Psychological Assessment Report
“Assignment ”
Submitted to
Dr Sehar un Nisa
Submitted by
Anum Sarfraz
Department of Behavioral Sciences
School of Social Sciences and Humanities,
National University of Science and Technology
Name: M.B Gender: Female
Date of Birth: 11-6-1994 Age: 23 years
Interview and Testing dates: 26-4-2017 and 27-4-2017
Tests administered:
26-4-2017: Interview: Time- 10:20a.m
Wide Range Achievement Test-4: Time- 11:05 a.m – 11:40 a.m
Bendar Gestalt II: Time- 11:50 a.m – 12:15 p.m
Weschler Adult Intelligence Scale-IV: Time- 1:55 p.m -3:30 p.m
Revised NEO Personality Inventory: Time- 3:54 p.m – 4:30 p.m
27-4-2017: Brief COPE
WHO Quality of Life Questionnaire
REASON FOR REFERRAL:
Ms M was approached for the fulfillment of assignment requirements.The purpose
was the formulation of a comprehensive report based on extensive evaluation of different
areas of client’s life including, cognitive functioning, academic achievement,
neuropsychological functioning, personality traits and overall social emotional
functioning.Thus providing a complete picture of the client’s profile with useful
recommendations that could benefit the client in her routine life and present functioning.
IDENTIFYING INFORMATION:
Ms M is a single,23 year old university student, currently residing in hostel and comes
from a Sunni, Punjabi family living in Cheshma, Mianwali. She is presently enrolled in
Masters program in Construction Engineering. She belongs to a well educated family with
both her parents working in the same government company, thus having their residence in
Cheshma, within the Company’s compound facilities.Her residential area is depictive of
middle socio-economic class. According to Ms M, though the city is small and less developed
than the capital yet it has relatively better facilities regarding basic necessities of electricity,
water and the like, in terms of quality.Her father is appointed at a respectable managerial
level position in the company while her mother having done her Masters in History is
appointed as school teacher at the company’s school.
The initial intake interview was conducted in Urdu while Wechsler Adult Intelligence
Scale-IV , Wide Range AcheivementAchievement Test-4 and Bender Gestalt Visual Motor
Test-II, were administered in English with standardized instructions. For NEO-Personality
Inventory, WHO Quality of Life QuestionnareQuestionnaire and Brief COPE, Ms M,
preferred to read the instructions and fill the responses on her own. She was very prompt in
clarifying any confusions she had regarding the items or instructions in all the tests and scales
administered.The sessions were conducted at the department based on client’s convenience
and comfort.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Early social and developmental history:
Ms M is second of three children. Her elder sister,is 26 years old, after completing
completed her Masters in Engineering, is presently a lecturer at a local college in her home
town. Her younger sister, 17 years old, is currently enrolled in FSc studying software
engineering. As resported by Ms M, though they have always lived as a nuclear family due to
their parents’ job nature yet, they enjoy very loving and respectable relations with their
grandparents (both maternal and paternal).The sisters have a non-conventional relation with
their parents, and Ms M stated to be especially more close to her father, who loved his
daughters. The family values strongly encourage and speak of educational aspirations and
ambitions in a way that the children have inculcated them deeply and the three sisters have
chosen their connected professional field subjects as a step towards the initiation of their own
family business of construction company.
No diagnosed history of psychiatric illness in the family was reported. Ms M reported
that her father was generally anxiety prone, though not diagnosed but the family noted that he
tended to get worried about little things during anticipation, as once her board result was due
and she had told her father she would tell him once it was out but he kept asking every 30
minutes.
