New Psychology Block For Sunnyside

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29742, 8 February 1962, Page 19

New Psychology Block For Sunnyside

A new psychology block nearing completion at Sunnyside Hospital is evidence o£ the important contr.bution of the growing psychology department of the hospital. Opened on a small basis in 1959, the department is one of the two now active in the Mental Health Division of the Health Department. the other being at Porirua Hospital in Wellington. The new building, expected to open at the end of this month, includes individual testing roms. a large group testing and lecture room, a study and library room, offices for the psychologists, a waiting room, and kitchen and toilet facilities.

Finished in Summerhill stone, the building is situated in a treed area near the hospital chapel. The new building will replace the present rather crowded temporary quarter's in the admission block.

The psychology department is headed by the senior clinical psychologist, Mr H E Bernhardt, an American. formerly of the University of Chicago. Expansion of the service is planned in connexion with

the teaching requirements for the new post-graduate diploma in psychology of the University of Canterbury. Psychological testing and assessment is carried out with patients referred by the medical staff. Detailed assessment is very time-con-suming, but in the appropriate case can be of great value in diagnosis, and in indicating that a certain treatment approach might prove of value. The psychologists see the patients after they have time to accustom themselves to the hospital routine, as tests on persons still settling down are liable to give misleading results. The objects of the admission testing are, in the words of the senior psychologist, “to establish the patient’s approximate level of intellectual function, his symptomatic background and the leading characteristics of his personality.” The psychologists’ reports are considered by the doctors along with those of the social workers, nurses, occupational therapists, recreational therapists, and chaplains as well as laboratory reports and the opinions of general medical specialists or surgeons where needed. In this way, a complete and rounded picture of the patient's condition is obtained. s.-

The tests fall mainly into four groups: intelligence testing, personality testing, symptomatic background assessment and tests for the investigation of suspected organic brain disease. The intelligence tests most commonly used at Sunnyside are the Wechsler adult intelligence scale and the Raven’s progressive matrices originating from the United States and Britain respectively. The Stanford Binet test and Wechsler intelligence scale for children are used on younger subjects. These tests give an indication of intellectual functioning. In some cases they point to an anomaly of some kind, affording valuable aid in the planning of treatment and rehabilitation.

Personality testing involves the use of “projective” tests—so-called because they make the patient “project” his thinking into a set situation, giving the tester a clue to mental and emotional functioning at a deep level. Tests given include the completion of unfinished set sentences, word associations and the composition of short explanatory stories about special rather ambigious pictures presented by the psychologist. The Rorschach inkblot interpretation test comes into this group, where patients are asked to give their impressions of standardised patterns.

The patient's symptoms are examined by such tests as the Cornell index, Edwards personal preference scale and the Maudsley medical questionnaire, in which lists of questions are given, framed scientifically, to elicit all sorts of potentially useful information about the patient’s worries, feelings, physical complaints and general attitudes. The Minnesota multiphasic personality inventory is also often used. Where organic brain disease or damage is suspected, a special battery of tests is available. For assistance in the field of rehabilitation of patients the psychologist has access to aptitude tests and other indicators of social achievements. Not Standardised A difficulty faced by those who must use British and United States test material in New Zealand is that these tests are not always standardised for the local population. However, a growing number of these overseas tests are being standardised for Australia by the Australian Council for Educational Research, and Sunnyside makes full use of these.

Another use of psychological testing is retesting after treatment to assess recovery of the patient or the effectiveness of a particular treatment. This approach is likely to be of great assistance in research programmes now being planned by the medical and psychological staff.