5.aspx?_ga=1.115142087.1708959200.1385078646

What is Suicide?

Suicide is the act of killing oneself and it is most often a result of depression or other mental illness.  Learn more at the American Psychological Association.

What are the Warning Signs?

Some warning signs of suicide include (learn more from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention):

Question-Persuade-Refer

Question. Persuade. Refer. The QPR Training Program is an hour-long training session which provides the resources to aid in preventing suicide. Anyone is able to participate to in the QPR training and anyone is able to help those in need with these three steps.

Call the National Prevention Lifeline which is a 24/7 free and confidential support resource.

Find a local psychologist is a tool which finds psychologists based on your needs and location.