ABSTRACT
Statements about a person’s standing in comparison to various groups can facilitate many of the decisions for which assessment is requested. The decision maker may need to know, for example, which applicants scored highest on the entrance test, whether a defendant meets the state’s criteria for competency to stand trial, if a youngster’s IQ reaches the school district’s minimum for gifted-student placement, or whether a surgery candidate’s depression is situational or chronic. The following chapters, however, assume that the reader is already, or is becoming, familiar with procedures for conducting such decision-making assessments. These chapters present procedures for those occasions when it is preferable to address the individual as individual, not only to answer a referral question, but also to work with that person toward less restrictive, more productive, ways of going about life. The process of individualized assessment is, then, an assessment of process—an assessment of the person’s ways of approaching, going through, influencing, and being influenced by situations.
