COMPETENCY
American Psychological Association
Table of Contents
Why Practitioners Need Information
Competency is a legal determination. Therefore, the psychologist must
be knowledgeable of state laws governing determination of competency. Psychological
assessment provides useful information in making this determination.
- The examiners must be clear which competencies they are being asked to assess. Typical referral questions include competency to drive an automobile or to make medical, legal, or financial decisions.
- Competency is a match between an individual's abilities and environmental demands. Therefore, traditional neuropsychological tests of specific cognitive abilities must be supplemented by ecologically valid functional capacity measures (e.g., Lawton's Instrumental Activities of Daily Living Scale).
- Awareness of cognitive deficits is often an important factor in determining competency and can be gauged by the use of specific interview questions, prior behavior, and observations of current behavior.
