Testing -- Psychological Evaluation
I can perform psychological testing, including personality testing,
IQ and substance abuse testing.
Personality testing includes the MMPI-2 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 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.
Article on cost of testing (Click here.)