Counselor Quick Reference

Personality testing (objective & projective), and disorder-specific clinical assessments spanning depression/bipolar, anxiety, eating disorders, OCD-related, neurodevelopmental, and psychotic disorders — from Textbook Ch. 10. No matching lecture module exists yet, so this is textbook-only. This chapter names roughly 50 instruments; this page groups them by category rather than listing all of them individually — see the full quiz for broader per-instrument coverage.

Ch. 10 — Clinical Assessments & Personality Testing pp. 217–239
10

Clinical Assessments and Personality Testing

Objective personality tests · projective techniques · depression/bipolar, anxiety, eating disorder, OCD, neurodevelopmental & psychotic-disorder assessments

Glossary

Objective personality assessment
Standardized administration/scoring not dependent on who gives the test — e.g., MMPI-3, MCMI-IV, MBTI, NEO-PI-3.
Subjective (projective) assessment
Relies on the administrator's interpretation of a client's response to ambiguous stimuli — e.g., Rorschach, TAT, sandtray.
Projective technique
Presents ambiguous stimuli so unconscious material surfaces in the client's interpretation, without the client necessarily knowing what's being measured.
Base rate score (MCMI-IV)
60 = median; a score over 74 signals a personality style, disorder, or syndrome.
Five Factor Model / "Big Five"
Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness — measured by the NEO-PI-3.
Response bias
A recurring limitation across nearly every self-report instrument in this chapter — a reason to combine self-report with other assessment sources.

Frameworks & models

Personality — objective instruments

  • MMPI-3 — 335 items, 52 scales, True/False (MMPI-A for ages 14–18)
  • MCMI-IV — Millon's theory; 5 validity + 15 personality + 10 clinical-syndrome scales; base rate 60/74
  • MBTI — Jung-based; 4 dichotomies (E-I, S-N, T-F, J-P) → 16 types
  • NEO-PI-3 — Five Factor Model; T-scores; 30 facets
  • 16PF, CPI, PAI, TSCS — broad personality/self-concept measures (Table 10.1)

Projective techniques — 5 groups (Table 10.3)

  1. Association — Word Association, Rorschach
  2. Construction — TAT, Draw-a-Person
  3. Completion — RISB, Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration
  4. Arrangement — Sandtray, Tomkins-Horn Picture Arrangement
  5. Drawing/Expression — KHTP, Kinetic Family Drawings, DAP

Named projective instruments

  • Rorschach — 10 inkblots; scored on location, determinant, content, form quality, popular; called "controversial" (Garb et al., 2005)
  • TAT — ≈31 cards (sources vary 31–32), 8+ administered; Murray & Morgan, Harvard, 1930s
  • RISB — 40 incomplete sentences, 3 age forms, scored 0–6
  • Sandtray — arrangement; trauma/grief work
  • KHTP — draws house+tree+person; adapted from Buck's HTP

Depression & bipolar (Table 10.4)

  • BDI(-II) — 21 items, past-2-weeks, most common depression measure
  • PHQ-9 — 9 items, includes a suicidal-ideation item, primary-care friendly
  • GDS — older adults, short (15) or long (30) form
  • CES-D/CES-DC, CDRS — epidemiologic/child depression measures
  • MDQ — self-report bipolar screener; YMRS — clinician-rated mania severity; HAM-D — clinician-rated depression; BSDS — self-report bipolar spectrum screener

DSM-5-TR names 7 distinct bipolar diagnoses.

Anxiety (Table 10.5)

  • GAD-7 — 7 items; most common anxiety measure; also validated for panic/social anxiety
  • BAI — 21 items, adults/adolescents
  • STAI(-CH) — distinguishes state vs. trait anxiety
  • SPIN — social anxiety specifically
  • SCARED — children/adolescents, 41 items

Eating disorders (Table 10.6)

  • EDI-3 — 91 items, broadest trait coverage
  • EAT-26 — 26 items, quick screener
  • EDE-Q — 28 items, dietary restraint/shape/binge concerns
  • ChEAT — child/adolescent version of EAT-26
  • PARDI — interview-based; Pica, ARFID, Rumination Disorder specifically

NEDA: eating disorders aren't caused by any one single factor — watch for your own bias about who "looks like" they have one.

OCD & related (Table 10.7)

  • Y-BOCS — most widely used OCD severity scale + symptom checklist
  • OCI-R — 18 items, OC symptoms/distress
  • SIR — hoarding behavior specifically
  • BDD-SS — body dysmorphic disorder specifically

Neurodevelopmental (Table 10.8)

  • ADHD-RS-5, Conners, Vanderbilt — ADHD (Vanderbilt also screens ODD/anxiety/depression)
  • ADOS-2 — autism; domains: Social Affect (combining social interaction and communication) + Restricted/Repetitive Behaviors
  • CARS-2 — autism severity, children only
  • PPVT — receptive vocabulary; DBC — emotional/behavioral challenges in IDD

No single medical test can diagnose ASD — always a combination approach.

Psychotic & miscellaneous (Table 10.9)

  • SCID — comprehensive diagnostic interview for psychotic + co-occurring disorders
  • WHO-5 — general well-being; SCL-90-R / BSI — broad psychological distress
  • CBCL — parent-rated child/adolescent behavior; ICP — common life problems
  • DASS(-42/-21) — depression, anxiety, and stress in one instrument

Clinical checkpoints

No lecture pairing yet. Like the Ch. 8 and Ch. 9 pages, there's no class-notes module for this chapter yet — everything here is textbook-only. If a matching lecture module shows up later, this page should get a matching update the way the M4 page did for Ch. 4.
This sheet is for fast recall, not citations. With ~50 named instruments in one chapter, this page groups rather than exhaustively lists every one — check the full quiz (37 questions, 100% heading/exam-flag coverage) or the textbook chapter directly before quoting any specific instrument fact, item count, or citation year in graded work.