What are psychological assessments and evaluations?

Psychological assessments and evaluations are techniques used to help a professional arrive at an understanding of an individual’s behaviors, personality, and capabilities. Assessments and evaluations can be completed for children, adolescents, and adults. Assessments can be composed of observations, interviews, and/or tests. In most cases the purpose of getting a psychological assessment or evaluation is to arrive at a diagnosis or to gain a better understanding of an individual. A person may be referred by another professional to get an assessment (such as by court order, a teacher, or another medical professional). You may also contact a psychologist because you have your own personal reasons to be assessed and evaluated.

What to expect with psychological assessments and evaluations:

You will set up a consultation with a licensed psychologist to discuss the reasoning for being assessed and evaluated. They will then inform you of the tests that they will perform, some will be in office and some may go home with you for you to bring back completed during the next session. An assessment may take up to several sessions to complete.

Once completed your psychologist will gather all the information and scores and compile the results. This can take from several days to several weeks to complete. Once complete you will meet with the psychologist to go over the results in detail, where they will explain what the tests confirmed and the meaning behind the results.

The psychologist will include their recommendations after the evaluation. These results are confidential unless you were mandated by another professional to receive the assessment (in this case they may request the results as well). You will leave the session with your results in hand, and the psychologist will contact the other professionals that may need the results.