Assessment reports are aimed at addressing the referral parties’ and/or clients’ concerns by summarising quantitative and qualitative data collected from psychological or psycho-educational test administrations and making recommendations that help to facilitate their decision making in contexts related (but not limited) to: psychological therapy, educational institutions, courts, and insurance companies. Depending on the context, these reports can be read by various individuals, namely psychologists, teachers, other allied health professionals, judges, insurance agents, clients themselves, and their caregivers. The readability of the reports is important and writing styles may differ depending on the target reader. Overall, a well-written assessment report includes these central objectives (Kaufman & Lichtenberger, 2002; Ownby, 1997; Sattler, 2001):
Answers referral questions;
Describes the client and his/her current situation or abilities;
Interprets and integrates quantitative and qualitative data;
Recommends appropriate treatment, therapies, or intervention.
What makes a good assessment report?
A good assessment report focuses on the person being evaluated and the problem(s) of concern. More emphasis should be given to what the test scores mean and how they relate to the person being assessed (Schneider et al., 2018). Specifically, a good report does not use only the test scores to answer the referral question, but integrates the test scores with information from the client’s background, the psychologist’s observations, and collateral information, to make sense of the client’s possible difficulties. This integration helps the reader to make a cohesive conclusion about the person in relation to the referral question.
A good assessment report should be easy to read, clear, concise, explanatory and offers a clear direction on an intervention plan for the person.
While writing the report, psychologists should keep in mind:
The context of the referral
The intended audience/reader of the report and suitable readability
The assessment outcome and intervention recommendations for the client, which later informs a suitable intervention plan
The different theories and principles informing evidence-based intervention
The factors that have facilitated or blocked therapeutic progress
The ethical, legal and professional standards of reporting
The attitudes that a psychologist should have while writing the report includes:
Resilience
Self-discipline
Non-judgmental
Objectivity
Open-mindedness / Curiosity
A suggested outline of an assessment report is as follows:
Psychological assessment reports typically follow the format provided below. However, how the information is presented might vary depending on the context and purpose of the report, the audience, and the writing style of the psychologist (Groth-Marnat, 1999).
Psychological Assessment
Critical demographic information (e.g. client name, age, gender etc.,)
Referral question
Background information
Sources of information
Behavioural observations
Test results
Impressions and interpretations
Recommendations
Psychologists engaging in assessment report writing are expected to demonstrate knowledge and/or skills in the areas of:
Different psychological assessment tools and how to use them
APA report writing format
Assessing specific domains, such as: cognitive, affective, behavioural, and personality dimensions of human experience with reference to population norms
Case conceptualisation
Integrating collateral information
Analysing and interpreting scores
Organisation and cohesion of the report
Possessing a clear and concise writing style
Attitude of being open to support or refute hypotheses
Attitude of grit
Personal disposition of objectivity & self-awareness
Attitude of being sensitive to clients’ responses when delivering assessment feedback
