Communicating results that people can use

Notions clés

Explaining results

APA Standard 9.10 requires reasonable steps to ensure that results are explained to the person assessed or a designated representative, unless the nature of the relationship precludes it, as in some forensic or preemployment evaluations, and this was clearly explained in advance.

Consumer-focused reports

Effective reports address the concerns of the referring persons, present data appropriately, communicate clearly and concisely and offer useful recommendations; undefined psychological terms are one reason many reports are hard for nonpsychologists to read.

Integration and its open questions

Integration means organizing findings around the referral questions and drawing every source together under each. How far to integrate, whether to include scores and client strengths, and whether to write a separate feedback report are recognized questions in report writing.

Collaborative feedback

In a meta-analysis, assessment combined with personalized, collaborative and highly involving feedback had positive effects on treatment, especially on therapy process.

Automated reports

Computer-generated interpretations are hypotheses. Under APA Standard 9.09(c), the psychologist keeps responsibility for interpretation and use of the results, checking each statement against the other data before relying on it.

Exemple commenté

Mrs. Duarte, 74, was referred by her family physician for memory concerns. Testing shows learning of new information below expectations for her age and education, with intact reasoning and language and no depression; her son notes recently missed bill payments. She asked that her son join the feedback session.

1. The psychologist opens with the question Mrs. Duarte brought, 'Is something wrong with my memory?', and answers it in plain words: learning new information has become harder than is usual at her age.
2. The test results, her own account and her son's observations are presented together as one story rather than test by test.
3. Her strengths in reasoning and language are named along with what they mean day to day, followed by specific recommendations such as automatic bill payment, a weekly pill organizer and repeat testing to track any change.
4. The letter to her physician leads with the answer and the recommendations, avoids unexplained abbreviations and places the detailed scores in an appendix.

Answer the question first, tell one integrated story, and make the next steps concrete.