Ms M had a normal birth with no complications and achieved all her developmental
milestones in time. She remembered her mother mentioning that she had been an easy child
from birth , though she was very naughty at school. She had good memories about her
childhood, all circling around an emotionally nurturing and a friendly open environment at
home. Though they were unable to go on long planned recreational trips due to their parents
work routine, yet they always had some form of outing for the weekends no matter how small
and simple it might be. She also reported that she was generally quiet at home as studying in
hostels, she preferred enjoying the peace and tranquility her home had to offer. In her
relationships she had a helping and caring demeanor and people could count on her, though
she didn’t have many best friends but she tended to establish healthy relationships with those
around her.She liked to stay in touch with current affairs and reading books as compared to
moving around in social circles.She considered herself taking after her father regarding her
anxiousness which often led her to be worrisome and thinking about her actions to an extent
that made her a perfectionistic, in all her tasks be it assignments or daily routine chores.Ms
M, had an insight to her anxiousness and wanting things to be done perfectly restraining her
from carrying out group activities as she mentioned that she had difficulty working on group
assignments as she did not like others’ work due to which she tended to take all the work load
and do everything herself.She said her mother had noted this and guided her to learn to be a
little less meticulous and perfectionistic so she had herself started working on it by staying
quiet in the group, which brought sense of responsibility in others’ and she just guided them
how to do things rather than doing herself. According to her mother her profession demanded
team work as no construction project is run independently, therefore she had been working on
this aspect of her personality.
Educational History:
Ms M reported that starting her formal education at the age of 3 years, she had been
an outstanding bright student always procuring the highest grades and top positions. Her
school teachers had been a strong influence in bringing out her talents and building her
confidence. Despite her academic brilliance, she faced demeaning and insulting remarks
from her academia at college level due to biasness towards certain students. She mentioned
talking to her parents about this and they always boosted her morale by pointing to her good
grades and that that’s what mattered in the end. During that critical and emotionally upsetting
phase of her life she visited her school teachers (whom she considered her mentors) who also
helped her stay strong.She also mentioned that she liked taking on challenges. Once when she
got 3rd position in 9th class, her teachers mocked her that her face wasn’t that of a high
achiever and that she looked like a “joker”.It was then that she got determined to show them
what she had and excelled further more by getting 1st position from then onwards. She
eloquently mentioned her adventurous nature and her naughty streak, especially where
boundaries were set and rules were enforced.She said the rules made her want to break them.
Though she loved playing pranks yet she never hurt anyone or caused any destruction to
property, nor did she ever put her safety at risk. All the pranks and tricks were for fun.
Ms M reported her first passion was to be in the Airforce, but that she was
disqualified in the exam. That rejection had been a tough time for her but she collected
herself and opted for construction engineering and even still looks forward to try for
Airforce , no matter what the post. As now she aspired to get selected as ateacher.
Health and Medical History:
She reported to have acute asthma, which was also hereditary from her father and
paternal grandfather. She never used inhaler and was stable with oral medication. Other than
this she reported to have no significant physical health problems.
MENTAL STATUS EXAMINATION AND BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS:
Ms M was immaculately dressed and had a lean, alert posture. She was attentive and
appeared interested throughout the sessions. Her overall repertoire spoke of competence and
confidence, with which she approached life. How she dealt with daily hassles was reflective
in the sessions as when something difficult or novel came up she would laugh or smile and
speak her concerns about the task but eventually come out performing it well. Talking about
her adventurous streak made her stance energetic and throughout the sessions she
communicated with a smile. Her test taking attitude was very responsible and careful.She
payed special attention to instructions and was prompt in asking questions.She made sure she
understood well before starting a task.One thing noteworthy during tests was that she was
concerned with time limits, specifically asking if she had a given time to finish the tasks. She
paid special attention to minor details in paper pencil tasks on BGMVT(when making
designs) and WRAT-4 (cross checked the math sums by re-solving the answer backwards to
get the question).
ASSESSMENT RESULTS AND IMPRESSIONS
Cognitive/ intellectual functioning and Academic Achievement:
Ms M’s intellectual ability is classified in the High average range, as measured
through WAIS-IV (FSIQ=112, CI=108-116,79th percentile).Her high average intellectual
ability is also evident in her academic achievement scores on all the subtests of WRAT-4,
where she performed better than 93%, 97%, and 96% individuals her age on the Reading
Composite, Spelling and Math computation subtests, respectively. Ms M was assessed to
have no neurological deficits as evidenced by her above average performance on Bender-
2( above 97th percentile on each subtest).The results obtained from her intellectual ability and
academic achievement measures are strongly reflected in her history of position procuring
since school life, as well as her own demeanor of having high aspirations and ambitions
related to her educational career. Also her hobbies and interests like spending free time
reading news and equipping herself with knowledge can be seen as a repertoire towards high
intellectual and academic achievement functioning.
