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Psychological assessment refers to the process whereby different methods and techniques are used to test hypotheses about people and their psychological characteristics. Understanding employees' psychological makeup is key to allow effective human resource management, from hiring to retirement. However, the gap between scientific evidence and organizational practices dealing with psychological assessment is still great.

General review along with case study

This paper shows the differences between research and practice, i.e. between what scientific evidence suggests to assess people from a psychological point of view reliably and what practitioners do when they want to reach the same goal.

At the end of the article, two examples of integration between research and practice are presented. We discuss how methods and techniques of psychological assessment can be developed to both respect scientific criteria and meet specific organizational needs.

This study aims to examine the self-perceived competencies of 231 Italian students enrolled in a psychological degree program and involved in a practicum. It analyzes the subjective perception of the competences that students expect to develop, acknowledge as developed and that might be inferred from tasks performed during the practicum; the level of expertise (novice, intermediate or advanced) of these competences; and the relation between the practicum facility and the competences.

This study administered an ad hoc survey comprising open-ended questions and used the Practicum Competencies Outline (Hatcher and Lassiter, 2007) as a framework for the content analysis.

The results revealed poor perception of some competency domains, such as Diversity: Individual and Cultural Differences; Development of Leadership; Application of Research and Ethics; and a frequent acknowledgment of Psychological Assessment and Professional Development. Before the practicum, the students expected to develop competence mainly at a novice level of expertise; after the practicum, the intermediate level of competences acknowledged as developed and inferred from performed tasks increased.

The findings have implications for research on competence-based training, such as the necessity of self-assessment training evaluation.

Undergraduate psychology students must reflect on the value of psychological competences during their formative training to re-orient their learning process and build a competent professional role. Moreover, psychological facilities and university must share common objectives in training undergraduate students.

This study is the first attempt to analyze Italian college students’ subjective perceptions of psychological competencies expected or developed during practicum .

This paper will consider the process of psychological assessment for people with learning disabilities and mental ill‐health. The paper will describe a formulation‐driven approach with reference to a social‐cognitive model of mental ill‐health in people with learning disabilities. I will illustrate this process with a brief case study of an assessment within this model.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role that psychological screening and surveillance can take in improving the delivery of psychological support to emergency service responders (ESRs) at a time of increasing demands and complexity.

The study aims to present and discuss the use of psychological screening and surveillance of trauma exposed emergency service workers.

The evidence supports the use of psychological screening and surveillance using appropriate validated questionnaires and surveys.

The findings suggest that emergency services should be using psychological screening and surveillance of ESRs in roles where there is high exposure to traumatic stress.

These findings will help emergency service organisations to recognise how psychological screening and surveillance can be used as part of a wider programme of well-being support. This approach can also help them meet their legal health and safety obligations to protect the psychological health and well-being of their ESRs.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a psychological outcome tool which reflects the relationship between clusters of items on the Short Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) risk assessment and different categories of psychological progress in male inpatient psychiatric services.

A principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted on data from 135 male psychiatric rehabilitation patients’ START risk assessments.

PCA identified four strength psychology quadrants which were explained by a five-factor structure and four vulnerability quadrants which were explained by a four-factor structure. The development of the psychology quadrant, its usefulness in establishing a treatment pathway and areas of future research are also discussed.

Developing accessible, transparent outcome measures using evidence-based practice is highly relevant within the field of mental health rehabilitation.

The purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study of the link between psychological contract fulfilment and affective states at work. The paper argues that perceived organizational support is the key attitudinal intervening variable that arises from the cognitive assessment of the exchange relationship between employer and employee and is in turn related to the generation of affective states at work.

The paper tests this assumption using a manager sample of 249 participants and a longitudinal design.

Perceived organizational support mediates the relationship between psychological contract fulfilment and workplace affect.

Affect was not measured in real time, but through self‐reports. Future research could study how and under what conditions psychological contract fulfilment generates perceived organizational support.

One of the few studies that have sought to research the affective dimension of the psychological contract.

The aim is to take decision making about people beyond “gut feel” and to make psychological measurement relevant to the key challenge of our time, which is to give strategic shape to the human aspect of business. The thesis is that, if we wish to obtain better results from our decisions than we do from gut feel alone, we must have the capacity to predict accurately the behaviours which lead to success in a given context. Psychological assessment gives us this capacity because it measures key and critical attributes, specifies their interaction, predicts their impact on behaviour and so constructs a model of psychological economy to forecast the success of the self‐in‐context. How psychological measurement accomplishes these tasks is explained and some consideration is given to key points of method.

Despite 77 per cent antenatal care coverage and 90 per cent skilled attendant at delivery, adjusted maternal mortality in Iran is 76 per 100,000 births. Low quality of maternal health services is one cause of maternal morbidity and mortality. However, few and limited studies have been devoted to the quality of postpartum care in Iran. This study aims to assess quality of care in postpartum wards of Shaheed Beheshti Medical Science University hospitals to show weakness and gaps areas in the care procedure for future improvement intervention programs. It is a descriptive study to assess quality of care in postpartum wards of Shaheed Beheshti Medical Science University hospitals, in 2003.

Using quota sampling, 60 healthy women were recruited for the study. Data were collected using three forms including a questionnaire with demographic and obstetrics questions, a check‐list for the postpartum care and education quality assessment. Control of vital signs, uterus assessment, perineum assessment, leaving bed, urinary system assessment, digestive system assessment, breast examination, extremities assessment, psychological assessment, as well as education about perineum self‐care, breast‐feeding, infant care, education before discharge and educational method. Validity and reliability of the questionnaire and checklist were assessed prior to use. Data were analyzed using SPSS.

Results showed compatibility of provided postpartum care with the standards as follows: method of patient's education (52.68 per cent); control of vital signs (43.21 per cent); education about breast‐feeding (26.06 per cent); care in getting out of bed (25.83 per cent); psychological care (19.36 per cent); urinary system assessment (16.66 per cent); education about perineum care (13.12 per cent); uterus assessment (10.6 per cent); digestive system assessment (9.69 per cent); patient's education before discharge (7.99 per cent); education about infant's care (7.81 per cent); perineum assessment (6.72 per cent); breast examination (1.11 per cent); and assessment of extremities (0.81 per cent). The study demonstrated that weak postpartum care was provided in 82 per cent of cases but also that mothers were satisfied with provided care in all domains of care. Mothers were very satisfied with facilities and less satisfied with personnel interaction with their visitors in hospital. There was no significant correlation between quality of services and clients' satisfaction (Spearman test, p<0.05).

For the first time in Iran, this study has evaluated quality of care in postpartum wards of hospitals based on the defined standards. The study provided a defined standard for postpartum care, which is necessary for regular monitoring and evaluation and so evidence‐based intervention programs to improve the system of care. It was also postulated that mothers' satisfaction with care is not always a good indicator of services quality.

The PCL‐R has been heralded as the ‘unparalleled’ (Salekin et al, 1996) risk assessment tool for assessing risk of violent and non‐violent recidivism. In the UK, the PCL‐R looks likely to become an industry standard assessment in psychological evaluation of individuals thought to have a dangerous and severe personality disorder. However, current knowledge about the PCL‐R is unsatisfactory, and a number of issues need to be addressed before clinicians can be confident in the use of this measure. This paper highlights these issues from the perspective of the practising clinician. Questions are raised about the theoretical, methodological and treatment implications of the use of the PCL‐R. Future research needs are established in this context of caution over the use of the measure in routine clinical and academic assessment.