Psychological Assessment Level 3 Certificate Course

There are 7 lessons:

1. Introduction
   • What is psychological assessment
   • Types of psychological tests
   • Achievement tests
   • Aptitude tests
   • Intelligence tests
   • Occupational tests
   • Personality tests
   • History of psychological testing
   • Justification for using tests
   • Advantages and disadvantages of using psychometric testing
   • Ethnicity and different cultures
   • Psychological testing of language minority and culturally different children
   • Why your child should be tested
   • Why it is important for parents to know about testing
   • Validity and reliability
   • Construct, discriminant and convergent validity
   • Test retest reliability
2. Context of Clinical Assessment
   • Ethical practice
   • Confidentiality
   • Case study: confidentiality
   • Informed consent
   • Record keeping
   • Dual relationships
   • Professional boundaries
   • Selecting tests
   • Case study: ethics and lie detection
   • Computer assisted assessment
   • Virtual reality; new tool for psychological assessment
   • Personality traits and designing a questionnaire
   • Weaknesses
   • Ambiguity and bias
   • Closed and open questions
3. The Assessment Interview
   • The interview
   • Screening for psychological disorders
   • Structured and unstructured interviews
   • SCID
   • Assessing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans
   • Screening and referral procedure overview
   • If patient refuses referral to mental health care
   • Use of a primary care screen
   • Discussing screening results with patients
   • Discern if traumatic events are ongoing
   • Making a recommendation
   • Scheduling a follow up
   • Psychomentric properties of SCID
4. Behavioural Assessment
   • Behaviourism
   • Kinds of consequences
   • Reinforcers
   • Intrinsic and extrinsic reinforcers
   • Consequences and timing
   • The premack principle
   • Extinction
   • Criticisms of behaviourism
   • Methods of behavioural assessment
   • The focus of assessment
   • Functional analysis
   • Analysis of problem behaviour
   • Motivational analysis
   • Behavioural vs traditional assessment
5. Wechsler Intelligence Scales
   • Introduction
   • Measuring intelligence
   • Cognitive, cognitive contextural and biological theories
   • Psychometric theories
   • Wechsler Intelligence scales
   • Normal results
   • Sub tests, verbal subtests, performance subtests
   • Cultural bias
   • Precautions with intelligence testing
   • The intelligence test as a tool
6. Wechsler Memory scales
   • Memory
   • Wechsler Memory test
   • Wechsler Memory Scale III
7. Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory
   • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) Assessment
   • Problems
   • False negatives; false positives

Each lesson requires the completion of an assignment which is submitted to the academyl, marked by the academy's tutors and return

Your learning experience with ADL will not only depend on the quality of the course, but also the quality of the person teaching it. This course is taught by Iona Lister and your course fee includes unlimited tutorial support throughout. Here are Iona's credentials:

Iona Lister
Licentiate, Speech and Language Therapy, UK, Diploma in Advanced Counselling Skills.

Iona has been a clinician and manager of health services for fifteen years, and a trainer for UK-based medical charities, focusing on psychosocial issues, mental health disorders, and also the promotion of communication skills for people in helping roles. She tutors and facilitates groups via workshops and teleconferences, and now specialises in Sight Loss. As a freelance writer, she contributes regular feature articles for magazines, has written five published books, as well as published courses relating to personal development and counselling skills.

Iona has also written published books, courses and articles across a wide range of subjects, mostly in the areas of health, counselling, psychology, crafts and wildlife.

She has drawn experience from clinical and managerial experience within the NHS as well as medical and humanitarian subjects. She has been a regular feature writer and expert panel member of a national magazine for six years.

Books include: A Guide to Living with Alzheimer's Disease (and associated dementias), The Psychology of Facial Disfigurement; a Guide for Health and Social Care Professionals, When a Medical Skin Condition Affects the Way you Look; A Guide to Managing Your Future, Facing Disfigurement with Confidence, Cross Stitch: A Guide to Creativity and Success for Beginners.
Courses written include: Mental Health and Social Work, Counselling Skills, Understanding and Responding to Substance Misuse, Journalling for Personal Development, Guided Imagery, Stress Management.

Current work includes: Tutor: Courses associated with Creative Writing, Counselling Skills, Psychology, Holistic Therapy, Certified Hypnotherapist and Hypnotension Practitioner.

Facilitator of Teleconference Groups: Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB)

Trainer (Skills for Seeing): Macular Society

Reviewer of Books/Information: Macmillan Cancer Support

Fundraiser: Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), Embroidery/Art Groups Facilitator, Board Member

Website Manager: The Strathcarron Project, Coordinator (Delaware & Tennessee) Human Writes