Short term memory (Gsm) and Math Computation:
Ms M’s major Normative as well as Personal intellectual strength (as measured via
WAIS-IV) lies in her ability to hold information mentally, manipulating it and reproducing
the required answers as assessed on her ability to produce digits in forward, backward order
and sequencing digits (Digit Span). This is further indicative of her cognitive flexibility and
mental alertness along with visual-spatial imaging ability which was observed during her
performance on Digit Spanas well as Letter number sequencing subtest as she made visual
images of the letters and numbers when the items were being narrated, either in the air or on
the palm of her hand and then used the same patterns for recall. This could be seen as her
strategy for focusing her attention and concentration over the task at hand.Her ability to
concentrate and perform mathematical operations is also evident in her WRAT-4, math
computation performance being better than 96% individuals her age.Ms M also mentioned
during interview that she had a certain knack for numbers and manipulating them to solve
problems.Also being in her field of architecture, she tends to manipulate images and numbers
visually as well as mentally.
Visual Processing(Gv) and Fluid Reasoning(Gf):
Her performance on perceptual reasoning tasks (PRI= 111) lies in the high average
range indicating her developed ability of perceiving, storing, manipulating and thinking with
visual patterns(visual processing cluster) along with her ability to solve novel problems and
employing abstract thinking abilities( Fluid reasoning cluster). These findings are consistent
with her hobbies of solving complex puzzles in free time. As reported by Ms M she tended to
mentally visualize given problems to reach a solution (e.g in Block design once looking at the
problem she took some time to mentally form and image of how the blocks could be arranged
and then carrying it out practically). Since higher executive functioning calls for greater
motivation levels and alertness to the concrete stimuli, hence these aspects were observed to
be exhibited by Ms M during administration. She was vigilant and grasped the concept of
matrix reasoning very quickly so that she gave the answer before the examinee finished the
instructions for each item. One important observation her is noteworthy that she quickly
responded in this manner only when she was sure of the answer and when she wasn’t she
would wait and contemplate.
Verbal reasoning abilities and Lexical Knowledge:
Encompassing the two clusters of verbal reasoning and lexical knowledge, Ms M falls
in the average range on verbal comprehension index (VCI= 107)indicating her performance
to be better than 68% of her peers(CI= 101-112). Both clusters involve the acquisition of
culture specific verbal knowledge and its application in a given situation. In comparison to
her own above average performance on other subtests, this average performance indicates a
slight cultural connotation as her ability to use and make sense of new English wordsappears
to be slightly restricted. Ms M mentioned during the administration that there were some of
the words she was listening for the first time. One thing noteworthy here is that despite not
having an exposure to the words she tried to explain the items with examples. This also
reflects her thinking and reasoning process; she tends to reason via examples; which is a
more practical, on ground approach to reasoning. These findings are consistent with her
performance on sentence comprehension (WRAT-4).Relative to her scores on other subtests,
on sentence comprehension she performed better than 66% individuals her age. During
administration she again stated that she was unfamiliar with the phrases and that she was
trying to make sense from the whole sentence, which again highlights her more concrete
approach to reasoning.
Processing Speed:
Ms M’s ability to perform cognitive tasks fluently and automatically when under
pressure to maintain focused attention and concentration are adequately developed as her
score lies in the average range (PSI= 102, CI= 93-110) with her performance being better
than 55 % individuals her age. Being timed tasks, during symbol search and codingMs
Mappeared to be a little anxious as she wanted to complete the entire items, correctly, in the
given time. This attitude of hers is also reflected in her past history where she reported her
need to perform at her best and being accurate. It is possible that working under pressure
could have affected her performance.
