Legal Cases & Laws in Psychological Assessment PDF

Legal Cases & Laws in Psychological Assessment These cases and laws address discrimination, testing fairness, confidentiality, and ethical standards in psychology and education. ​ Albemarle Paper Company v. Moody (1975) – Strengthened requirements for job-related tests under Title VII of...

Legal Cases & Laws in Psychological Assessment These cases and laws address discrimination, testing fairness, confidentiality, and ethical standards in psychology and education. ​ Albemarle Paper Company v. Moody (1975) – Strengthened requirements for job-related tests under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, ensuring they are valid and nondiscriminatory. ​ Debra P. v. Turlington (1981) – Addressed minimum competency testing in schools, ruling that tests must be fair and not discriminatory. ​ Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971) – Established the disparate impact doctrine, ruling that employment tests must be job-related and non-discriminatory. ​ Hobson v. Hansen (1967) – Challenged tracking systems in schools, arguing that IQ tests unfairly placed minority students in lower educational tracks. ​ Jaffee v. Redmond (1996) – Established therapist-client privilege in federal courts, ensuring confidentiality in psychological treatment. ​ Larry P. v. Riles (1979, 1986) – Prohibited the use of IQ tests to place African American students in special education classes in California due to racial bias. ​ Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (1976) – Established the duty to warn principle, requiring psychologists to warn potential victims of a client’s threats. ​ Truth-in-Testing Legislation – Ensures test-takers have access to information about standardized tests, including scoring and purpose. ​ Public Law 105-17 (IDEA 1997) – Reauthorized the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), ensuring free and appropriate education for students with disabilities. ​ HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996) – Protects patients' privacy and security in healthcare, including psychological records. 2. Ethical Principles & Testing Guidelines ​ Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education – Provides ethical guidelines for test use in education to ensure fairness and accuracy. ​ Code of Professional Ethics – Governs the ethical responsibilities of psychologists, including confidentiality, informed consent, and assessment integrity. ​ Privacy Right – The legal and ethical protection of individuals' personal information, especially in psychological testing and treatment. ​ Privileged Information – Legal protection of confidential communications between a psychologist and a client. 4. Key Figures in Psychology & Psychological Assessment ​ Alfred Binet – Developed the first intelligence test, which later influenced modern IQ tests.  ​ James McKeen Cattell – Pioneer in psychological measurement and introduced the term "mental test." ​ Charles Darwin – His theory of evolution influenced psychological studies on individual differences. ​ Francis Galton – A cousin of Darwin, he studied intelligence and founded eugenics. ​ Henry H. Goddard – Advocated for intelligence testing in education and the classification of individuals with intellectual disabilities. eugenics advocate coinde the term moron ​ Christiana D. Morgan & Henry A. Murray – Developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a projective test measuring personality. ​ Karl Pearson – Statistician known for developing the correlation coefficient, essential in psychometrics. ​ Hermann Rorschach – Created the Rorschach Inkblot Test, a projective test for personality assessment. ​ David Wechsler – Developed the Wechsler intelligence scales (WAIS, WISC) widely used in intelligence testing. ​ Lightner Witmer – Founded the first psychological clinic and introduced the concept of clinical psychology. ​ Robert S. Woodworth – Created the Woodworth Personal Data Sheet, one of the first personality tests. ​ Wilhelm Wundt – The father of experimental psychology; established the first psychology lab. Affirmative Action: Voluntary and mandatory efforts undertaken by federal, state, and local governments, private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and to promote equal opportunity in education and employment for all, 59 Code Of Professional Ethics: A body of guidelines that sets forth the standard of care expected of members of a profession, 60 Confidentiality: The ethical obligation of professionals to keep confidential all communications made or entrusted to them in confidence, although professionals may be compelled to disclose such confidential communications under court order or other extraordinary conditions, such as when such communications refer to a third party in imminent danger; contrast with privacy right. Culture: The socially transmitted behavior patterns, beliefs, and products of work of a particular population, community, or group of people, 47 Culture-Specific Tests: Are tests designed for the use with people from one culture but not from another, 52 Disparate Impact: The consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that unintentionally. Disparate Treatment: The consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that was intentionally devised to yield some discriminatory result or outcome; contrast with disparate impact, 6 Ethics: A body of principles of right, proper, or good conduct; contrast with laws, 60 Eugenics: The science of improving qualities of a breed through intervention with factors related to heredity, 50 HIPAA(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act): A U.S. law designed to protect individuals' medical records and personal health information. Hired Gun: A professional, often in law or business, who is paid to aggressively advocate for a client, sometimes regardless of ethics. Individualist Culture: A culture in which value is placed on traits such as autonomy, self-reliance, independence, uniqueness, and competitiveness, 55 Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997), 62, 355 Infant Intelligence Test, 369 Informed Consent: Permission to proceed with a (typically) diagnostic, evaluative, or therapeutic service on the basis of knowledge about the service and its risks and potential benefits, 74–76 Laws: Rules that individuals must obey because they are deemed to be good for society as a whole; contrast with ethics, 6 Litigation: Law resulting from the court-mediated resolution of legal matters of a civil, criminal, or administrative nature, also referred to as “judge-made law,” 66– Minimum Competency Testing Programs: Formal evaluation program in basic skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic designed to aid in educational decision-making that ranges from remediation to graduation, 63 ODDA Privacy Right: The freedom of people to choose the time, circumstances, and extent to which they wish to share or withhold from others personal beliefs, opinions, and behavior; contrast with confidentiality, 7 Privileged Information: Data protected by law from disclosure in a legal proceeding; typically, exceptions to privilege are also noted in law; contrast with confidential information, 76 Psychoanalysis: A theory of personality and psychological treatment originally. Quota System: A selection procedure whereby a fixed number or percentage of applicants with certain characteristics or from certain backgrounds are selected regardless of other factors such as documented ability, 64 Self-Report: The process wherein an assessee supplies personal information in forms such as responding to questions, keeping a diary, or reporting on self-monitored thoughts and/or Sputnik(1957) – The Soviet satellite launch led to major educational reforms in the U.S., including increased emphasis on IQ testing and STEM education. Standard Of Care: The level at which the average, reasonable, and prudent professional would provide diagnostic or therapeutic services under the same or similar conditions, 60 Truth-In-Testing Legislation: Which gives test takers a way to learn the criteria by which they are being judged, 63 The Right of Testtakers 1.​ The right to informed consent 2.​ The right to be informed in test findings 3.​ The right to privacy and confidentiality 4.​ The right to least stigmatizing label