Many people are referred by a therapist, their PCP, or themselves for a Psychological Evaluation, also known as a psychological assessment, and we find it essential to distinguish this from regular testing. They are quite similar, and a full psychological evaluation may include testing. However, a full assessment that includes psychological evaluation testing is more extensive, taking longer and involving more steps, but leading to a more comprehensive look at your psychological and emotional functioning. This post answers the question, “What is a psychological evaluation?”
You may benefit from a psychological evaluation regardless of the reason for referral, given that it is more comprehensive and deeper. Still, the cost and time you need to spend are more significant, so it’s essential to be informed before you choose. For some people, an Autism Spectrum Disorder battery is enough to get the answers they need. We will assess this at the beginning and ensure you know the difference in what you will get with each choice.
What is a Psychological Evaluation?
A psychological evaluation is a formal process conducted by a licensed psychologist or a multidisciplinary team, usually led by a psychologist or MD, used to assess an individual’s mental health, cognitive abilities, emotional functioning, and behavioral patterns. The evaluation aims to understand the individual’s strengths, challenges, and barriers to reaching their potential to inform diagnoses, holistic avenues, treatment plans, or recommendations.
What is a Psychological Evaluation Designed For?
A full psychological evaluation may be used to:
- Identify conditions like ADHD, autism, learning disabilities, depression, anxiety, PTSD, or other mental health conditions.
- Obtain accommodations in school, college, or the workplace.
- Evaluate cognitive changes after brain injury, trauma, or illness.
- Guide therapy or treatment plans.
Thus, for example, if you’re exploring accommodations for ADHD or autism, a full psychological evaluation can provide the formal documentation needed for eligibility and support services. It’s often a key step for accessing academic accommodations (extra time on tests, modified coursework) or therapy services.
Psychological Evaluation Process
Psychological evaluations involve systematically collecting and analyzing information to gain insights into your thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and cognitive abilities. They are designed to answer various questions and assess a person’s strengths, challenges, and skills comprehensively. A psychological evaluation involves the following steps:
Referral and Information Gathering
A person may be referred for a psychological evaluation by a doctor, therapist, teacher, employer, or family member if there are concerns about their 
psychological well-being. With your permission, we gather information pertinent to your full psychological evaluation. They might send us aspects of their record related to your questions and concerns that we hope to develop new insights into. Sometimes, we wait until we see where we need more information. At that point, we may ask if you can get school records, information from your caregivers, or other historical information. We never call anyone for information without asking you first.
The Psychological Evaluation Itself
We use various assessment tools, such as standardized questionnaires and psychological tests, to gather data about your thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and cognitive abilities. These tests are standardized, meaning they’ve been used with many people with various concerns, and we can compare your results to gain insights into your unique presentation. We pair the assessment tools with interviews. The full psychological evaluation usually includes significantly more interviews and other data collection outside the session than “regular” testing does. The latter relies more heavily on test results alone.
Finally, a full psychological evaluation often involves a second round of data collection. We go back to collect more information from collateral sources (again with your permission), such as family members, teachers, or medical records, to fill in any gaps and obtain a comprehensive view of your functioning. If we still have questions, there may be a test for two afterward.
Adjunctive Parts of a Full Psychological Evaluation
A full psychological evaluation may even include observation of you in a particular setting, especially for children. For adults, this may mean giving instructions to self-observe and writing down details of thoughts and feelings during certain activities. We might ask you to provide essential people with standardized questionnaires that reflect their observations of you. For children, we sometimes do these observations ourselves, often observing them where they are having difficulty, such as in the classroom.
We may also give you homework to keep a journal of everything from what you ate to how you slept, how much stress you felt, or your mood on certain days. We might ask questions about the involvement of others—whether you reached out for help or tried to communicate with a loved one and how that went, for example.
Interpretation and Feedback
After all the above, we analyze and interpret the collected data to understand your strengths, weaknesses, and potential challenges. Unlike other testing, some interpretations will be a bit more subjective. We answer any questions you come in with and give suggestions and advice to help you overcome any challenges and barriers. We often go beyond the initial questions and provide any other information the testing revealed.
A feedback session will be scheduled where you can read the full psychological evaluation testing report, get clarification, ask questions, and generally hear what we found. You’ll come away with a detailed report of our findings and recommendations based on the evaluation. We can offer feedback to therapists and caregivers to help them understand the results and plan for any necessary interventions or treatments.
With some parts of the comprehensive psychological evaluation, we may schedule a follow-up session to do more testing. Some of the surveys, especially those related to anxiety and depression, can be repeated over time to see if there is any improvement.
What is a Psychological Evaluation Used For?
Psych evaluations are conducted for various reasons, including helping to determine if you meet the criteria for a specific mental health diagnosis like Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Depression, or Autism Spectrum Disorder; to help a therapist develop a unique and specific treatment plan based on your unique needs and challenges; to help identify learning disabilities, intellectual giftedness, or other educational needs that may require specialized support or accommodations in school; and to assess your interests, personality traits, and aptitudes to help guide career choices. Here are more details relative to the question, “What is a psychological evaluation used for?”
- Diagnosing Mental Health Disorders
- Conditions like anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, OCD, and schizophrenia.
- Identifying Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Assessing for ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
- Evaluating for Learning disabilities (e.g., dyslexia, dyscalculia)
- Assessing Cognitive Abilities
- Psychological evaluation testing may be used to measure IQ and evaluate intellectual functioning.
- Identifying strengths and weaknesses in areas like memory, attention, and problem-solving.
