History of Testing in Counseling

• Testing, assessment, and diagnosis are integral to the counseling process at all stages.
• During the 1930s-1940s counseling and testing were synonymous and many centers were named 'Counseling and Testing Centers'.
• A counselor must understand procedures related to testing because counselors participate in testing, assessment and diagnosis
• Testing and assessment aim to create a standard of practice for assessment.
• Tests are usually analyzed from the perspectives of test developers, test users, and test takers

History of Tests in Counseling

• Present-day tests originated from the late 19th-century study of individual differences.
• Frank Parsons in 1909 advocated for vocational guidance based on formal assessment.
• During World War I, psychologists created paper-and-pencil intelligence tests for inductees.
• Pioneers like Arthur Otis, Robert Yerkes, Alfred Binet, Charles Spearman, Sir Francis Galton, and James M. Cattell contributed to testing.
• Vocational testing was emphasized in the 1930s due to the Great Depression.
• The University of Minnesota's Employment Stabilization Research Institute led the vocational testing movement to help the unemployed.
• In 1957, the USSR's Sputnik launch led to the U.S. Congress passing the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) to fund testing so talented students would continue education in sciences.
• The 1970s and 1980s brought increasing criticism of testing.
• The National Education Association (NEA, 1972) called for a moratorium on standardized intelligence, aptitude, and achievement tests.
• During the 1990s, assessment devices such as intelligence, achievement, substance abuse, and career inventories were commonly used with school-age children.
• Focus is often directed toward counsellor education on use/abuse of psychoeducational tests.

Tests and Test Scores

• A psychological test is an objective and standardized measure of behavior (Anastasi, 1982).
• Test scores are statistics that gain meaning when related to an individual.
• A score reflects behavior at a moment in time, which might not otherwise be obtained with a proportionally smaller investment of time and effort.
• To understand a test, counselors must know characteristics of its standardization sample, types and degree of its reliability and validity, reliability and validity of comparable tests, the scoring procedures, the method of administration, the limitations, and the strengths
• Thorough knowledge of a particular test can take years of study and practice.
• Counselors should use tests to the fullest extent possible to give test takers more specific information about their scores' meaning in their situation.
• Psychometrists specialize in the administration and interpretation of tests.
• Comparing a person's test scores to a norm-referenced group is known as psychometrics.
• Counsellors who test need to be well trained in good test practice

Problems and Potential of Using Tests

• Tests alone are of little value unless competent, well-educated counselors are available to interpret them.
• Testing instruments are employed and are interpreted, and how they are done creates problems.
• Major limitations:
  • Testing encourages client dependency.
  • Test data prejudice perception of an individual.
  • Test data are invalid/unreliable.
• Other criticisms:
  • Culturally biased and discriminatory.
  • Measure irrelevant skills.
  • Obscure talent.
  • Used mechanically.
  • Invade privacy.
  • Can be faked.
  • Foster undesirable competition.
  • Regressive.
  • Used for predictability rather than self-exploration.
• Tests with cultural minorities are a controversial area in testing.
• Primary Function: Help clients make better decisions about their futures.
• Tests may also:
  • Help clients gain self-understanding.
  • Help counselors decide if clients' needs are within their range of expertise.
  • Help counselors better understand clients.
  • Help counselors determine the best counseling methods.
  • Help counselors predict the future performance of clients.
  • Help counselors stimulate new interests.
  • Help counselors evaluate the outcome of counseling efforts.

Qualities of a Good Test

• Validity is the degree to which a test measures what it is supposed to measure (Gay, Mills, & Airasian, 2012).
• One determines the validity of a test by comparing its results with separate and independent criteria.
• Four types of validity: content, construct, criterion, and consequential.
• Content validity (face validity) indicates the degree to which a test appears to measure what it is supposed to measure
• Construct validity (fundamental validity) indicates what the test is really measuring
• Criterion validity is comparisons of test scores to a person's actual performance.
• Consequential validity are the social implications/consequences of test use.

