I've never thought of taking this module before. I've decided to take this module because my thesis is on psychology assessment. I've also realized that I always fell asleep in abnormal psychology classes (even though I found the modules were interesting). I need to see the disorders from a different angle, not with the pattern "causes-symptoms-treatments-causes-symptoms-treatments". I guess psychology assessment is a good choice because when you learn about assessment, you must also know what the tool is going to measure.
Yesterday we did simulation of diagnostic interview of depression. We grouped ourselves into 3 and took turn: one became the interviewer, one acted as a patient, and another one took note of Mental Status Examination (a whole list of nonverbal observation: appearance, tones, gestures, expression, and so on and so forth). Guess what? It's very hard to do diagnostic interview! Hahaha. No wonder the lecturer kept putting a "disclaimer slide" saying: This module doesn't train you to administer psychological assessment. I interviewed my "patient" and took notes at the same time plus maintained my eye contact at the same time! However, it was very fun! Hahaha. I really feel that I'm going to be a REAL psychologist soon (well, not so soon...I need to undergo Clinical Psychology Postgraduate Training for 2 years, plus work or study first if I can't get into the programme :P) I was also reminded at the same time that my journey to be psychologist is still loooooooooonggg. I know it's quite contradictive, but I cannot deny that this 4-year-degree is still too broad.
Anyway, I like this class. It's very refreshing to learn about different issues on administering and scoring psychology assessment. It's not only about counting "how many questions are answered 'never' or 'often' or 'always' ", but as my lecturer said, we must take into account the CONTEXT. Who are our clients? Who does the referral? What's the motivation? and so on and so forth.
Well, looking forward for the next class on Neuropsychological assessment :)
Yesterday we did simulation of diagnostic interview of depression. We grouped ourselves into 3 and took turn: one became the interviewer, one acted as a patient, and another one took note of Mental Status Examination (a whole list of nonverbal observation: appearance, tones, gestures, expression, and so on and so forth). Guess what? It's very hard to do diagnostic interview! Hahaha. No wonder the lecturer kept putting a "disclaimer slide" saying: This module doesn't train you to administer psychological assessment. I interviewed my "patient" and took notes at the same time plus maintained my eye contact at the same time! However, it was very fun! Hahaha. I really feel that I'm going to be a REAL psychologist soon (well, not so soon...I need to undergo Clinical Psychology Postgraduate Training for 2 years, plus work or study first if I can't get into the programme :P) I was also reminded at the same time that my journey to be psychologist is still loooooooooonggg. I know it's quite contradictive, but I cannot deny that this 4-year-degree is still too broad.
Anyway, I like this class. It's very refreshing to learn about different issues on administering and scoring psychology assessment. It's not only about counting "how many questions are answered 'never' or 'often' or 'always' ", but as my lecturer said, we must take into account the CONTEXT. Who are our clients? Who does the referral? What's the motivation? and so on and so forth.
Well, looking forward for the next class on Neuropsychological assessment :)
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