- Evaluating Academic or Educational Challenges
- Determining the need for school or college accommodations (e.g., extra time on tests, note-taking support).
- Understanding Behavioral and Emotional Issues
- Evaluating difficulties such as aggression, impulsivity, emotional dysregulation, or social challenges.
- Guiding Treatment Plans
- Helping therapists, psychiatrists, or other professionals develop tailored intervention strategies.
- Assessing Personality and Emotional Functioning
- Exploring personality traits, coping mechanisms, and emotional well-being.
- Legal or Forensic Purposes
- Providing evidence in cases involving child custody, competency hearings, or criminal responsibility.
- Vocational or Career Assessments
- Determining strengths, limitations, and suitable career paths for individuals.
- Assessing Risk
- Psychological evaluation testing may be used to Identify risks for self-harm, suicide, or harm to others.
- Monitoring Progress Over Time
- Tracking cognitive, emotional, or behavioral changes during or after treatment.
- Evaluating Disability or Accommodations Eligibility
- Supporting requests for disability services or workplace adjustments.
- Determining Fitness for Specific Roles
- Used in law enforcement, aviation, or military waivers to evaluate mental fitness for duties.
- Understanding Family or Relationship Dynamics
- Assessing how individual behaviors or mental health affect family systems.
We always offer an initial meeting to ensure that a full psychological evaluation is the right step for you and to let you know what questions it can answer and what insights it’s likely to offer. As you can see, “What is a psychological evaluation used for?” has many answers!
With children, we work collaboratively with caregivers during the entire process. However, some adolescents ask for testing independently, and we talk to the family about what information we will share to ensure everyone is on the same page.
What is a Psychological Evaluation Like? An Example
Here is a psychological evaluation testing example for a fictional client. This sample answers the question, ” What is a psychological evaluation like?”
John is a 32-year-old man who was referred for a psychological evaluation by his employer due to concerns about his recent performance and interpersonal difficulties in the workplace. He works as a project manager in a corporate setting. He holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and has been employed with the company for six years. According to the referral information, John has been experiencing challenges in his role, including difficulty meeting deadlines, mild conflicts with colleagues, and decreased productivity.
Psychological Evaluation Testing Process
The psychological evaluation testing process consisted of a clinical interview, self-report questionnaires, and behavioral observations. John was interviewed regarding his personal and professional history, current stressors, coping mechanisms, and interpersonal relationships. Additionally, he completed standardized psychological assessment measures, including the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), to assess mood and anxiety symptoms.
John was also given the Personality Assessment Inventory to evaluate aspects of his personality that are strengths or challenges so that conclusions can be drawn about the types of work events where he might excel and those where he might have challenges. In addition, he was given the Working Style Assessment (WSA), which measures aspects such as his ability to work on a team, his motivation and interest, and his reliability,
Psychological Evaluation Testing Findings
During the clinical interview, John reported feeling overwhelmed by work demands and experiencing symptoms of burnout, including fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. He described conflicts with coworkers and feelings of isolation in the workplace. John also endorsed symptoms of depression, including sadness, hopelessness, and loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities. His scores on the BDI indicated moderate to severe depressive symptoms.
On the STAI, John reported elevated levels of both state and trait anxiety, indicating that he experiences both temporary and enduring feelings of tension and apprehension. He described worrying excessively about work-related issues and struggling to relax outside work. This was backed by his PAI, which concluded that while he is generally a calm, secure, and happy person, stress build-up can affect him significantly. The WSA also showed he is generally reliable and motivated, so the current difficulties appear situational.
Recommendations
John would benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to address his depressive symptoms, improve coping skills, and challenge negative thought patterns. To manage work-related stress better, he should explore stress reduction techniques such as mindfulness meditation, relaxation exercises, and time management strategies. John’s employer was also recommended to provide accommodations such as flexible work hours and workload adjustments, at least temporarily.
The full psychological evaluation testing report concluded that with appropriate treatment and support, including psychotherapy, medication management, and workplace accommodations, John has the potential to achieve symptom relief and improve his overall quality of life.
Summary and Conclusions
Psychological Evaluations are part of our practice. Again, they differ from psychological testing alone in the amount of information we gather outside of the tests themselves. The interview is more extended and covers more, other information gathering is more comprehensive, and the report covers more areas. Psychological testing by itself is often enough, so we will talk beforehand to help you decide which is for you and answer what is a psychological evaluation like for people with questions similar to yours.
Sometimes, an outside source refers people and asks for a “full psychological evaluation.” It is often unclear whether they mean that you need testing or a complete psychological evaluation. If a third party refers you, we often ask you to speak to that person to ensure we provide what you need without costing you more time and money than necessary.
Our Psychological Evaluation Services
Our psychological evaluation services often start with our basic psychological testing services, including Intelligence Quotient (IQ), Personality evaluation, ADHD and Learning Styles, and Mental Health. This gives us the necessary background to determine where to collect additional information. It may lead us toward Assessment Specialties and help us determine which collateral contacts we need to make. We will keep you informed about the plan and any modifications we need to make along the way.
Feel free to contact us to determine whether a complete psychological evaluation or testing alone can give you the necessary information and guidance. Because assessments with psychological evaluation testing take longer, the wait may be slightly longer than for testing alone. However, we may at least be able to meet with you and get things started fairly quickly. You can learn how to get psychological testing or a full evaluation in another post.
We hope this post answers the common questions we receive, “What is a psychological evaluation?” and “What is a psychological evaluation like?”
