Testing -- Mental Health Evaluation
(405) 546-5096
I can perform mental health testing, including personality
testing, IQ and substance abuse testing.
Personality testing includes the MMPI-2, MMPI-2 RF and
some others, including the Beck Depression Inventory.
The IQ test is the Shipley-2
The substance abuse testing includes the SASSI and the ASI.
In addition, there is a psychosocial interview involved.
When you request testing, if you were referred by an authority,
please specify exactly what kind of testing you want done.
Some referrers may be unclear as to what they want.
If they say "psychiatric exam," please know that an actual
psychiatrist (a medical doctor) does not have time to do all the
above testing, and also is typically not trained to do that.
S/He generally sees a new patient for 30 minutes, and then
sees him/her once a month, for 15 minutes, generally prescribing
medications, for which time he receives a high price. Spending
two or three hours with a patient would be cost prohibitive.
Then spending 8-12 hours scoring the tests would be very costly.
However, he may ask "Who are you? Where are you?
What day is this? Why are you here? What did you have for
breakfast?" Name three presidents, and other such questions.
I generally do not ask that, if I know you could make and keep
an appointment, and find the office on your own.
But I could if requested.
Some employers require an MMPI without concern about where
it came from. An MMPI should include a psychological interview.
Without that, the MMPI doesn't tell much. Some MMPI's are given
by people never trained on the MMPI, and who provide a very
sketchy result.
Possibly they are not licensed therapists, or even therapists at all.
If they are, they should show you a wall certificate or a card, and
state their license and their license number in the report.
This can be verified on the internet.
Some are scored by a computer, which produces an even sketchier
result.
Of course, to the prospective employee, it's just paperwork, and he
wants to get it behind him If to the employer or training school
it is just paperwork, then the quicker and the cheaper the better.
One-size-fits-all is not seen by them as a problem.
If the employer cares about getting a thorough workup, then s/he
should know that the work was done by a licensed therapist, and
that the test was scored by the therapist and not a computer, and
a psychological interview was included in the workup and report.
My rate for an MMPI-2 alone is $200. Adding a psychosocial
interview (such as for a court) is $300. An MMPI-2 RF (such as for
spinal surgery) is $400, with psycho-social interview.
Article on cost of testing (Click here.)
A NOTE FOR MMPI TAKERS--
There are several untruthfulness scales, including Fb for
faking bad (malingering.) The L (lie) scale detects
"faking good." The K scale detects defensiveness.
Other scales also show forms of truthfulness or
untruthfulness. If the test shows you were untruthful,
the whole test will be invalidated. The best policy is to
be perfectly truthful on all questions.
Most items on the test are "subtle." That means one
can't tell by looking at it which is the good answer or
the bad answer. Sometimes a single answer is good
on one scale and bad on another scale. There is no
answer to such questions that would be good on both
scales.
One answer by itself means nothing. Only when a lot of
answers stack up in the same direction do they mean
something. An answer is not good or bad by how one
would morally judge it when reading it. It is good or
bad depending how it matches how other people have
answered it, in particular, people with known disorders
or those without them.
Scales from a particular test are good or bad depending
on whether the total is above or below how most people
answer them. Being a little bit above or below does not
mean as much. Being a very lot above or below means a lot.
More than one scale being high or low has a meaning,
depending on which scales they are. It does no good to
be concerned about this, because the test taker can not
control that. In other words, honesty is the best policy.