 The topic we are going to discuss today is psychological assessment and the role of ethical issues into it. Psychological assessment is one of a very major and important component in the field of psychology and social sciences. When we talk about psychological assessment, there are different protocols in which we have to see that either ethical issues are being taken care of or not. Psychological assessment is primarily a sub-discipline of scientific psychology, which is exclusively devoted to study of a given subject with different purposes. These purposes could be varied. For instance, they could be either describing. Describing could be either in term of the clinical psychology, description could be given to elite developmental milestone and it could be any diagnosing or predicting behavior as well. Now, when it comes to diagnosis, diagnosis could be done into various field. It could be done into clinical psychology, into educational psychology, into forensic psychology maybe or any other sub-domains of psychology. Simultaneously, when we talk about the predicting behavior, the predicting behavior could be related to anything. It could be related to any developmental milestone. It could be probably related to any educational achievement or any other motivational behavior. So, these are the things that in which different settings and different sub-systems we are going to describe that how the psychological assessment could be done and then we can see that exclusively in clinical and educational settings, the importance of psychological assessment is much more than as compared to any other area. Now, looking into numerous components where psychological assessment could be done, it could be norm-based psychological tests. You know, they are the different norms according to the subject setting. For instance, then informal test and surveys, we are aware of the fact that in psychology, there are different informal tests which are being going on. Then interviews. Interviews could be of varied type. They could be formal, informal interviews, structured interviews, unstructured interviews, but they all are going to contribute as a component in psychological assessment. Then school or medical records. We are going through the all medical records, so we get to know and on the basis of that component, we can predict that in future, what kind of the educational performance that child may be going to do if no intervention is being done at this stage. Then medical records is another thing which is very important and in some cases, it could be provided as an important baseline for the patient. So these are the different ways in which the psychological assessment are being done. And then observational data. Now observation could be participant observation, it could be guided observation, it could be unguided observation or any other kind. So observational studies are another way of doing psychological assessment. So we see in different setting, different components are being used and by one way or another, they all are contributing towards assessing that what kind of issue is being going on and how we are going to assess that formally or informally. Psychologists usually undertake psychological assessment in diverse setting, taking into account the cultural and other factors. So we just can't undermine that there could be the different factors which are going to influence the psychological assessment and how we are going to do with the ethical practice during that setting. This awareness may influence psychologists. For instance, the choice of the assessment method. Up to the assessment's choice, a psychologist who is using it, its impact can be different. Either it has no acquaintance with him, its expertise is not there, or it is very much an expert and uses it on its tips. So these components can affect its practice. Then interpretation of the result. Then for the qualitative data exclusively, the interpretation could be subjectively different from one expert analysis to another expert analysis. Just here, if we talk about medical records, history, if a medical expert looks at an MRI report, then the things in that report, the things in the record, maybe that other expert is looking slightly different. Same goes with the interpretation of the psychological assessment. So there comes different issues which need to be properly taken care of. Then compilation of their reports. When we compile the reports, different factors could be taken into account and they can also influence the report of the psychologist. Then communication to their clients regarding their assessment. This is another factor. When you have the baseline data, when you know the prior factors which are the precipitating factors, which are the maintaining factors, which are the predisposing factors, then probably your opinion towards making any report could be different than otherwise. So if you are aware of all those factors, they are in total going to combine an impact on the report, whatever being created by the psychologist. Now the use of psychological assessment. A psychological assessment may be used as a foundation for two major things, understanding and then diagnosis. As far as the understanding is concerned, a person whosoever is the client, his behavior could be understood in a better way. This is something very simple to understand that the purpose of the psychological assessment is to give the better understanding. And then another important thing which is crucial and important is the diagnosis. For example, diagnosis for the cognitive impairment, diagnosis for the intellectual disability or ability for psychiatric illness and for any kind of learning disability or any other diagnosis which comes under the umbrella of DSM-5. Moving on, to measure an individual's functioning at a specific point in time and provide a snapshot of that person. For instance, that if we wanted to see that any effect, any specific point in any certain situation, the person is going to experience panic attack or a person is going to diagnose with depression, the snapshot of that very moment is going to give the measure of an individual's functioning. Then psychological assessment could be used as a planning and intervention, obtaining a baseline measure prior to the implementation of any behavioral change program and identifying preferences to guide career counseling. So at the beginning as a baseline level, we assess what an individual's status is, then to tap on it, we give any interventional plan, any training, any behavior guidance, then we do a post-assessment. So the phase of the assessment is very important for planning and intervention. Then monitoring intervention. For the purpose of assessing behavior change and psychological improvement in subjects, let's say we are talking about the decision-making. We are seeing how much change is being made after continuous training on an individual's decision-making. Like we did a pre-testing during his employment time and we saw how the individual's decision-making skills are. After that, a company is giving him continuous training, giving him guidance, participating in seminars and awareness campaigns. Apart from that, he is also getting hands-on practice on managerial work. So post-assessment can define how much change has been made in his decision-making ability. So these assessment measures can also reflect your different abilities. Then development of individuals of a group or an organization. Let's say we do different surveys that tell us about the overall growth of an organization. More recently speaking, we are talking about that Pakistan is achieving so many STGs in a better way, which is our ultimate goal. For the planning of those STGs, we first do a baseline assessment in which we see which STGs are working in Pakistan. After that, after 10 or 5 years, the data is collected from relevant stakeholders and the assessment is done on which point of view we are standing on which STG. So you know the pre- and post-test could be in terms of the person, as well as in terms of an organization.