Adults and juveniles who come into contact with

Adults and juveniles who come into contact with the criminal justice system often undergo psychological assessment for a variety of reasons. There is usually a standard assessment given to all those who enter the system, but individuals may also be assessed to determine if they suffer from a specific disorder or type of disorder or even to assess intellectual functioning. Various resources and tools useful for diagnostic and testing purposes are available.

The DSM-5 is a standard diagnostic tool for psychiatric disorders. DSM-5 is used by health professionals, social workers, and forensic and legal specialists to diagnose and classify mental disorders, providing concise and explicit criteria.

The Mental Measurements Yearbook (MMY) is a comprehensive guide to over 2,000 testing instruments in the areas of psychology, education, business, and leadership. Entries include publisher, test purpose, price, edited reviews, and purchase information, if available. It also contains additional information on reliability (getting the same results each time), validity (testing appropriate things), norming data, and scoring and reporting services. Foreign language versions of MMY are also available. The MMY database is best used for exploration of tests and survey instruments. If you are researching tests for a course assignment, such as this one, the MMY is an excellent research tool.

Another database tool is PsycTESTS, a repository of tests, measures, scales, surveys and other assessments. Records include descriptive information, development and administrative documentation, and, in many cases, a copy of the instrument with permission for immediate use.

Instructions

For this assignment, create a 9–12-slide PowerPoint presentation for a group of trainee mental health professionals who work with either juvenile or adult offenders. In your presentation, do the following:

• Choose a disorder from one of the following sections in Section II of the DSM-5 (please note, each section contains multiple disorders):
  • Neurodevelopmental Disorders.
  • Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders.
  • Bipolar and Related Disorders.
  • Depressive Disorders.
  • Anxiety Disorders.
  • Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders.
  • Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders.
  • Disruptive, Impulse-Control, and Conduct Disorders.
  • Substance-Related and Addictive Disorders.
  • Neurocognitive Disorders.
• Summarize the description of the disorder from the DSM-5.
• Using the MMY or PsycTESTS, find one measurement instrument that could be used by a forensic professional in assessing a client for the specific disorder you have chosen and explain why your chosen instrument would be useful.
• Use and cite at least one academic article that discusses the instrument you have chosen. Remember to also cite the DSM-5 and either MMY or PsycTESTS.

Be sure you review the Mental Measures for Juvenile Offenders Scoring Guide to ensure that you have met all the criteria for this assignment.

Other Requirements

Your assignment should meet the following requirements:

• Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
• APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting guidelines.
• Length of presentation: 9–12 slides, in addition to the title slide, the references slide, or the notes slides.
• References: Provide in-text citations on your slides for the sources, and a references slide at the end of the presentation. Use and cite at least one academic article that discusses the instrument you have chosen. Also cite the DSM-5 and either MMY or PsycTESTS.
• SafeAssign: Use the SafeAssign Draft option to check your writing and ensure that you have paraphrased, quoted, and cited your sources appropriately. Run a SafeAssign report, saving your paper as a draft. Based on your SafeAssign results, make any necessary changes to your paper before submitting your assignment.