Abnormal Psych Chapter 4

Dr. Martin has just asked a potential client to talk about herself. As she responds, the doctor's next question is based on some interesting point she brought up. There are few constraints on the conversation. Dr. Martin has just:

conducted an unstructured interview.

Your friend says, "I always trust my first impressions, especially when my first impression of someone is negative." Based on research dealing with clinical interviews, your BEST answer would be:

"Be careful; the research shows that first impressions, especially negative ones, may be inaccurate."

A campus newspaper publishes an "Exam Anxiety" test, which was put together by the newspaper staff one evening just before their publishing deadline. Despite its hasty construction, the test MOST likely has:

face validity.

Because people who exhibit mania have very elevated moods, a new test for mania includes questions about how happy the person feels and how often he or she laughs. This test has:

face validity.

A mental health practitioner attempts to learn about the behavior and emotional state of each client. This approach to abnormal psychology is called:

idiographic.

A functional analysis involves:

learning about a person's behaviors.

Which of the following statements about the use of projective techniques by today's clinicians is TRUE?

The centrality of projective tests has declined since their introduction.

Of the following, who is MOST at risk for misinterpreting a cultural response as pathology?

a dominant-culture assessor

Which of the following is a reason to question the validity of clinical interviews?

Clinicians might overemphasize pathology.

If a clinician focused on where you placed your drawing on the page, the size of the drawing, and the parts you omitted, you MOST likely took which of the following tests?

Draw-a-Person

Which of the following tests is a personality inventory?

MMPI-2

The only test among the following that is NOT a projective test is the:

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

The test that reports one's results on clinical scales such as "hypochondriasis" (HS) and "Psychopathic deviate" (PD) is the:

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

Among the following, the test with the highest validity in identifying psychological disturbances is the:

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Test.

If a clinician wanted to know more detailed information about a person's functioning in a specific area, the clinician would use:

a response inventory.

One of the assumptions of a functional analysis is that:

abnormal behaviors are learned.

If a new test for anxiety is normed on individuals who are waiting to take introductory psychology final exams, the new test is surely lacking:

adequate standardization.

When graduate schools choose students based on test scores, college grades, and relevant experience, they are engaging in:

assessment.

The clinical interviewer MOST interested in stimuli that trigger abnormal responses would have what orientation?

behavioral

A patient complains of a phobia. Two lines of questioning by the clinician concern the specific object of the phobia and what the person does when he or she confronts that object. This clinician's orientation is probably:

behavioral.

If a clinician is particularly interested in a client's family medical history, that clinician's orientation is MOST likely:

biological.

The process of evaluating a person's progress after being in treatment is called a:

clinical assessment.

If a new test for assessing anorectic tendencies produces scores comparable to those of other tests for assessing anorectic tendencies, then the new test has high:

concurrent validity.

Compared to projective tests, personality inventories generally have:

greater reliability and greater validity.

Compared to projective tests, personality inventories:

have higher validity.

A clinician has developed a new assessment tool. Clients write stories about their problems, then two different judges independently evaluate the stories in terms of how logically they are written. For this assessment technique to be useful, there must be:

high interrater reliability.

A new test for anxiety shows consistent levels of anxiety across time for people, but very few people have taken the test, and accurate norms don't exist. The test has:

high reliability, but inadequate standardization.

Among her other questions, a clinical interviewer asks, "How do you feel about yourself today? How do you feel about what's going on in your life?" MOST likely, the clinical interviewer's orientation is:

humanistic.

The major focus of a clinical practitioner when dealing with a new client is to gather what type of information?

idiographic

A panel of psychologists and psychiatrists evaluates the test results and clinical interviews of a client in a sanity hearing. They all arrive at the same diagnosis. The panel has high:

interrater reliability.

Personality assessment using projective tests is designed to:

learn about unconscious conflicts in the client.

An assessment tool asks individuals to record all the times they feel sad, in order to try to measure tendencies toward depression. However, individuals report wide variation from day to day in terms of the number of "sad" episodes they record. This assessment tool has:

low test-retest reliability, and high face validity.

An interviewer who asks a client questions such as "Where are you now?," "Why do you think you're here?," or even "Who are you?" is probably conducting a(n):

mental status exam.

Clients check off either "Applies" or "Does Not Apply" to a series of 200 items dealing with what they do and what they think in a variety of situations. The kind of test they are taking MOST likely is a:

personality inventory.

Use of projective tests has decreased in the past few decades because projective tests often have:

poor validity.

A new assessment tool does a good job of differentiating those who later will be depressed and those who will not be depressed, and it produces results similar to those of other tools measuring depression. Therefore, the new assessment tool has good:

predictive validity.

A test is constructed to identify people who will develop schizophrenia. Of the 100 people the test identifies, 93 show signs of developing schizophrenia within five years. The test may be said to have high:

predictive validity.

A clinician has developed a test that requires test takers to tell stories about a series of pictures of city skylines. MOST likely, this new test is a

projective test.

George is consumed with concern that his house will burn down. Before he leaves, he makes sure that all his appliances are unplugged. He often has to go back home and check to make sure he did not leave any plugged in. Which MMPI-2 scale would he MOST likely score high on?

psychasthenia

Youssef is the kind of person who breaks laws and rules with no feeling of guilt and is emotionally shallow. He would probably score high on the MMPI-2 scale called:

psychopathic deviate.

If a clinician is particularly interested in a client's family background and community influences, MOST likely, that clinician's orientation is:

sociocultural

Another term for developing norms for an assessment tool is:

standardization.

When Rorschach testers ask questions like, "Did the person respond to the whole picture or to specific details, and to the colors or the white spaces?" they are interested in the ______of the response.

style

A patient looks at a series of black-and-white pictures, making up a dramatic story about each. The patient is taking:

the Thematic Apperception Test.

Clinical interviews are the preferred assessment technique of many practitioners. One particular strength of the interview process is:

the chance to get a general sense of the client.

One limitation of the clinical interview as an assessment tool is that:

the client may give an overly positive picture.

The assumption behind the use of projective tests as assessment tools is that:

the responses come from the client's unconscious.

When a clinician using the Rorschach focuses on the actual images that a person "sees," the clinician is emphasizing:

theme.

If a clinician begins by asking, "Would you tell me about yourself?" the clinician is MOST likely conducting a(n):

unstructured interview.

The MMPI-2 is considered by many to be superior to the original MMPI because the MMPI-2:

was tested on a more diverse group of people.