State exam contents

Psychodiagnostics of Adults, Psychodiagnostics of Children and Young Adults

1. Psychological Testing and Assessment - definition of key terms - psychological testing, psychological tests, psychological assessment, psychological measurement, and surveys. The characteristics of psychological tests. Similarities and differences between tests. Assumptions of psychological testing. Classification of assessment methods. Brief overview of history of development and use of methods. User qualifications and professional competencies – responsibilities of test users in specific contexts. Cultural, ethical and legal context of psychological assessment.

2. Non-testing methods - observation, interview, case history. Definition. Types of Clinical Interviews (intake, diagnostic, mental status exam, case history - structure). The interviewer general and specific skills. Components of the interview (raport, technique). Type of observation. Note-taking – cultural, ethical and technical issues. Advantages and disadvantages of non-testing methods.

3. Inteligence tests - definition of intelligence, A brief overview of models of intelligence (Spearman, Cattel, Thurstone, Vernon, Sternberg, Piaget, Gardner). Assessment of intelligence. Intelligence Quotient. Simple (partial) tests of Intelligence - Raven's Progressive Matrices (SPM, APM), Kohs Block Design Test. Complex tests of Intelligence: group-administered - Intelligence Structure Analysis (ISA), Intelligence Structure Test (IST), individually administered - Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, Stanford–Binet Intelligence Scale.

4. Tests of mental functions, special abilities – attention , memory, creativity, reaction time, neuropsychological assessment (Bourdon Test, Trail Making Test, Rey Complex Figure Test, Stroop Test, Wechsler Memory Scale, WCST, Torrance Tests of Creative thinking) - application possibilities, advantages and disadvantages.

5. Personality measurement – Projective methods. Characteristic and theoretical foundations of projective methods. Advantages and limits of use (reliability, validity). The difference between the methods, techniques and tests. Classification (verbal, drawing and handling projective tests – association, construction, completion, expressive choice ordering).

Word Association Experiment, Hand test, The Thematic Apperception, Test. Baum test ("Tree test").

6. Personality measurement - questionnaires, inventories, rating scales - the principle, overview, classification, advantages and limits of use. Unidimensional questionnaires (Manifest Anxiety Scale, The State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression, Hamilton Anxiety Scale, Zung Self-Rating Depression Scale, Multidimensional questionnaires (Eysenck Personality, Inventory, Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, Big Five Inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

7. Psychological Report – Findings of assessment and proper formulations. General guidelines (length, style, terminology, topics, presenting test interpretations, use of raw data, feedback). Format for a psychological report (referral question, evaluation procedures, behavioral observations, relevant history, test results, impressions and interpretations, summary and recommendations).

8. General issues of psychological assessment of children and youth. (theoretical Situation of psychological assessment and its specifics in childhood. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of psychodiagnostic findings.

9. Diagnosis, systems of diagnostic classification of children (problem formulation, assessment questions, diagnostic hypothesis, method choice, characteristics of children assessment, sources of diagnosis, DSM V, ICD 10 - main differences).

10. Normal development and influences on problem development (biological predisposing factors, Personal maintaining factors, Contextual pre-disponing factors, Contextual maintaining factors of children)

11. Assessment methods of early development - neonatal and developmental scales (NBAS, NAPI, Beyley developmental scales)

12. Assessment of early and preschool development. Evaluation of intellectual abilities (WISC III, IV, S-B 4,5, WJ-IE, Kaufman ABC, SON-R).

13. Assessment of school achievement. School maturity vs. school readiness. Partial learning disabilities. Tests of special abilities and individual mental functions. (Reading and spelling, Mathematics, Visual, visuospatial and visuoconstructive skills, Motor skills, Memory functions). Paintings - a developmental approach.

14. Problems of middle childhood - Assessment of external and internal troubles (ADHD/ADD, behaviour disorders, emocional troubles, neurotic problems). Evaluation of personality, interpersonal relationships - the questionnaire techniques, projective techniques.