EPPP Part 2 Study Resource: Assessment and Intervention

In 2017, the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards (ASPPB) announced the plan to develop a second part of the EPPP in order to assess the practical competency of Psychology candidates. Beginning January 2020, several states and provinces adopted the EPPP Part 2, a skills-based assessment for candidates applying for licensure in Psychology and states and provinces continue to adopt this new exam format. The EPPP Part 2 is administered in addition to the EPPP Part 1, a knowledge-based exam similar to the existing EPPP.

In order to help you understand what exactly will be included on the EPPP Part 2, this blog series will cover each content area featured on the exam. In this post, we are looking at the Assessment and Intervention domain of the EPPP Part 2.  This domain accounts for 33% of the exam and is the largest competency covered on the Part 2 exam.

To better approach this domain, let’s explore what is meant by assessments and intervention. Assessment here refers to the implementation and review of psychological assessments including norm-referenced tests, clinical interviews, observations, and informal assessments. Interventions, on the other hand, can take a wide range of modalities and forms. Working from your own particular treatment modality, you could encounter any range of therapeutic interventions from a mood log to a skills-development group. Therapeutic interventions are simply the effort made by both members of the therapeutic dyad to improve the well-being of the client. 

Within the Assessment and Intervention domain, the EPPP Part 2 will assess a range of competencies. These competencies rely not only on the aspiring psychologist’s knowledge of psychological assessments, psychometrics, and other psychological examinations but also on the range of psychological intervention services that can be provided within the scope of licensure.

The first competency that will be assessed by the Assessment and Intervention domain involve diversity factors as they apply in assessment and diagnosis. You will be expected to employ knowledge that you are given about a client’s background, demographic information, and other cultural factors when interpreting assessment results and formulating diagnoses. Additionally, you will have to use your knowledge of certain populations to select appropriate assessments, standards, and normed data to best serve diverse populations. Finally, you will need to be able to speak to the limitations of certain assessments and how they may not be accurate representations of different populations. Although they are referring largely to norm-referenced assessments, diversity-based questions will also be applied to informal assessments and observations portions of assessment as well. In short, you will be expected to ensure that your professional opinions and recommendations are directly reflective of the individual’s considerations on a myriad of levels.

The second competency is to demonstrate effective interviewing skills. Interviewing skills here refer to clinical interviewing skills, rather than job interview or other professional interviewing skills. Specifically, you will be expected to consider contextual information and cues in order to effectively communicate with the client in a therapeutic way. As you may remember, this is one of the four major components of psychological assessment. Again, the EPPP Part 2 will include considerations based on diversity factors; especially your ability to adapt questions and interview styles to best address the interviewee. The EPPP Part 2 will also be assessing your ability to be flexible and empathic to the client. As I’m sure you already know, there is no single way to approach every single client. This portion of the exam attempts to broach that consideration, but specifically with respect to your clinical interviewing flexibility and empathy. Overall, this competency relies heavily on your clinical intuition and your integration of contextual factors and information to be a flexible, empathic, and effective clinician. For this portion you may want to brush up on some of your infrequently used interview techniques.

The third competency assessed by the Assessment and Intervention domain is the ability to administer and score the instruments according to the current published guidelines and research. Although it is currently unclear if you will need to score an assessment protocol during the exam, you will definitely be required to interpret the scores given to you based on the proper guidelines and cultural considerations. You will also likely be required to communicate these results to the examiner in a way that could be understood by a lay audience. The takeaway for this competency is your ability to administer and score psychological assessments with respect to the proper norms and guidelines.

Next, your competency to interpret and synthesize information from multiple sources will be assessed. This is to say that you will be presented with information from several different sources, including assessments, clinical data, collateral sources of information, written documentation, etc., about a singular client. From this information, you will be asked to integrate all of this information into your clinical picture of the client. This picture will include the client’s strengths and weaknesses, what limitations may be present in the data, other areas you may wish to assess, explaining differences or discrepancies between data points, and ultimately create an overarching hypothesis about the client. This hypothesis, naturally, should include cultural and diversity factors.

The logical next step is to assess your ability to develop and communicate such diagnoses and hypotheses to other professionals. Since our field is so often interdisciplinary, we will likely need to communicate diagnoses and recommendations to other professionals within psychology as well as others that may not be as fluent in professional-psychology-speak. These diagnoses and recommendations should be based on current taxonomies as well as involve the appropriate contextual and cultural factors.

Based on these diagnoses, the ASPPB also would like to determine your competency in selecting the appropriate interventions for clients. As we mentioned before, there are innumerable intervention options for your clients. Within this competency, you will be tested to see if you will be able to select proper interventions for your clients when given enough background information. Furthermore, you may be expected to assimilate information from research and literature for this particular situation. You will also be required to integrate client or other interested parties’ opinions and preferences as well as the client’s stage of change.

The final competency within the Assessment and Intervention domain will assess your ability to apply and modify these interventions as you are presented with relevant research and continued assessment of the client. These intervention modifications could also be based on the individual differences of the client, the situation, or any other unaccounted for environmental factor. Modifying certain interventions can be a major step in clinical practice, and as such you will be required to provide evidence-based rationale for all of these choices and any recommendations or opinions that would be provided for the client. In order to ensure best practices for our clients and the preservation of excellent service in the field, such evidence is necessary. Within this competency, you will also be assessed on your ability and readiness to consult with qualified colleagues or peers when you must act in an unfamiliar situation.

Again, this is the largest domain on the EPPP Part 2 and will focus entirely on the proper intervention tactics and appropriate assessment methods and interpretations. This domain will encompass ethical and diversity concerns as will most other portions of this exam. Generally speaking, this will be how you will prove your competency in assessment and therapeutic interventions at the point of licensure. 

AATBS is committed to helping you ace the EPPP Part 2 through a productive, efficient study program. Find EPPP Part 2 study materials here.