PSY 3171 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Clinical Formulation, Mental Status Examination, Physical Examination

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 3171
• Professor: Martin Lalumiere

Document Summary

Systematic observation of someone for the purpose of understanding the difficulties the client is experiencing. It is a dialogue/interview (conversation) to better understand the client. Sometimes the case that the reason the person came to get the help changes/the real reason is brought to light. Branching approach (cna take 2-3 hours to go through the process) Want to see what the client"s theories about the cause of their problems is. Case formulation is an early theory to see what is bringing the patient to service and what would be the best way to help them. A way to make observations early on in the interview. Situation where you can play being clinical psychologists by doing a mental status exam. Based mainly on speech and what/how they are saying. Someone can have a happy mood but be sad on any given day. Awareness of people, time and place (oriented times three) Someone with dementia would not do well in this area.