Evidence-based assessment

Evidence-based assessment (EBA) uses research and theory to guide choices about what to measure, how to measure it, and what to do next based on the results during clinical work.[1] [2][3] Even when we use good tests that have shown good psychometrics in similar settings, assessment is inherently a decision-making task where the clinician must iteratively formulate and test hypotheses by integrating data that are often incomplete and inconsistent.[1] EBA helps clinicians to work smarter, not harder, making more accurate decisions quickly to guide what we do next with a person.[4][5][6]

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The EBA model combines skills, tools, and strategies to work more efficiently and accurately, often producing better outcomes. We can gather the pieces in a "just in time" way, developing questions and searching for answers based on each client's needs.

Many of the pages in this site use clinical cases to show how the principles and tools work. Cases make the concepts more clear and memorable, connecting information to practical choices and actions. Asking answerable clinical questions is a core skill to updating our practices and staying fresh as a clinician and relevant as a researcher.

The site is organized so that there are several different ways to approach it: by phase of treatment, by disorder or clinical issue, via case examples and vignettes, or through lists. Here is a tool that counts how many times the different pages have been viewed (so you can see the "greatest hits").

Wikipedia has more about this subject: Evidence based assessment
Subject classification: this is a psychology resource.
Attribution: User Eyoungstrom has contributed a lot to this resource and would really appreciate involvement in future editing.


Clinical edit

Assessment Center edit

Assessment toolkits organized by topic or disorder edit

  • These were previously known as "portfolios" -- rebranded as "toolkits" for general audiences
  • Categorized by disorder, this resource lists the best-quality assessment measures.

"Which Questionnaire Should I Use?" edit

  • An extensive list for clinicians of assessment options organized by diagnosis or clinical issue
  • One-stop shop to view/download the best-quality measures for clinicians
  • Links to some free online versions with scoring and resource suggestions
  • Sortable by disorder, age range, informant (e.g., parent- or self-report) measures

Clinical vignettes edit

  • Shows how to use EBA principles with clinical cases

EBA clinicians' manual edit

Expand for clinician's manual

This list describes the four discrete assessment phases of evidence-based assessment, and the twelve steps that a clinician should follow to practice evidence-based assessment.

  1. Preparation phase
  2. Prediction phase
  3. Prescription phase
  4. Process phase
  • We are working to build a step-by-step evidence-based assessment manual that clinicians can follow along, with built-in examples. This is our effort to manualize the teaching and application of EBA principles. It's like an EBA textbook!

Primary Care Toolkit edit

  • Assessment and intervention resources for the busy primary care provider. Sortable by age, presenting problem, and type of intervention.

Psychological measures edit

  • All of the assessment measures that we have worked on. Includes scoring information.

Helpful references edit

This page lists chapters from edited handbooks for assessment and treatment. Split by adult/child, this page lists resources for those who want to read more about EBA and EBP. Because these are chapters in edited volumes, they are also particularly appropriate to use in Wikipedia pages.

Teaching edit

There are a variety of different teaching resources that could be helpful in learning, teaching, and building more resources.

Open Teaching of Psychological Science (OToPS) edit

  • OToPS is a site that pulls together resources for teaching Psychology. It is open-source, and intended to be shared.

Research edit

Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) workshop series edit

  • A researcher resource, this is our effort to make research papers more clinically significant. Provides a framework for running ROC analyses.

Service edit

Helping Give Away Psychological Science edit

  • Helping Give Away Psychological Science (HGAPS pronounced as two syllables: "H-Gaps") is a Nonprofit Organization (501c3) linked with student service organizations. HGAPS is dedicated to bringing the best information about psychological science to the people who would benefit. We build small teams to improve the information about psychology on Wikipedia for the general community, and on Wikiversity for professionals, including practicing clinicians, graduate students, and researchers. On Wikipedia, we aim to make the pages reach the level of the best college textbook on the topic; on Wikiversity, we go into more technical detail about how to compare, score, interpret, and apply the best tools. We are gathering resources and links to help clinicians, clients, and educators find high quality material and information quickly.

External links edit

  • To create a new Resource Kit page, click edit and, in source code, create a new bullet after this one. Copy and paste "Evidence-based assessment/Portfolio template" below and replace "Resource Kit template" with your desired kit name. For further instruction, click the link above to go to the Resource kit template.

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References edit

Click here for references
  1. 1.0 1.1 Hunsley, John; Mash, Eric J. (2007-04). "Evidence-Based Assessment". Annual Review of Clinical Psychology 3 (1): 29–51. doi:10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091419. ISSN 1548-5943. http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.3.022806.091419. 
  2. Youngstrom, Eric A.; Van Meter, Anna; Frazier, Thomas W.; Hunsley, John; Prinstein, Mitchell J.; Ong, Mian-Li; Youngstrom, Jennifer K. (2017). "Evidence-Based Assessment as an integrative model for applying psychological science to guide the voyage of treatment". Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice. doi:10.1111/cpsp.12207. ISSN 09695893. 
  3. Straus, Sharon E.; Glasziou, Paul; Richardson, W. Scott (Warren Scott); Haynes, R. Brian. Evidence-based medicine : how to practice and teach EBM (Fifth ed.). Edinburgh. ISBN 978-0-7020-6296-4. OCLC 999475258. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/999475258. 
  4. Jenkins, MM; Youngstrom, EA; Washburn, JJ; Youngstrom, JK (April 2011). "Evidence-Based Strategies Improve Assessment of Pediatric Bipolar Disorder by Community Practitioners.". Professional psychology, research and practice 42 (2): 121-129. PMID 21625392. 
  5. Jenkins, Melissa M.; Youngstrom, Eric A. (2016-04). "A randomized controlled trial of cognitive debiasing improves assessment and treatment selection for pediatric bipolar disorder.". Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 84 (4): 323–333. doi:10.1037/ccp0000070. ISSN 1939-2117. PMID 26727411. PMC PMC4801735. http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/ccp0000070. 
  6. Hunsley, John; Mash, Eric J. (2008). A guide to assessments that work. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-804245-0. OCLC 314222270. https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/314222270. 

Alphabetical Index of Pages edit

Extended content