COUN6204 Week 4 Discussion Latest 2022

COUN 6204A Week 4 Discussion

Discussion: Implications of Assessment Instrument Misuse

Assessment instruments can supply valuable information about a client’s misuse of a substance. These instruments provide the counselor with information related to duration, frequency, and intensity of a client’s substance use. However, human error on the part of the counselor may limit or distort the data that assessment instruments are intended to collect. For example, a counselor could ask a leading question like, “Do you drink every day?” The tone and formulation of the question could influence the way the client answers the question. In other cases, counselors may not be properly qualified to administer a specific assessment instrument. What potential dilemmas might result from the misuse of assessment instruments?

For this Discussion, review the Learning Resources, including the case study entitled Assessment Instrument Misuse. Think about concerns or issues that might arise related to psychometric properties of assessment.

Post a description of your concern about Nadine’s situation related to misuse of psychometric properties of assessment. Explain a different situation in which counselors might encounter concerns or issues related to assessment use.

CASE STUDY

COUN 6204A: Assessment in Counseling and Addiction Week 4 Case Study: Assessment Instrument Misuse

Nadine is a counselor in a large agency. Recently, the Clinical Director decided that all clients should receive the MMPI-II upon admission into the agency. Because Nadine works in the assessment department, she would be responsible for administering the instrument, scoring, and interpreting the results. As part of her graduate training, Nadine did not have a course on personality assessment, and she did not learn about the MMPI-II. Nadine expressed this concern to her supervisor. He recognized the need for the assessment counselors to be trained in the MMPI-II. However, he reported that the training was quite expensive and the agency only has the budget to send one of the seven assessment department counselors. The supervisor indicated that he would send one of the other assessment counselors, Brian, and that Brian would be responsible for training the rest of the staff when he came back. Nadine’s supervisor instructs her to “just start using the MMPI,” and “Brian will tell us how to figure things out after the training.”