The Addiction Severity Index (ASI)

A psychological assessment is defined as “the gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation that is accomplished through the use of tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation, and specially designed apparatuses and measurement procedures” (Cohen, Swerdlik, &Sturman, 2013). Although examiners strive toward the assessment being good enough to be useful, they sometimes have to make decisions about what type of error is acceptable. There are many psychological assessments that have been used in the study of addictions, but we will take a look at the Addiction Severity Index. The Addiction Severity Index (ASI) is a clinical and research instrument given structured

The composite score is objective and calculated through a weighted formula designed to provide an equal contribution from each item while the severity rating is subjective and indicates the need for additional treatment in specific areas (Haraguchi et al., 2009). The SR ranges from 0 to 9 points and the CS ranges from 0 to 1 with anything higher than the normal 9 SR or 1 CS indicating greater problem severities (Haraguchi et al., 2009). Although some problems still exist, the ASI has been reported to have nearly achieved both reliability and validity (Haraguchi et al.,

Because of this misinformation, the examiner can take all the necessary precautions, yet still end up with errors beyond their control. I do think the fact that the ASI-J is given pre and post treatment can help to validate some of the information that the substance abuse users may have falsified in the beginning when they were under the influence of drugs and/or alcohol. Once the information from the pre and post tests are compared, it will allow the examiner to better determine hits, misses, false positives, and false negatives. Information gathered from results of the ASI-J is often used as prediction tools in treatment responses and outcomes and relapses; therefore, testing errors can lead to inaccurate prediction results which could lead to false positives and negatives. The ASI-J has also been proven useful as a comparison tool in clarifying similarities and differences between substance abuse users, so valid and reliable results are important (Haraguchi et al.,