Social and Emotional Functioning:
The results of Ms M’s assessment suggest that at her core, she is a sensitive and an
emotion oriented person, with a tendency to feel emotions extensively (NEO-PI ). Consistent
with her core attribute Ms M’s dominant coping mechanism drives her to seek emotional
support and venting out her feelings( Brief COPE)which is evident from her history where
she turned to her school teachers and mother for emotional and moral support during the
stressful event in college where she felt her self confidence shaken by the derogatory remarks
of faculty.Ms M reported being anxiety prone and thinking excessively about things as well
as feeling uncertain and somewhat depressed. Assessment of her Style of Well being (NEO-
PI) seconds her feelings as it suggests that she tends to feel depressed in stressful
circumstancesand also at times feels life as being joyless and hard. She also tends to have a
sense of being lonely as she has no close friends but it is possible that she puts on a composed
aura and unconsciously tries to avert her attention from these feelings by over occupying
herself in studies and carrying out multiple tasks. She tends to get apprehensive and is prone
to worry which might be a plausible reason of her rigid standards of performing assignments
perfectly and being uncomfortable in group work as she tends to be vary of others’ working
skills. At a different stance her high anxiety proneness could be taken as a strength which
propels her to perform better and maintain her standards, which is often a trait of high
achievers.It is quite possible that her thrill and excitement seeking impulse (Style of impulse
control) is an escape from feelings of anxiety and loneliness .
Assessment of her Style of Interests provides an intriguing insight into her solo
activity preference and being critical and unhappy with group assignments. She tends to have
an inclination for individual, challenging tasks that provide her ample space to reflect her
expertise and where she does not need to coordinate with other group members which makes
her anxious and apprehensive about the standard of outcome. Interestingly, her Style of
Interactions further clarifies her isolated interests regarding educational activities as she has a
tendency of seeing others as possible competitors and has an urge to excel. As a result she has
an aura of being reserved, formal and distant, which has been conveyed to her by her hostel
and class mates. It could be her this aura that might also lead others to perceive her as
arrogantand she herself tends to be skepticaland guarded in expressing her feelings.
Ms M’s assessment highlighted her perception of her life’s quality in environmental
aspects of her life to be the highest (WHOQOL). Thus, it is also evident from her history that
she views her family as her support system and has a strong grounding in her home
environment being friendly with a satisfaction regarding her residing area . As a result her
first stance of coping in stressful situations is emotional support which is generated from her
family.
Case Formulation with Recommendations
Ms M is a 23 year old Masters student, living in hostel of a local University of
Islamabad. She is second born of three children with ambitions to establish an architecture
company with her sisters. She has a friendly and open home environment.
Ms M’s assessment reveals her to be an outwardly composed individual appearing to
be confident, and sure about herself yet on the inside she holds an altogether different aura.
She is extremely sensitive and has a tendency to feel deeply which has most probably led her
to be apprehensive and anxious about certain things, especially those areas of her life which
she holds very dear to her (specifically education). She appears to be functioning well in her
life with adequate communication skills, though she has a reserved and formal repertoire and
not very keen on making close relationships rather she has her focus on her studies,
nevertheless she keeps working relationships with others.She appears to be slightly set in her
ways of doing things due to which she feels uncomfortable in group assigned tasks. It is these
attributes of hers that leave her with feelings of being lonely and she has an excitement and
thrill seeking streak in her too which makes her approachable and seen as courageous by
others. She believes staying busy is very important and that’s why she has a few projects
going on within university campus, apart from routine academics.
She has been a high achiever throughout her academic career and has her strengths in
short term memory processing which allows her to hold large amounts of information,
mentally manipulate it and reproduce according to the task at hand.Being practical and goal
oriented Ms M, has strong reasoning and visual processing abilities due to which she has a
knack for solving unique problems and uses visuals for making sense out of a situation. She
can further build on these strengths and excel in her profession of architecture as her visually
manipulating ideas and construction plans would come in as a great asset for her work
efficiency in the field. Also her experimenting nature and taking risk for novel ideas could
lead her to develop new and inspiring brilliant ideas relevant to construction.
