1. Chapter 4 Flashcards

2. systematic collection, organization, and interpretation of data related to a client’s functioning in order to make decisions or recommendations about intervention or other services Assessment

3. integration of a client’s circumstances with knowledge of theory of human behavior or change, including hypotheses about the mechanisms that are causing and maintaining problems and the plan for intervening with them in a particular individual Case conceptualization/formulation

4. standardized group of procedures for testing scientific laws through construction and testing of predictions based on hypotheses; procedures emphasize experimental manipulation of variables and elimination of alternative explanations for outcomes Scientific method

5. empirically testable proposition about a fact, behavior, or relationship, usually based on theory Hypothesis

6. specific situation, condition, or concern that needs to be addressed in order to achieve a desired goal, including difficulties or deficiencies to be remediated or prevented as well as assets and strengths to be enriched Problem

7. problem offered by a client as a reason for seeking services Presenting problem

8. general and abstract statement of a desired outcome for which an intervention is implemented (e.g., reduce or alleviate depression) Goal

9. (noun) specific and concrete statement detailing a desired outcome of an intervention along with measurable criteria used to define and evaluate client success (e.g., to reduce the level of depression on a particular standardized scale to below a certain score, a benchmark). Operational definition of a goal Objective

10. smaller goals or objectives that must be achieved in order to reach the ultimate goal Intermediate goal/objective

11. application of logical principles, rigorous standards of evidence, and careful reasoning to the analysis and discussion of data, claims, beliefs, or issues Critical thinking

12. tendency to see and interpret information consistently with an emotional preference or preconceived expectation; in research, unknown or unacknowledged error created during the conceptualization, design, measurement, sampling, procedure, or interpretation of findings Bias

13. tendency to gather evidence that confirms one’s preconceptions by emphasizing or pursuing supporting evidence while dismissing or failing to seek contradictory evidence Confirmation bias

14. deliberate process of seeking information to discount or disprove a hypothesis or theory Falsification

15. engineering term that describes a process of collecting data from several different nearby locations to verify the location of a geographical point; in assessment, emphasizes collection of data from several sources and using different methods and procedures Triangulation

16. classification of individuals based on a disease, disorder, abnormality, or set of characteristics; in psychiatry usually based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Diagnosis