Scales And Measures
This page is maintained as a service to mental health professionals. The scales and measures listed here are designed to assist clinicians to practice effectively. Resources linked-to from this page should only be used by appropriately qualified, experienced, and supervised professionals. Psychology Tools does not host any of these scales and cannot take responsibility for the accuracy or availability of linked resources. To the best of our knowledge the assessment measures listed here are either free of copyright restrictions, or are being shared by the relevant rights-holders.
Introduction
Mental health professionals use a variety of instruments to assess mental health and wellbeing. Common purposes for psychological testing include: screening for the presence or absence of common mental health conditions; making a formal diagnosis of a mental health condition; assessment of changes in symptom severity; and monitoring client outcomes across the course of therapy.
Screening: Brief psychological measures can be used to ‘screen’ individuals for a range of mental health conditions. Screening measures are often questionnaires completed by clients. Screening tends are quick to administer but results are only indicative: if a positive result is found on a screening test then the screening test can be followed up by a more definitive test.
Diagnosis: Psychological assessment measures can support a qualified clinician in making a formal diagnosis of a mental health problem. Mental health assessment with the purpose of supporting a diagnosis can include the use of semi-structured diagnostic interviews and validated questionnaires. Items in self-report measures used for diagnosis often bear a close correspondence to criteria specified in the diagnostic manuals (ICD and DSM).
Symptom & outcome monitoring: One strand of evidence-based practice requires that therapists use outcome measures to monitor progress and guide the course of therapy. Psychologists, CBT therapists, and other mental health professionals often ask their clients to complete self-report measures regularly to assess changes in symptom severity.
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