Relative to her own high average performance on WAIS-IV, her processing speed
ability is only adequately developed as it has been assessed to be average. It would be
recommended that since her profession demands working in pressure with time constraints to
complete projects, therefore she could work on this aspect. One way to improve her anxiety
during timed tasks could be to practice breathing exercises before the task to calm herself.
One remarkable attribute of MsM , was revealed through the assessments, that she
takes challenges head on and doesn’t feel intrigued or unnerved by difficult or new tasks
rather having a solution oriented demeanor she gets into action, thinking about how best to
tackle the situation at hand rather than giving up. This outlook of hers would prove helpful in
her professional life.
The assessment highlighted her feelings of anxiety and depression , which could be
expressed through her drawing, paintings or sketches as she loves to draw and being the
demand of her field of study, she is very good at sketching. Since she is not very vocal about
her feelings therefore this could be one way of giving her emotions a venting space.
Overall, Ms M is a healthy functioning adult, with a strong coping mechanism with
emotional support system to deal with her inner turmoil of anxiety and apprehensiveness.
Though she has her beliefs yet she has a tendency to accommodate and manage working
relations necessary for a healthy lifestyle.
Recommendations
Apart from the specific recommendations detailed in case formulation, Ms M could
benefit from counseling sessions in order to clear her mind’s vagueness and get a deeper
understanding of her own self as she mentioned not being fully aware of her tensions and
feelings anxiety and depression at times. Being a mature sensible adult she could be given
counselling options from which she could chose at her own pace and time.
Protocol = 5/5 Report = 18/20
Marks = 23/25
Feedback Report for Client
Name: M.B Date of feedback: 5th June 2017
Age: 23 years Assessor: Anum Sarfraz
Cognitive Functioning
Working Memory: High Average
Perceptual Reasoning: High Average
Verbal Comprehension: Average
Processing Speed: Average
Cognitive Summary:The client’s performance revealed that she is functioning above
average and her major strength lies in her ability to retain information, and reproduce it
according to a given situation as well as her ability to think and reason information visually
as well as handling novel situations. Her own weakness in relation to her own performance
lie in the domain verbal abilities involving language and processing information in situations
involved time constraints. It is to be noted here that this weakness is not in the raw sense of
being inadequately developed rather in comparison to her above average performance on
other domains these areas of her ability slightly lag behind.
Social and Emotional Functioning
The client has an overall composed yet sensitive personality with special concern for
her educational aspirations. This concern leads her to stay focused on her studies and is not
very apt in making close relationships. Though her tendency to think and feel deeply makes
her apprehensive and anxious yet she has effective coping mechanisms that help her stay
focused and functioning. She has a solution-oriented demeanor and is pretty set in her ways,
often striving for perfectionism as a result of which she feels uncomfortable in working in
group tasks. Currently she has adapted specific methods to overcome this aspect of her
personality.Though she has a reserved and formal repertoire, nevertheless she manages to
develop working relationships. She loves challenges and has a tendency to tackle them with a
new zeal and never gives up in difficult situations.
Recommendations
Given the client’s current functioning and concerns, the following recommendations
are made:
She could utilize sharp memory and her ability to make sense of information through
visual images to get accustomed to English language and increase her vocabulary as she also
aims to pursue teaching along with architecture.
Her ability and desire to experiment and try new ideas can be fruitful in her profession
and she can find new avenues for her interest by further polishing her talent by streamlining it
in the right direction of applying this attitude in her career activities.
She loves to draw and she could use this talent of hers as a venting out space of her
emotions as she is not very vocal and expressive about how she feels.
She could benefit from counselling regarding her tendency to get anxious as well as
her desire to get connected with her own self and know her feelings and inner world much
better. The counselor could address her anxiety issues and might teach her breathing
exercises or whatever he deems right for her.
A suggested referral is Dr ABC, contact number, address. Additional referrals could
be obtained from XYZ association.
