Psychological Report of Benjamin Briar - Case Study Example

Running head: PSYCHOLOGICAL REPORT Psychological Report [Writer’s Name] [Institution’s Name] Psychological Report Examinee and Testing Information Examinee Name: Benjamin Briar Test Date: 23/2/2013 Date of Birth: 3/10/1985 Test Age: 27/4/20 Examiner Name: Dr. Jones Purpose of Evaluation Benjamin Briar is a 27 year old male. He has been referred to a psychologist by an employment agency (Essential People in Camcord) in order to have his cognitive ability tested. Benjamin is unsure in what employment he would like to work or what he is suited to. Background Benjamin Briar is a 27 year old male. Benjamin is the youngest child in his family. He has 2 older sisters (Mary 35, Jane, 33) and a brother (John, 31). His parents are divorced. Benjamin left school at 16 and worked in casual jobs for many years. He did not enjoy school because he reports that he was not a good reader or speller and that made school difficult. He really liked working with his hands in woodwork and metalwork but he also liked hospitality, art and sport, Benjamin moved from job to job, unable to settle to anything that he really wanted to do He began mixing with a group of youths that were into marijuana and he too smoked a fair bit of dope in those years. As his drug intake increased, he then became unreliable for work and found it harder and harder to remain in a job. For a while he reports living “pretty rough”. In 2012, Benjamin met Sally, a 25 year old woman who has been a great partner this relationship and has worked to “clean up his act”. He is now in a position where he wants to find worthwhile work, and build a wholesome life with Sally. Benjamin believes that he is ‘dumb’ because spelling and reading have always been difficult for him. He would like to go to TAFE and perhaps do a landscape design course or become a green keeper at a Golf Course but is uncertain whether he has the ability to pass a TAFE course. Test Session Behavior During the assessment with the psychologist, Benjamin was nervous at first but relaxed into the testing situation. He presented as a tall man, who had good social skills. He reported wanting to do his best and was able to focus and concentrate on each part of the test. He asked for a short break about half way through the testing. He asked in an anxious way whether his answer was correct on two occasions. He expressed relief that he didn’t have to do any writing and talked about his problems with spelling. Interpretation of WAIS–IV Results General Intellectual Ability Benjamin performed much better on the non verbal as compared to the verbal tasks of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale IV. Both were rate verbal comprehension and perceptual reasoning was rated at average. However raw scores and percentile clearly showed the difference, i.e. the raw score per sealed score of verbal comprehension was 25 while the percentile was 27 where as, the raw score as per sealed score for perceptual reasoning was 33 with a percentile of 63. The difference between the two was 14. A lot of of the nonverbal tasks require the observation and manipulation of materials such as blocks. As the subject had mentioned that he really liked working with his hands in woodwork and metalwork but he also liked hospitality, art and sports and thus due this he may have scored more the verbal comprehension it was mentioned earlier that he had good social skills but the fact that he was nervous during the test may be the reason he scored at an average less then expected. Benjamin’s general cognitive ability, thus, is best estimated by his performance on the non verbal tasks. Verbal Comprehension Benjamin’s verbal reasoning abilities as measured by the Verbal Comprehension Index yielded a average range of 27 percentile and confidence interval being 87-96 with the sealed score of 25 . The Verbal Comprehension Index is used to measure verbal reasoning and concept formation. Benjamin performed quite averagely on the verbal subtests contributing to the Verbal Comprehension Index. These verbal skills are quite average even though he is has strong social skills as mentioned before. Furthermore, even with this average score he may experience little difficulty in verbal skills as it was mentioned earlier that he was nervous in the test. .Benjamin achieved average performance on the verbal reasoning tasks which consisted of the Information and Vocabulary subtests. His weak performances on the Information and average performance on Vocabulary may have affected the entire verbal comprehension score. It may also be noted that he scored the lowest on information from all the subtests in the entire WAIS IV The Vocabulary subtest required Benjamin to elucidate the meaning of words given to him in isolation. This test gives an over view of a subject’s ability of verbal comprehension. Performance on the above mentioned subtest also requires the skill to express meaningful concepts and to recall information from long-term memory. Benjamin‘s scaled score of vocabulary was 33. The Information subtest required Benjamin to respond verbally to questions regarding general events, objects, places, and people. This is basically a measure of how much general knowledge he has. Scores obtained on this subtest can be affected by cultural experience and quality of education, and his capability to recall information from long-term memory. Benjamin‘s scaled score of information was 8. It may be that he obtained a low score because of his education level. Perceptual Reasoning Benjamin‘s nonverbal reasoning abilities as per the Perceptual Reasoning Index are the low average range, with a percentile of 63 with a scaled score of 33. The confidence interval was 100-110. The Perceptual Reasoning Index measures ability for reasoning in the perceptual domain. It consists of tasks that evaluate nonverbal concept formation, visual perception and organization, visual-motor coordination, learning, along with the aptitude to separate figure and ground in visual stimuli. Benjamin‘s scores on the perceptual reasoning subtests which assess the Perceptual Reasoning Index seem to be higher then the rest of the scores attained in scales. As mentioned before, the subject had mentioned that he really liked working with his hands in woodwork and metalwork but he also liked hospitality, art and sports. Here, it may be noted that the subjected scored the highest on the block design i.e he yield a raw score of 50, this was the highest raw score in his entire test. However the scaled score was11. He his raw score of matrix reasoning was 21 with a scaled score of 12, while his raw score for visual puzzles was16 with a raw score of 10. This means ns his ability to work with material assisted him in subtest. Working Memory Benjamin’s ability to sustain attention, concentrate, and exercise mental control is at average range. In the Working Memory Index his scaled score was 16, with a percentile of 23. The confidence interval was 84-95. He yield raw score of 11 in arithmetic with a sealed score of 8.in the digit span he yield a raw score of 25 with a sealed score of 8. Benjamin’s aptitude to sustain attention, concentrate, and exert mental control are a weakness and may even have had an effect on the verbal reasoning abilities. Processing Speed Benjamin‘s aptitude in processing easy or routine visual material without making mistakes is in the average range. In the Processing Speed Index his sealed score was 19 with a percentile of 42. The confidence interval was 90-104. Benjamin‘s Performed more or less similarly on coding which is more demanding of fine-motor skills, short-term memory, and learning ability. It yielded a Scaled score of 10 and raw score of 65,where as in symbol searching which is more demanding of attention to detail and visual discrimination, it yielded a scale score of 10 and raw score of 34. Summary Benjamin Briar is a 27 year old male. He has been referred to a psychologist by an employment agency (Essential People in Camcord) in order to have his cognitive ability tested. Benjamin is unsure in what employment he would like to work or what he is suited to. As per the WAIS IV results of the subtests it may be noted that the full score is also average with a sealed score of 37 and percentile of 93 . Here it may also be noted that the subject’s cognitive abilities are average. He scored highest on Perceptual Reasoning Index in the block deign and visual puzzle. He scored lowest on working memory which means that his cognitive skills regarding arithmetic are weak. Recommendations As per Scores of WAIS IV it may be recommended that the subject peruse a career in which he can exercise his working with his hands in woodwork and metalwork, art and sports. He must improve his vocabulary and information skills, as these seem to hinder his improvement in social skills. Read More