Psychological Testing and Assessment PDF

Psychological Testing and Assessment I. Overview A. Historical Foundations B. Culture and Assessment C. Legal and Ethical Considerations D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖Antiquity to the 19th Century China - Pr...

Psychological Testing and Assessment I. Overview A. Historical Foundations B. Culture and Assessment C. Legal and Ethical Considerations D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖Antiquity to the 19th Century China - Proficiency testing of public officials (2200 BC) every 3rd year. Civil service examination began during Chan Dynasty (1115 BC-1905). Music, archery, horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, ceremonies, civil law, military affairs, agriculture, revenue and geography. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖Antiquity to the 19th Century Influenced by teachings of Confucius about striving for self-perfection. Greco-Roman writings proposed various physiological bases for personality and temperament. Middle ages – attempts to answer diagnostic questions of critical importance to society. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖Antiquity to the 19th Century Renaissance – measurement in the modern sense began to emerge. 18th century – Christian von Wolff anticipated Psychology as a science and psychological measurement as a specialty within that science. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century  Charles Darwin’s (1859) Theory of Evolution gave way to scientific interest in individual differences.  Francis Galton(1869), half cousin of Darwin, classified people according to their natural gifts and ascertain their deviation from an average. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century  Galton devised contemporary tools of psychological assessment including questionnaires, rating scales and self-report inventories.  Galton pioneered the coefficient of correlation through experiments on heredity.  Karl Pearson-developed product-moment correlation technique. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century  Wilhelm Max Wundt-founder of 1st experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.  Wundt focused on similarities of people based on human abilities such as reaction time, perception and attention span. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century  James Mckeen Cattell, student of Wundt, coined the term mental test.  Cattell was influenced by Galton in determining individual differences.  Charles Spearman, student of Wundt, was credited for test of reliability and factor analysis. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century  VictorHenri and Alfred Binet, students of Wundt, suggested how mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes.  Emil Kraepelin, student of Wundt, experimented with word association technique as a formal test. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖19th Century Lightner Witmer, student of Wundt, was cited as the “little-known founder of Clinical Psychology” Witmer founded the journal Psychological Clinic. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖20th Century-Measure of Intelligence Early 1900s-birth of the 1st formal tests of intelligence. Alfred Binet and Victor Henri- measurement of abilities such as memory and social comprehension. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖20th Century-Measure of Intelligence Binet and Theodore Simon-30-item intelligence scale designed to identify mentally retarded schoolchildren. David Wechsler-test to measure adult intelligence (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-WAIS) I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖20th Century-Measure of Personality  Robert Woodworth, during WW1, developed a measure of adjustment and emotional stability to groups of recruits.  Woodworth Psychoneurotic Inventory was developed as self-report test of personality. I. Overview – A. Historical Foundation ❖20th Century-Measure of Personality Hermann Rorschach developed the best-known projective test using inkblot designs. Henry Murray and Christiana Morgan developed projective test using pictures. I. Overview – B. Culture and Assessment ❖Culture The socially transmitted behavior patterns, beliefs and product of works of a particular population, community, or group of people. (Cohen, 1994) I. Overview – B. Culture and Assessment ❖Evolving Interest in Culture- Related Issues Henry Goddard (1913) raised questions about how meaningful tests are when used with people from various cultural and language backgrounds. Culture-specific tests I. Overview –B. Culture and Assessment ❖Issues Regarding Culture and Assessment  Verbal Communication- conflict between the assessor’s and assessee’s spoken language; conflict in the language of the written form test and the assessee’s primary language; conflict in translation of test items. I. Overview – B. Culture and Assessment ❖Issues Regarding Culture and Assessment Nonverbal communication and behavior-conflict on interpretations of nonverbal behavior. Standards of Evaluation-psychological traits are culturally relative to societal standards. I. Overview – B. Culture and Assessment ❖Tests and Group Membership Affirmative action- creates equal opportunity with neutral regard to ethnicity or gender. Psychology, tests and public policy- protection from misuse of data and information relative to the results. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖Laws  Rules that individuals must obey for the good of the society. ❖Ethics  Body of principles of right, proper or good conduct. ❖Code of Professional Ethics  Standard of care expected of members of that profession. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖The Concerns of the Public  “The Abuse of Tests” (Haney, 1981) ❖The Concern of the Profession 1. Test-user qualifications  Levels of Tests: -Level A: Achievement and proficiency tests -Level B: Aptitude, adjustment inventories applicable to normal population. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖The Concern of the Profession  Levels of Tests: -Level C: Projective and individual mental tests  Psychologists licensing law by APA (1987)  American Board of Assessment Psychology (1993) I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖The Concern of the Profession 2. Testing people with disabilities  Difficulties in: -transforming test into form that can be taken by the testtaker. -transforming responses of testtaker so to be scoreable. -meaningfully interpreting test data. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖The Concern of the Profession 3. Computer-Assisted Psychological Assessment (CAPA) Issues regarding CAPA: -Access to test administration, scoring and interpretation software. -Comparability of pencil-and –paper and computerized versions of test. