ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the process of diagnostic interviewing and focuses on the concept of assessment. An important part of the clinical process involves the assessment. Clinical assessment 'is the evaluation and measurement of psychological, biological and social factors in an individual with a possible psychological disorder'. The chapter examines the important connection between the Case Formulation Interview and the broader concept of assessment. One of the challenges to constructing and conducting a successful Case Formulation interview is to maintain a sense of relevancy. In an early review of the literature on Case Formulation skills, Eells, Kendjelic, and Lucas found 'strikingly little research on such skills'. Eells and colleagues recommend four broad categories of information that are contained in most Case Formulation methods: symptoms and problems; precipitating stressors or events; predisposing life events or stressors; a mechanism that links the preceding categories together and offers an explanation of the precipitants and maintaining influences of the individual's problems.
