Psychology Assessment
Use when asked to administer, score, or explain a Psychology Assessment — general screening using the DASS-21 (Depression Anxiety Stress Scales) — grounded in FormExamples/form-examples.
General psychological screening assessment that collects self-reported data on depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms using the DASS-21 instrument, computes severity categories per subscale, and flags safety-critical items (e.g. suicidal ideation) for clinician review.
Scoring
Instrument: DASS-21 — three 7-item subscales (Depression, Anxiety, Stress), each item 0–3, raw range 0–21 per subscale (doubled to align with DASS-42 norms). Severity categories: Normal, Mild, Moderate, Severe, Extremely Severe.
What it covers
Demographics; reason for assessment; DASS-21 Depression; DASS-21 Anxiety; DASS-21 Stress; functional impact; a risk screen; and support and history.
Common pitfalls
- Treating the three DASS-21 subscales as interchangeable — depression, anxiety, and stress are distinct constructs with distinct subscales; a high total across all three needs to be read per- subscale, not collapsed into one number.
- Skipping the risk screen because the DASS-21 doesn't itself ask about self-harm — DASS-21 measures symptom severity, not risk directly; a dedicated risk screen is a necessary separate step, flagged safety-critical for clinician review.
- Forgetting the doubling convention — raw DASS-21 subscale scores are conventionally doubled to align with DASS-42 severity norms; using raw (undoubled) scores against DASS-42 category thresholds misclassifies severity.
Learn more
- FormExamples: psychology-assessment for the full implementation, clinical references, and worked examples.
- Mental Health Assessment, Psychiatry Assessment for related mental-health assessments.