Some people use psychological tests for self-exploration to understand personalities, learning styles and abilities, relationship patterns, interests, academic and job directions, personal strengths, and so on. Clinical psychologists also use psychological tests to help understand problems and to assess emotional, cognitive, interpersonal, and personality functioning. The information derived from the testing is then conceptualized and used to generate recommendations. Specific assessments could focus on identifying or clarifying psychological disorders, evaluating academic problems such as Learning Disorders or attention problems, and determining cognitive or intellectual disabilities or other questions related to intelligence. Even more specialized types of testing include neuropsychological assessments and forensic testing. Neuropsychological testing can help identify specific problems in the brain that might have occurred as a result of a traumatic head injury, concussion, stroke, dementia/Alzheimer’s, or other diseases. Forensic testing involves psychological assessments for the purpose of providing information to the legal system and courts.

In all, there are many different types of psychological evaluations and many psychological tests, all of which are designed for different purposes and can be used in a variety of combinations or “batteries” of tests according to the types of questions, problems, or purposes involved. Depending on the type of psychological evaluation, the role of the psychologist and confidentiality protections can be quite different compared to the therapeutic relationship and privacy of the psychotherapy setting. At the time of testing, the psychologist usually clarifies his or her role, the purpose of the testing, and any limits on your confidentiality rights.