Psychology Assessment Reviewer PDF

BASIC CONCEPTS Some requirements for Psychological Assessment: Test is a measurement device or technique Requires in-depth experience in used to quantify behavior or aid in the psychology. unders...

BASIC CONCEPTS Some requirements for Psychological Assessment: Test is a measurement device or technique Requires in-depth experience in used to quantify behavior or aid in the psychology. understanding and prediction of behavior. Individual or one-on-one with the respondent. Item is a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly; this response can be TYPES OF TESTS scored or evaluated (e.g., classified, graded Ability (Maximal) is the measure of on a scale, or counted). maximal performance. ○ Achievement is a measure Scales provide numerical values to the of previous learning/mastery; item. crystallized intelligence. ○ Aptitude is a measure of Psychological test or educational test is a potential to learn or acquire set of items that are designed to measure skills. characteristics of human beings that pertain ○ Intelligence is the measure to behavior. of general ability to solve Overt behavior - observable problems, adapt to changes, activities think abstractly, and profit Covert behavior - activities that from experience; fluid cannot be directly observed; latent intelligence. or underlying. Personality (Typical) measures the overt and covert dispositions of an Psychological Testing is the process of individual measuring psychology-related variables ○ Projective (Subjective) - the using devices or procedures designed to response to the stimulus obtain a sample of behavior; gauging a (item) is ambiguous; heavily score. relies on the clinician’s Some requirements for Psychological education and experience. Testing: ○ Structured (Objective) - Technician-like skills. standardized tests: each item Reliable and valid. is the same to the clients; Individual or mass respondents. can be self-report/self-administered. Psychological Assessment is the integration of psychology-related data 3 COMPONENTS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL —both qualitative and TEST quantitative—measured through different 1. Test is composed of behavioral devices for the purpose of providing a samples. solution to a problem or response to a 2. Behavioral samples undergo referral. systematic procedure. Such as filtering items and empirical estimating.  3. Purpose of detecting differences between people; contrasted groups; Formative - is dependent on the target population matters. indicator and forms the construct's definition. Reflective - is the almost always DIFFERENCES IN PSYCH TESTING indicator and is dependent on the construct. Conten Ability Personality t ETHICS “DO'S AND DON'TS” Respo Open-ended Close-ended Code of Ethics nse 1. Competence Individual Group 2. Integrity Method of Idiographic Nomothetic data 3. Professional Scientific Admini data is based on the Clinician-Research stratio Most likely norms of the 4. Rights and Dignity qualitative. population. n 5. Concern for others welfare Most likely quantitative. 6. Social Responsibility Criterio Cut-off Norm-referenced PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS n Scoring Aligned with 75% = nomothetic data Systematic procedure for obtaining samples Refere nce passed of behavior, relevant to cognitive, affective, (30/50) or interpersonal functioning, and for scoring 29 and below and evaluating those samples according to failed standards. are simply behavior samples. Timing Speed test Power test Everything else is based on inferences often Have time No time limits / described as standardized for two reasons, limits / Same Difficulty is difficulty progressive both of which address the need for objectivity in the testing process. Indicat Formative Reflective ors (Causal) (Effect) I. The first has to do with uniformity of (Stimul The The construct construct’s creates indicators procedure in all important aspects of the us/test definition is based on its administration, scoring, and items/ dependent on definition. The interpretation of tests. “manife the indicator examinee’s st”) - The purpose of standardizing test response to the indicators are procedures is to make all the being reflected on variables that are under the control the construct of the administrator as uniform as measured. possible, so that everyone who takes the test will be taking it in a CONSTRUCT comparable way. Framework Models - Conceptual/Theoretical Framework Operational - Applied (Quantification) II. The second meaning of Battery - Group of several tests, or standardization concerns the use of subtests, that are administered at one time standards for evaluating test results. to one person. - These standards are most often norms derived from a group of PSYCHOLOGY TESTS AS TOOLS individuals-known as the normative or standardization sample in the process of developing the test. SCALE - A whole test made up of several parts. - A subset, or set of items within a test. - An array of subsets that share some common characteristics. - A separate instrument made up of items designed to evaluate a single PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT VS. characteristic. PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING - The numerical system used to rate The use of tests for making significant or to report value on some decisions about a person, a group, or a measured dimension. program should always take place within the context of psychological assessment. PSYCHOMETRICS - Psychological assessment is a - Scale has a more precise meaning. flexible, not standardized, process - Group of items that pertain to a aimed at reaching a defensible single variable and are arranged in determination concerning one or order of difficulty or intensity. more psychological issues or Scaling - Process of arriving at the questions, through the collection, sequencing of items. evaluation, and analysis of data appropriate to the purpose at hand. STEPS IN THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS MOST IMPORTANT STEP! - Identify its TEST USER QUALIFICATIONS goals as clearly and realistically as possible. APA Task Force on Test User - Without clearly defined objectives Qualifications that are agreed upon by the a. The core knowledge and skills. assessor and the person requesting b. The expertise that test users in the assessment, the process is not specific contexts. likely to be satisfactory. - Core or generic knowledge and skills - The process of assessment ends in psychometrics, statistics, test with a verbal or written report, selection, administration, scoring, communicating the conclusions that reporting, and safeguarding. have been reached to the persons - Additional knowledge and who requested the assessment, in a supervised experience required. comprehensible and useful manner. The professional conducting the assessment, usually a psychologist or a counselor, will need to employ her or his expertise at every step. - Appropriate selection of instruments. - Careful administration, scoring, interpretation. - Use of the data collected to make inferences about the question at hand. ESSENTIAL STATISTICS FOR TESTING MEASUREMENT - Involves the use of certain devices or rules for assigning numbers to objects or events. - If we apply this process systematically, then to a large extent, a phenomenon that is  measured is made more easily events to which the numbers are subject to confirmation and analysis, applied. and thus is made more objective. NOMINAL SCALES VARIABLES AND CONSTANTS - Variable - Simplest level of his classification. is anything that varies whereas a constant is - Derived from the Latin root nomen, anything that does not. meaning name. - Numbers are used solely as labels Discrete Variables - Are those with a finite to identify an individual or a class. range of values, or a potentially infinite, but - Numbers can also be used to label countable, range of values. categorical data. - Dichotomous Variables can - While the numbers used in nominal assume only two variables, such as scales can certainly be added, true-false or the outcome of coin subtracted, multiplied, or divided, the tosses. results of such operations are not - Polytomous Variables can assume meaningful. more than two variables, such as marital status, race, etc. ORDINAL SCALES Continuous Variables - Such as time, - In addition to identity, there is the distance, and temperature, on the other property of rank order: hand, have infinite ranges and really cannot Elements in a set can be lined up in be counted. a series, from lowest to highest or - Since our measuring instruments vice versa, arranged on the basis of can never be calibrated with enough a single variable. precision to measure continuous - Rank order numbers convey a variables exactly, the measurements precise meaning in terms of position, we take of such variables are more they carry no information with regard or less accurate approximations. to the distance between positions. In the behavioral sciences we must be Percentile rank scores - Are simply ordinal particularly aware of potential sources of numbers set on a scale of 100, so that the error and we should look for pertinent rank indicates the percentage of individuals estimates of error whenever we are in a group who fall at or below a given level presented with the results of any of performance. measurement process. Spearman's rho (rs) Correlation Coefficient / Kendall's Tau B - Used for THE MEANING OF NUMBERS establishing the relationship between Because numbers can be used in a variables expressed in terms of rank multitude of ways, S. S. Stevens devised a numbers, that are specifically appropriate system for classifying different levels of for use with ordinal data. measurement. - On the basis of the relationships INTERVAL SCALES between numbers and the objects or  - Also known as equal-unit scales, numbers acquire yet one more important property. - The difference between any two consecutive numbers reflects an equal empirical or demonstrable difference between the objects or events that the numbers represent CALENDAR = INTERVAL SCALE An example of this is the use of days to mark the passage of calendar time. - One day consists of 24 hours, each hour of 60 minutes, and each minute of 60 seconds calendar time in MEASURES OF CENTRAL TENDENCY months is not an equal-unit scale because some months are longer MEAN than others. - Or also called arithmetic average, - Calendar time also typifies a is obtained by summing all the characteristic of interval scales that values in a distribution and dividing limits the meaning of the numbers the total by the number of cases in used in them, namely, that there is the distribution. no true zero point. - In spite of this, and of the fact that it is the measure of central tendency - The distances between numbers are most influenced by extreme scores, meaningful. Thus, we can apply the mean has many desirable most arithmetical operations to those properties that make it the most numbers and get results that make widely used central tendency sense. indicator for quantitative variables. - However, because of the arbitrariness of the zero points, the MEDIAN numbers in an interval scale cannot - Iis the value that divides a be interpreted in terms of ratios. distribution that has been arranged in order of magnitude into two RATIO SCALES halves. - Numbers achieve the property of - If the number of values (n) in the additivity, which means they can be distribution is odd, the median is added, as well as subtracted, simply the middle value; if n is even, multiplied, and divided and the result the median is the midpoint between expressed as a ratio, all with the two middle values. meaningful results. - Have a true or absolute zero point. MODE - Or the most frequently occurring value in a distribution, is useful  primarily when dealing with qualitative or categorical variables. - Strictly speaking, there can be only one mode or if there is no variability in a