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖The Concern of the Profession Issues regarding CAPA: -The value of computerized interpretations. -Unprofessional, unregulated “Psychological testing” online. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖Rights of Testtakers  Right of informed consent -consent from the testtaker. -written consent from parent or legal representative of incapable testtakers. -There are situations in which it is deemed advisable not to obtain dully informed consent to evaluation, professional discretion is in order. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖Rights of Testtakers  Right to be informed of test findings -disclose results in language that testtakers can understand. -entitled to know recommendations. -information of the purpose of the test, meaning of the scores, limitations and margins of error. -professional should answer questions. I. Overview – C. Legal and Ethical Considerations ❖Rights of Testtakers  Right to privacy and confidentiality -privilege of the client. -client can direct psychologist to disclose information to some 3rd party (attorney or insurance carrier). -psychologist may ethically disclose information if it can prevent harm.  Right to the least stigmatizing label I. Overview – D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests ❖Psychological Testing  Process of measuring psychology-related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain sample of behavior. ❖Psychological Assessment  Gathering and integration of psychology – related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation, through tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation and specially designed apparatuses and procedures. I. Overview – D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests ❖Tools of Psychological Assessment  The test (administration, scoring, interpretation)  The interview  The portfolio (work sample)  Case history data (records, transcripts, written, pictorial, media, archival information, official and informal accounts)  Behavioral observation (experimental/laboratory and naturalistic observation)  Role-play tests  Computers  Others (videos, thermometers, biofeedback, etc. I. Overview – D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests ❖Uses of Psychological Tests  Education -school ability tests -achievement tests -diagnostic tests -informal evaluation  Geriatric -assess cognitive, psychological, adaptive, or other functioning of elderly. I. Overview – D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests ❖Uses of Psychological Tests Counseling Clinicaland Health Business and military Governmental and organizational credentializing Legal/court related expert testimonies I. Overview – D. Nature and Uses of Psychological Tests ❖Specific Uses of Psychological Tests Assessment Setting goals Determining intervention Reviewing progress Closure  Key Differences TESTING ASSESSMENT O answer a referral question, solve a problem, To obtain some gauge, usually numerical in nature, OBJECTIVE or arrive at a decision through the use of tools with regard to an ability or attribute of evaluation Assessment is typically individualized. In contrast to testing, assessment more typically PROCESS Testing may be individual or group in nature focuses on how an individual processes rather than simply the results of that processing The assessor is key to the process of selecting The tester is not key to the process; practically ROLE OF tests and/or other tools of evaluation as well as speaking, one tester may be substituted for another EVALUATOR in drawing conclusions from the entire tester without appreciably affecting the evaluation evaluation Assessment typically requires an educated Testing typically requires technician-like skills in SKILL OF selection of tools of evaluation, skill in terms of administering and scoring a test as well as EVALUATOR evaluation, and thoughtful organization and in interpreting a test result integration of data Assessment entails a logical problem-solving Testing yields a test score or series of test approach that brings to bear many sources of OUTCOME Scores data designed to shed light on a referral question  Terms & Definitions  Psychological Assessment  The gathering and integrating of psychological data for psychological evaluation, through the use of tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation, and specially designed apparatuses and measurement procedures  Terms & Definitions  Psychological Testing  The measuring of psychology-related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain samples of behavior  Terms & Definitions  Psychological Construct  An informed, scientific idea developed or generated to describe or explain behavior  Intelligence  Personality  Anxiety  Job satisfaction  Assumption that constructs can be measured  Terms & Definitions  Contrast Tests & Assessment  Contrast Measurement & Evaluation  Tests as Tools  Terms & Definitions  Psychometrics  The science of psychological measurement  Psychometric Quality  Norms  Reliability  Validity Some Assumptions about Psychological Testing  Assumption 1 Psychological Traits and States Exist Trait - “any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another” (Guilford, 1959, p.6) States - distinguish one person from another but are relatively less enduring (Chaplin et al., 1988)  Assumption 2 Psychological Traits and States Can Be Quantified and Measured Having acknowledged that psychological traits and states do exist, the specific traits and states to be measured and quantified need to be carefully defined.  Assumption 3 Test-Related Behavior Predicts Non-Test- Related Behavior In practice, tests have been proven to be good predictors of some types of behaviors and not-so-good predictors of other types of behaviors. For example, tests have not proven to be as good at predicting violence as had been hoped. Why do you think it is so difficult to predict violence by means of a test?  Assumption 4 Tests and Other Measurement Techniques Have Strengths and Weaknesses This may sound quite common-sensical, and it probably is. Yet this deceptively simple assumption - that test users know the tests they use and are aware of the tests’ limitations - is emphasized repeatedly in the codes of ethics of association of assessment professionals.  Assumption 5 Various Sources of Error Are Part of the Assessment Process Because error is a variable that must be taken account of in any assessment, we often speak of error variance, that is, the component of a test score attributable to sources other than the trait or ability measured.  Assumption 6 Testing and Assessment Can Be Conducted in a Fair and Unbiased Manner Do you believe that testing can be conducted in a fair and unbiased manner? If we had to pick the one of these seven assumptions that is more controversial than the remaining six, this one is it.  Assumption 7 Testing and Assessment Benefit Society How else might a world without tests or other assessment procedures be different from the world today?