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The Assessment Section of APA’s Division 12, with sponsorship by the Buros Testing Center, invites students from clinical, counseling, or school psychology graduate programs to participate in the annual ASSESSMENT THROWDOWN!
 
The goal of the Assessment Throwdown is for trainees to show off their assessment knowledge and receive feedback from experts in the assessment field in a welcoming, nonjudgmental, and fun atmosphere!
Students in any year of their clinical, counseling, or school psychology doctoral training are welcome to participate.
 
The competition will include two rounds.
1. In Round I, students will read a clinical assessment vignette and submit a written statement answering key questions/prompts about the presented clinical and assessment data.
2. Students selected to move on to Round II will ‘compete’ at the LIVE virtual event, where they will be presented with a different clinical assessment vignette and asked questions about the data by expert judges in the field!
 
The winner of the Assessment Throwdown will receive a $200 prize and two runner ups will receive $50 each. All students who move on to Phase II will also receive a free one-year membership to the Assessment Section!

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* 1. Name

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* 2. Email address

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* 3. Type of program

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* 4. University affiliation

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* 5. Training Year

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* 6. Please review the following case and respond to questions 7 and 8.

Case:
Ryan is a 26-year-old, non-Latinx White man who identifies as Catholic. He is currently employed as an investment banker for a large hedge fund. He suffered a recent loss of his best friend, who died of breast cancer after a lengthy battle with the disease. He is seeking a psychological assessment (i.e., self-referred), as his family and friends have informed him that his grieving is beyond what is “typical.” His supervisor at work is also frustrated with him for missing deadlines, despite Ryan working 60 to 70 hours per week. Ryan is gay and in a committed relationship of three years. Last year, he and his partner planned to move in together and get married, which was around the time Ryan’s best friend became sick. Ryan has not been engaged in therapy for several years, given “[he] was functioning well until the time of [his friend’s] death.” He denied a history of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, or engagement in non-suicidal self-injury. At the time of assessment, Ryan reported a desire to “join” his deceased friend, but he denied any intent, plan, or access to means to complete suicide.

Regarding background data, Ryan has a history of multiple potentially adverse life events, which include his parents’ tumultuous divorce, his younger sister’s history of brain cancer, and a motor vehicle accident and associated concussion he sustained in high school. Ryan was diagnosed with depression during his teenage years and underwent counseling with good effect at that time. Ryan did well in high school, and he completed an undergraduate degree at a selective, private four-year college. He then obtained his master’s in business administration from an Ivy League school. With respect to family history, his mother was diagnosed with bipolar I disorder in her early 20s.

Ryan underwent neuropsychological testing, which revealed an estimated overall IQ of 125 and a cognitive processing estimate of 110. He demonstrated relative weaknesses on other tasks of processing speed, attention/concentration, and areas of executive functioning (i.e., verbal and nonverbal fluency and set-shifting/switching). Ryan’s score on a self-report measure of current depressive symptoms was in the severe range. He was also administered a validated performance-based measure, which suggested generally persistent and major depressive symptoms, including intermittent waves of low mood and anhedonia. During the clinical interview, Ryan reported experiencing periods of time during which his mood was "higher." Feelings of emptiness and loss were also prominent on multiple measures and during the interview, but he denied feelings of worthlessness or guilt, as well as low self-esteem.

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* 7. Beyond the data you have (presented above), what other information and tests/measures would you want to administer in order to strengthen the information in the assessment, and why?
(You can list specific tests/measures/methods or discuss more broadly as domains—either way is fine!)
500-word limit

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* 8. Write a single paragraph case conceptualization/formulation based on the information provided in the case above. Knowing that you have incomplete data, you may also support your conceptualization using the additional information/test results you discussed needing in question 7.
500-word limit

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