Untitled

• Psychological testing measures psychological-related variables through devices or procedures to obtain a sample behavior.
• Psychological assessment gathers and integrates psychology-related tools like tests, interviews, case studies, and behavioral observation.

Alfred Binet

• In 1905, developed a test with a colleague to place Paris school children in appropriate classes.
• An English-language version of this test reached the United States a decade later.

World War I

• Psychological testing was used in the military to screen a large number of recruits.
• It also tested for intellectual and emotional problems.

World War II

• The U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS) used various procedures and measurement tools to select military personnel for highly specialized positions.
• The OSS model used a variety of evaluative tools, along with data from evaluations by highly trained assessors.

Varieties of Assessment

• Educational Assessment, uses tests and tools to evaluate abilities and skills in a school or pre-school context.
• Retrospective Assessment, draws conclusions about a person's psychological state at a prior point in time.
• Remote Assessment, gathers data and conclusions about someone not physically close to the evaluator.
• Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), is “in the moment” evaluation of specific problems and related cognitive behavioral variables at the time and place they occur.
• Collaborative assessment, involves assessor and assessee working together throughout the assessment process.
• Therapeutic psychological assessment, encourages therapeutic self-discovery and new understanding.
• Dynamic assessment includes evaluation, intervention, then evaluation again.

Process of Assessment

• Referral, including the formulation of referral questions is the start of the process.
• The assessor then meets the assessee.
• The tools to be used are prepared and selected.
• The formal assessment occurs.
• A psychological report is written.

Tools of Psychological Assessment

• Tests
• Interviews
• Portfolio
• Case History Data
• Behavioral Observation
• Role-play tests
• Computer as tools

Tests

• Test is a measuring device or procedure.
• Psychological Tests measure constructs or variables of psychology.
• Format, administration, scoring, and interpretation may vary.
• Psychometric soundness refers to the reliability, validity and usefullness.
• Psychometrics is the science of psychological measurement.
• Format refers to the form, plan, structure, arrangement, layout of test items and its time limit.
• Administration procedures range from individualized to a group setting
• Scoring is the assignment of evaluative codes or statements to performance on tests, tasks, interviews, or other behavior samples.
• Cut score functions as a reference point, often numerical and based on judgment to classify data.

Interview

• A structured conversation where one asks questions and the other answers.
• Can be face to face or other formats.
• Includes verbal and non-verbal behavior.
• Panel interviews have multiple interviewers in the assessment.
• Motivational interviews feature a therapeutic dialogue that combines person-centered listening with cognition-altering techniques.

Portfolio

• Includes products retained across various media.

Case History Data

• Records, transcripts, and accounts in written, pictorial, or other form that preserve information relevant to an assessee.

Behavioral Observation

• Monitoring actions of others or oneself visually or electronically, while recording quantitative or qualitative information.

Role-Play Tests

• Assessees are asked to act as if they were in a particular situation.

Computer As Tools

• Adaptive testing or Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) tailors to test takers test-taking ability pattern.
• Computer-Assisted Psychological Assessment (CAPA) refers to the assistance computers provide to the test user.

Computer As Tools Advantages

• Test administrators have greater access to potential test users.
• Scoring and interpretation of test data tends to be quicker.
• Lower costs incurred.
• Facilitates testing even on isolated populations.

Parties in Assessment

• Test developers and publishers
• Test users
• Test takers/assessee
• Society at large.

Settings for Assessments

• Educational Settings
• Clinical Settings
• Counseling Settings
• Geriatric Settings
• Business and military settings
• Governmental and organizational credentialing
• Academic research settings

How Assessments are Conducted

• Before the test, ethical guidelines must be followed and tests must be secured. The user has to be familiarized with the materials and procedures. A suitable environment is also needed.
• During test, rapport has to be established .
• After, the test protocols must be safeguarded.
• Results musy be conveyed and Interpreting of results must follow.

Assessment of People with Disabilities

• Alternate Assessment - an evaluative or diagnostic procedure or process that varies from the usual, customary, or standardized way to derive a measurement.
• Accommodation - adaptation of a test, procedure, or situation, or the substitution of one test for another, to make the assessment more suitable for an assessee with exceptional needs.

Assessment and Related Issues

• Test catalogues contain a brief description of the test.
• Test manuals contain detailed information concerning the development of a test and technical information relating to it.
• Journal Articles contain reviews of the test or examples of how the instrument was used.

Historical perspective in China

• Tests and testing programs can be traced as early as 2200 B.C.E
• It was designed for selecting applicants for government jobs.
• Tests were on subjects such as music, archery, horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, agriculture, geography, civil law and military strategy.

Francis Galton

• His interest in heredity was influenced by his cousin, Charles Darwin.
• Darwin believed that humans descended from apes as a result of chance genetic variations.
• He pioneered the use of statistical concept in psychological testing, specifically using the coefficient correlation.
• Focused on the differences among people.
• Arranged an Anthropometric Laboratory in London (1884) that measured standing and sitting height, arm span, weight, breathing capacity, strength of pull, strength of squeeze, swiftness of blow, keenness of sight, memory of form, discrimination of color, and steadiness of hand.

Karl Pearson

• He developed the product-moment correlation technique.
• Roots can be traced to Galton's work.

Wilhelm Max Wundt

• First experimental psychology laboratory was founded by him at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
• With his students, he formulated general descriptions of human abilities regarding reaction time, perception, and attention span.
• He considered individual differences error in experimentation.
• He tried to control all possible extraneous variables to minimize error.

James McKeen Cattell

• Focused on the individual differences, specifically reaction time.
• He brought “mental testing” in America.

Charles Spearman

• A student of Wundt.
• The proponent of the concept of test reliability.
• The mathematical framework for the statistical technique of factor analysis was built by him.

Victor Henri

• Collaborated with Alfred Binet on papers stating how mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes.

Emil Kraepelin

• He was an early experimenter with the word association technique as a formal test.
• Has a great contribution in the classification of psychopathology.

Lightner Witmer

• The successor of Catell as director of psychology laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania.
• Often regarded as the "little-know founder of clinical psychology".
• He founded the first psychological clinic in the US at the University of Pennsylvania..

Alfred Binet

• In the 1900s, Binet was tasked to develop test to screen schoolchildren with developmental disabilities in the Paris school.
• In 1905, Binet collaborated with Theodore Simon in creating the world's first formal test of intelligence and was called the Binet-Simon Scale.