The core role of a psychologist is to offer remedy to those suffering from psychological problems and disorders.

Abnormal Psychology

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The core role of a psychologist is to offer remedy to those suffering from psychological problems and disorders. To effectively treat mental problems it is key to offer mental solutions (psychotherapy) and this encompasses counselling which demands high level of honesty and openness (Comer, 2014). On the other hand, in some situations, disclosure of psychological assessment information can be harmful to the examinee. Despite this possible harm, it is equally not just logical based on the psychotherapy (counselling) demands but also ethical going by the human rights standards to let the patient understand his/her problem is. Based on the two controversial points of view, I advocate for a considerate harmonization of both viewpoints. That is to say, I find it sensible to share the assessment information with the patient to let him understand the nature and state of his problem. However, caution should be taken to determine the patient’s state of mind with consideration to the information to be disclosed. If the patient is of good mental state then the clinician should proceed and disclose the information but if not then the information should be held until such a time when the best state of mind is restored. In addition, during information disclosure, the fact that the patient is a layman in the field of psychology should be taken into considerations and appropriate layman language be used to ascertain the understanding of the patient pertaining to the his problem (Comer, 2014; Lilienfeld, Wood& Garb, 2001). Again, it is important to note that the assessment information disclosure is to help the patient understand the problem and as such, only the relevant and important information should be disclosed to them. Based on this reasoning, if I were the patient, I would not demand every detail of my assessment information but just that that serves to facilitate my understanding pertaining to my problem.

References

 Comer, R. J. (2014). Abnormal psychology (8th ed.). New York, NY: Worth.

Lilienfeld, S. O., Wood, J. M., & Garb, H. N. (2001, May). What’s wrong with this picture? Scientific American, 284(5), 80–87