distribution, no mode at all. - However, if two or more values in a distribution are tied with the same maximum frequency, the distribution is said to be bimodal or multimodal. - Describe how much dispersion, or scatter, there is in a set of data. RANGE - The distance between two extreme points-the highest and lowest values in a distribution. - Even though the range is easily computed, it is a very unstable measure as it can change drastically due to the presence of one or two MEASURES OF VARIABILITY extreme scores. VARIANCE SEMI-INTERQUARTILE RANGE - Is the sum of the squared - Is one half of the interquartile range differences or deviations between (IQR), which, in turn, is the distance each value (X) in a distribution and between the points that demarcate the mean of that distribution (M), the tops of the first and third quarters divided by n. of a distribution. - More succinctly, the variance is the - The first quartile point (Q1), or 25th average of the sum of squares (SS). percentile, marks the top of the lowest quarter (quartile) of the STANDARD DEVIATION distribution. The third quartile point - Is the square root of the variance. (Q3), or 75th percentile, is at the top - It is the quintessential measure of of the third quarter of the distribution variability for testing as well as many and marks the beginning of the top other purposes and is useful in a quartile. variety of statistical manipulations. - The interquartile range is the range between QI and Q3, therefore, it encompasses the middle 50% of a distribution.  serve an important role in inferential statistics. Properties of Normal Curve - Bell-shaped. - Bilaterally symmetrical, which means its two halves are identical (if we split the curve into two, each half contains 50% of the area under the curve). - Asymptotic has tails that approach but never touch the baseline, and thus its limits extend to ± infinity (±), - Without individual differences there a property that underscores the would be no variability and tests theoretical and mathematical nature would be useless in helping us to of the curve. make determinations or decisions - Unimodal, that is, it has a single about people. point of maximum frequency or - All other things being equal, the maximum height. greater the amount of variability - Has a mean, median, and mode that there is among individuals, in coincide at the center of the whatever characteristic we are distribution because the point where attempting to assess, the more the curve is in perfect balance, accurately we can make the which is the mean, is also the point distinctions that need to be made that divides the curve into two equal among them. halves, which is the median, and the most frequent value, which is the THE NORMAL CURVE MODEL mode. The normal curve is also known as the bell - Involves two constant elements (ㅠ curve. and e) and two values that can vary. - Like all ideal models, the normal - The two values that can vary are the curve does not exist; it is based on mean, designated as μ, and the probability theory. standard deviation, designated as σ. - Fortunately, for our purposes, one - When the normal curve has a mean can understand the basic facts about of zero and a standard deviation of I, the normal curve without knowing it is called the standard normal much about its mathematical bases. distribution. - The similarity between the model - In a normal curve, the standard and the distributions of many deviation or o units are positioned at variables in the natural world has equal distances along the X-axis, at made it useful in descriptive points that mark the inflections of the statistics. curve itself (i.e., the points where the - It is this connection to probability curve changes direction). theory that makes the normal curve  the population parameter and the standard deviation of the sampling distribution would be the standard error of the statistic in question. - The standard error (SE) of a obtained sample statistic is thus conceived of as the standard deviation of the sampling distribution Descriptive Use that would result if we obtained the - When a distribution approximates same statistic from a large number but does not exactly match the of randomly drawn samples of equal normal curve, we can still use the size. proportions within the normal curve model to normalize scores. - Normalizing scores involves transforming them so that they have the same meaning, in terms of their position, as if they came from a normal distribution. - This procedure, which is not as complicated as it may appear, makes use of the cumulative percentages computed from a frequency distribution. Inferential Use ESTIMATING POPULATION - In inferential statistics the normal PARAMETERS curve model can be useful for (a) We use inferential statistics to estimate the estimating population parameters population mean. and (b) testing hypotheses about - We find the standard error of the differences. mean (SEM) with the formula, where - Applications of the normal curve s is the standard deviation of the model to the estimation of population sample and n is the number of cases parameters and to hypothesis in the sample. testing make use of two interrelated notions, namely, sampling distributions and standard errors. - Sampling distributions are hypothetical, as opposed to real, distributions of values predicated on the assumption that an infinite number of samples of a given size could be drawn from a population. - The mean of each hypothetical sampling distribution would equal KURTOSIS This rather odd term, which stems from the Greek word for convexity, simply refers to the flatness or steepness of a distribution. - Kurtosis is directly related to the amount of dispersion in a distribution. - Platykurtic distributions have the greatest amount of dispersion, manifested in tails that are more extended. - Leptokurtic distributions have the least amount of dispersion. - The normal distribution is mesokurtic, meaning that it has an intermediate degree of dispersion.