Types of Validity

• Content (Face) Validity: Degree to which a test appears to measure what it is supposed to
• Construct Validity: Indicates what the test is really measuring
• Criterion Validity: Compares test scores to a person's actual performance
• Consequential Validity: Social Outcome

Reliability

• Reliability measures the consistency of test scores when people are retested.
• A test score may be reliable, but not valid.
• Determining reliability:
  • Test-retest
  • Parallel-form
  • Internal consistency analysis

Standardization and Norms

• Standardization refers to the uniform conditions under which a test is administered and scored (Cohen et al., 2013).
• Standardization makes comparison of individual successive scores better and allows comparison of individuals.
• Norms, or average performance scores, make comparisons of people more meaningful (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 2013).
• Test norms have their limitations and can be misused.
• Norms may discriminate against cultural minorities and disabled people when established on specific majority populations.
• Counsellors must examine norming procedures and establish their own local norms to minimize prejudice and inappropriate use.

Classification of Tests

• Standardized versus non-standardized
• Individual versus group
• Speed versus power
• Performance versus paper and pencil
• Objective versus subjective
• Maximum versus typical performance
• Norm versus criterion based

Intelligence/Aptitude Tests

• Intelligence tests include the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale and Wechsler scales.
• Wechsler scales yields verbal IQ, performance IQ, and full-scale IQ scores.
• Tests are used to examine linguistic and problem-solving capabilities.
• Aptitude tests tap a narrower range of ability and measure a person's ability to profit from training or experience.
• Aptitude tests have multi-aptitude batteries and component ability tests.

Interest/Career Tests

• An interest inventory assesses a person's preferences for activities and topics.
• The Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB) was published in 1927.
• The test has been revised to the Strong Interest Inventory (SII).
• SII test results are explained in three forms: General Occupational Themes, Basic Interest
• Scales, and Occupational Scales.
• It is linked to John Holland's theory of career development (RIASEC)
• Other well-known interest/career tests include the California Occupational Preference System, the Jackson Vocational Interest Survey, the Ohio Vocational Interest Survey, the Unisex Edition of the ACT Interest Inventory, and the Vocational Preference Inventory.

Personality

• Examines the biological, social, and environmental aspects of human beings.
• Such tests may be divided into two main categories: objective and projective.
• Objective tests yield scores that are independent of any opinion or judgment of the scorer.
• Projective tests yield measures that depend on the judgments and interpretations of scorers.
• Provide measures to those who may require a minimal amount of words
• Some of the best-known objective tests are: Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Edwards Personal Preference Schedule (EPPS).

Achievement Tests

• Achievement tests measure of an individual's degree of accomplishment in a subject or task (Cohen et al., 2013).
• Their results give clients a good idea of what they have learned in a certain area.
• Achievement tests may be either teacher made or standardized.
• School counselors must become knowledgeable about these instruments to converse intelligently with stakeholders.

Administration and Interpretation of Tests

• A major criticism of test use in counseling focuses on administration and interpretation
• Tests specify uniform procedures at each step, from room preparation to giving instructions.
• Advantages of involving test takers in test selection include the willingness of the tested population to accept test results, the promotion of independence, the value of the decision-making experience, etc.
• Four basic interpretations can be helpful to test takers: descriptive, genetic, predictive, and evaluative interpretation.
• Counsellors should be educated in test theory and construction.
• Scores are clues and should be seen as such.
• Test results should be interpreted on an as-needed basis.
• Clients should be prepared through establishment of rapport between counselor and client.
• Client feedback is promoted, and dialogue is encouraged.

Assessment

• Assessment supplements testing and includes processes of collecting information and measures of human behavior apart from test data.
• Cormier and Cormier (1998), assessment has six purposes including:
  • “To obtain information on a client's presenting problem
  • “To determine the client's goals/expectations
  • "To gather baseline data client progress" etc.
• Assessment can be obtained through formal and informal techniques including standardized tests, diagnostic interviews, projective personality measures, questionnaires, mental status examinations, checklists, behavioral observation, and reports by significant others.
• Conducting can be achieved through structured clinical interviews
• The mental status examination (MSE) is being increasingly used by counsellors in work settings.
• Provides counsellors with a format for organizing objective and subjective data by clients
• Overall, assessment is crucial because it allows counselors to determine what a client's problem is.
• Assessment then makes sense to the degree that it contributes to learning and to formulating interventions in counselling that work (Egan, 2014).