A study of clinical assessment, computerized methods and instrumentation in psychology, containing 18 contributions from the workshop, "Computers in Psychology", held in September 1999 at the University of Utrecht.;The first section of the work contains contributions concerning clinical assessment. Aspects such as short-term memory, spatial memory, counselling skills and play therapy are described, as well as computer-assisted observational analysis using eye blinks. In the second section, a series of computer programs supporting decision-making in psychotherapy and diagnostics, in clinical and other settings, is described. The last section deals with real-time aspects of computers and computer-controlled experimental set-ups.
This User’s Guide is intended to support the design, implementation, analysis, interpretation, and quality evaluation of registries created to increase understanding of patient outcomes. For the purposes of this guide, a patient registry is an organized system that uses observational study methods to collect uniform data (clinical and other) to evaluate specified outcomes for a population defined by a particular disease, condition, or exposure, and that serves one or more predetermined scientific, clinical, or policy purposes. A registry database is a file (or files) derived from the registry. Although registries can serve many purposes, this guide focuses on registries created for one or more of the following purposes: to describe the natural history of disease, to determine clinical effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of health care products and services, to measure or monitor safety and harm, and/or to measure quality of care. Registries are classified according to how their populations are defined. For example, product registries include patients who have been exposed to biopharmaceutical products or medical devices. Health services registries consist of patients who have had a common procedure, clinical encounter, or hospitalization. Disease or condition registries are defined by patients having the same diagnosis, such as cystic fibrosis or heart failure. The User’s Guide was created by researchers affiliated with AHRQ’s Effective Health Care Program, particularly those who participated in AHRQ’s DEcIDE (Developing Evidence to Inform Decisions About Effectiveness) program. Chapters were subject to multiple internal and external independent reviews.
Guidelines for the clinical practice of medicine have been proposed as the solution to the whole range of current health care problems. This new book presents the first balanced and highly practical view of guidelinesâ€"their strengths, their limitations, and how they can be used most effectively to benefit health care. The volume offers: Recommendations and a proposed framework for strengthening development and use of guidelines. Numerous examples of guidelines. A ready-to-use instrument for assessing the soundness of guidelines. Six case studies exploring issues involved when practitioners use guidelines on a daily basis. With a real-world outlook, the volume reviews efforts by agencies and organizations to disseminate guidelines and examines how well guidelines are functioningâ€"exploring issues such as patient information, liability, costs, computerization, and the adaptation of national guidelines to local needs.
Based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Primary Care: Child and Adolescent Version (DSM-PC), this state-of-the-art reference expertly guides you through normal and abnormal development and behavior for all pediatric age groups. See how neurobiological, environmental, and human relationship factors all contribute to developmental and behavioral disorders and know how to best diagnose and treat each patient you see. Accurately identify developmental and behavioral problems using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Primary Care criteria, and evidence-based guidelines. Gain a clear understanding of the "normal" boundaries and variations within specific disorders. Make informed therapeutic decisions with the integration of basic science and practical information and recommendations from the Society of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the American Academy of Pediatrics. Avoid legal and ethical implications by consulting the Law, Policy, and Ethics chapter. Download the DSM PC criteria from the included CD, as well as tables and illustrations for use in electronic presentations.
Psychological Testing: A Practical Introduction 4e offers students of psychology and allied disciplines a comprehensive survey of psychometric principles and tests in the major categories of applied assessment. Coverage includes test norms, reliability, validity, and test development, with an entirely new chapter on test fairness and bias. Chapters on assessment of cognitive ability, achievement, personality, clinical instruments, and attitudes provide up-to-date examples of the widely used tests in each category. Recognizing that active engagement maximizes learning, the text presents as an active learning device rather than a reference work. Extensive use of chapter objectives, key point and end-of-chapter summaries, practice problems, applied scenarios, internet-based resources, and statistics skills review enable students to engage more fully with the material for a deeper understanding. Written in a clear, reader-friendly style, the text approaches challenging topics by balancing technical rigor with relatable examples of contemporary applications.
Pardeck demonstrates that the ecological approach to social work practice stresses effective intervention, and that effective intervention occurs through not only working with individuals, but also with the familial, social, and cultural factors that impact their social functioning. The power of the ecological approach, through focusing on multiple factors for assessment and intervention, is that it integrates empirically based theories from various fields including social work, psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Pardeck provides an orientation to the role of social work practitioners within the human services. He differentiates the unique contributions of social work and explains them in terms of the needs and goals of an ecological approach to practice. An ecological approach to practice stresses that effective social work intervention occurs through not only working with individuals, but also with the familial, social, and cultural factors that impact their social functioning. The power of the ecological approach, through focusing on multiple factors for assessment and intervention, is that it integrates empirically based theories from various fields including social work, psychology, and anthropology. The book represents an effort to define the goals, commitments, and approaches that have emerged out of the history of social work and to relate them to similar concepts and values that are central to an ecological approach to practice. Three pervasive and unifying themes run through the book. One is the constant commitment to goals of facilitating human development. Pardeck suggests this is a central ethic that defines and distinguishes an ecological approach to social work practice. The second theme is an affirmation of the basic utility of a systems approach in conceptualizing and intervening in human needs, concerns, and problems. The ecological perspective views human beings as social organisms engaged in patterns of relationships that nurture or inhibit this basic humanity. The third theme is an interactionist view of the importance of person-environment fit as a central dynamic in human functioning. The traditional intra-psychic aspects of human behavior have tended to obscure the immense importance of both nurturing and potentially damaging forces at work in the social environment. This volume will be of considerable interest to social work educators and practitioners as well as their research libraries.
