Assessments required for Internship Applications

[kiwagner]

Hi all,

I am in the process of applying for pre-doctoral internship. I have a question about the requirements for some of the sites. Many are asking for a full psychodiagnostic intake and assessment report that includes "intellectual and objective and/or projective testing." I have done a lot of assessments through my school clinic with objective and projective testing as well as neuropsychological assessments during my practicum that include intellectual testing but these were not full batteries. My best psychodiagnostic assessment, including a full history, includes projective and objective but not intellectual. This sample, written about one of my long-term clients, has the R-PAS, PAI, NEO-Five Factor, Sentence Completion, SCL-90-R and the Bender. (Not sure if the Bender counts as an intellectual assessment?). I'm wondering if it's worth emailing the sites and asking if they will still accept my application? Or I could submit a straight neuropsych assessment for medical patients that includes intellectual and objective (e.g., PAI) but without a psychodiagnostic history. Thoughts? Thanks!

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[erg923]

Hi all,

I am in the process of applying for pre-doctoral internship. I have a question about the requirements for some of the sites. Many are asking for a full psychodiagnostic intake and assessment report that includes "intellectual and objective and/or projective testing." I have done a lot of assessments through my school clinic with objective and projective testing as well as neuropsychological assessments during my practicum that include intellectual testing but these were not full batteries. My best psychodiagnostic assessment, including a full history, includes projective and objective but not intellectual. This sample, written about one of my long-term clients, has the R-PAS, PAI, NEO-Five Factor, Sentence Completion, SCL-90-R and the Bender. (Not sure if the Bender counts as an intellectual assessment?). I'm wondering if it's worth emailing the sites and asking if they will still accept my application? Or I could submit a straight neuropsych assessment for medical patients that includes intellectual and objective (e.g., PAI) but without a psychodiagnostic history. Thoughts? Thanks!

I think you are taking this too litterally. They simply want to see that you have done traditional psychological evaluations that clarify/establish/rule-out Dx.

Hopefully you have a report that includes interview/history, some sort of intellectual asessment (doesnt have to be a full WAIS) and a meaure of personality/psychopathpology (e.g., MMPI, PAI, NEO-PI, Rorschach, etc.)?

And, how does one do a (proper) npsych eval without knowing that patient's psychiatric history/diagnoses?

 

[Menolly]

I would vote for the neuropsych assessment if it has both a cognitive and a PAI, although I'm also confused about the lack of a psychodiagnostic history. The projectives on their own might not be enough for some sites, and conversely many sites will be pleased you have the neuropsych experience. Do you just mean this patient had no prior diagnosis? In that case, as long as you have documented the current symptoms and have a diagnostic impressions/diagnosis section for the report itself, that should be fine. Good luck.

 

[Ollie123]

I would read that as pretty much "Intellectual and something else" so basically any decent LD or Neuro eval should work. Agree with others it would be exceedingly weird to do a neuro eval without taking some kind of psych history (even if it just boils down to "No problems, now or ever"). I can't imagine any situation outside a research study when one would administer a PAI without also taking a history - and I've done much of my work in medical settings too. If anything, you see it the other way around (history with no PAI). Are you certain you really did not obtain any information about their psychiatric history when doing those evals?