Psychological Assessment

Written Assignment
You will create this assignment following the Assignment Detail instructions below.
Assignment Details:
Develop fundamental psychological assessment report writing skills of conducting a clinical interview and mental status examination to understand psychological symptom presentation.
In this assignment, you will be presented with a case scenario of a client who was referred for a psychological evaluation due to history of symptoms of schizophrenia. Your goal will be to write a report based on the information gathered about the presenting distress and reason for referral for a psychological assessment in this context. You are encouraged to be creative in establishing symptoms, but they must be anchored to the presented clinical scenario.
Case Scenario:
• Name: Alex James
• Age: 28
• Gender: Male
• Occupation: Unemployed; previously worked as a graphic designer
• Marital Status: Single
• Living Situation: Lives alone in a small apartment
Historical Background
Alex was born and raised in a suburban neighborhood. His family history includes a paternal uncle diagnosed with schizophrenia. Alex was an average student throughout school but began showing signs of social withdrawal and unusual behavior in his late teens. He experienced his first psychotic episode at 19, characterized by auditory hallucinations and paranoid delusions, believing that he was being followed by government agents.
Alex was initially treated with a combination of antipsychotic medications and therapy, which helped stabilize his condition for several years. However, after a particularly stressful event—a breakup with a long-term girlfriend—he experienced a significant relapse, leading to hospitalization. Since then, Alex has struggled to maintain consistent treatment due to medication side effects and a growing mistrust of mental health professionals.
Presenting Symptoms
During the intake interview, Alex presents with the following symptoms:
• Affective flatness: He appears emotionally detached, showing minimal facial expressions and responding to questions with brief, monotone replies.
• Disorganized thinking: When discussing his thoughts and feelings, Alex frequently jumps between unrelated topics, making it difficult for the interviewer to follow his narrative.
• Auditory hallucinations: Alex reports hearing voices that comment on his actions and occasionally tell him to harm himself, although he denies any intent to act on these commands.
• Paranoia: He expresses a belief that people in his apartment building are watching him and discussing his personal life, contributing to his social withdrawal and reluctance to engage with others.
• Cognitive impairment: Alex struggles with concentration and decision making, which has affected his ability to seek and maintain employment.
Mental Status Examination
Appearance:
• Alex is disheveled, wearing clothes that appear unwashed. He has poor personal hygiene and looks somewhat malnourished.
Behavior:
• He sits with a closed posture, avoids eye contact, and occasionally glances around the room as if checking for threats.
Speech:
• His speech is sparse, with long pauses between answers. When he does speak, his responses are often tangential and lack coherence.
Mood/Affect:
• Alex reports feeling “empty” and “scared” but displays a flat affect throughout the interview.
Thought Process:
• His thought processes are disorganized, often moving from one subject to another without logical connections. He has difficulty articulating his thoughts clearly.
Thought Content:
• Alex expresses paranoid delusions and describes the auditory hallucinations he experiences, insisting they are real and threatening.
Cognitive Functioning:
• He is unable to perform simple cognitive tasks during the interview, such as counting backward or recalling recent events.
Insight/Judgment:
• Alex demonstrates poor insight into his condition, believing that his hallucinations are real. His judgment appears compromised, particularly in terms of assessing the safety of his living situation.
Assignment Instructions
To optimize your success on this assignment, review the following:
• You will not be presented with all relevant clinical information related to the mental status exam and will need to develop your report based on what you would anticipate finding using the presented clinical case scenario.
• Do not use extreme instances of symptoms of active substance use or suicidal ideation in conducting a mental status exam because that would not be appropriate for developing a skill set at this level.
• Write a preliminary psychological report using a report template in the included resources.
• You will be graded not only on your ability to write a report based on the case, but you must also write at a level of what would be expected of a future doctoral-level professional in the behavioral sciences. A psychological report should be free of grammar and syntax errors, include a references page formatted in correct APA style with APA style citations, and use scholarly language that accurately describes a patient’s presentation. Note that while the psychological report does not require the use of APA format, because this is a course assignment, you are required to include citations and the references page in APA format to support your work.
Again, the overarching goal is to develop a report using mental status examination data competency as a future doctoral-level professional, which is core to the psychological assessment encounter.
Resources
You may find the Mini Mental Status Examination (MMSE) format and information on how to conduct an MMSE in a clinical interview in the following resource:
• Martin, D. C. (1990). The mental status examination. In H. K. Walker, W. D. Hall, & J. W. Hurst, Clinical methods: The history, physical, and laboratory examinations (3rd ed.). Butterworths. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK320/Links to an external site.
Here is a sample of a psychological assessment report to use as a template for writing about the case scenario:
Bridgepoint Education. (n.d.). PSY640 week four psychological assessment report. https://content.bridgepointeducation.com/curriculum/file/b99fa6dd-a5e4-4ca0-bd87-f57f61aac326/1/PSY640%20Week%20Four%20Psychological%20Assessment%20Report.pdfLinks to an external site.
Although you will not have test results for this psychological assessment as you will only be doing a mental status exam and clinical interview, you may skip that section of the template. However, you must write all other sections, including the Summary, Diagnostic Impressions, and Recommendations section.
Deliverable Requirements
Submit a psychological report of at least 5 pages (not including the title or reference pages). Use double spacing throughout the assessment report. Use 12-point Times New Roman font, the APA standard at this university. Use 5 references from peer-reviewed journals in support of your work. Citations should be included in the text of your report to support the assessment, diagnosis, and recommendations. Please also include a references page at the end of the report formatted in APA style.