History of Psychological Assessment PDF

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT Malleus Malificarum - The witches’ hammer Why study the history of Psychological Testing? - A manual written by the monks, stipulating Helps explain testing that may...

HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT Malleus Malificarum - The witches’ hammer Why study the history of Psychological Testing? - A manual written by the monks, stipulating Helps explain testing that may seem arbitrary or the strategies & techniques to see if a peculiar person is a witch or is possessed Strengths & limitations of a test stand out better when viewed in historical context Zeitgist – “spirit of the times” Serves to remind us to be cautious and not over zealous in the application of psychological tests and its results Ancient China (2200 BC) - The roots of psychological testing - A system of competitive examinations were Before Common Era developed to select meritorius individuals for government positions PLATO - The Chinese emperor had his officials tested to - A nativist student of Socrates establish their suitability for office every 3rd year - Believed that a person is endowed with - Proficiency in endeavors such as music, psychological characteristics / traits / archery, horsemanship, writing and artihmetic attributes given by the gods, which can be were examined measured through body phrenology - Also important were subjects such as agriculture, geography, revenue, civil law, and These measurements determine what work is military strategy best suited for an individual: Han Dynasty (202 BC – 200 AD) Head – reasoning (leader/teacher) - Written exams were introduced Chest – courageousness (soldier) Torso – appetite, passion, motivations Europe Renaissance ARISTOTLE - Published a short treatise based on the RENE DESCARTES premise that the soul and the body - A rationalist who emphasized thinking “symphatize” with each other - Has lots of contributions in philosophy & science Physiognomy – the notion that we can - Focuses on the “how” judge the inner character of people from their outward appearance Doubting – the basic foundation of the scientific method; the key to thinking and knowing FRANZ JOSEPH GALL - The brain is the organ of sentiments and faculties JOHN LOCKE - The skull conforms to the shape of the - An empiricist brain, a cranial “bump” would signify an - Methods based on concrete sensory enlargement of the underlying faculty experiences Phrenology - A more specialized form of quackery Dark Ages - Reading bumps on the head - No scientific progression - Any psychological-related issues are dictated by the Church Rise of Western Ideas thousands of individuals and families WILHELM WUNDT - Father of psychology - Established the first experimental JAMES MCKEEN CATTELL psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany - Mentored by Wundt & Galton - Believed that the speed of thought could - Brought the Galtonian Test back to the USA vary among individuals - Coined the term mental test Thought Meter – a calibrated pendulum Mental Test – a series of tests that were which measures the speed of thought by being administered annually to college identifying the position of the bells sounds students in the effort to determine their intellectual level HERMANN EBBINGHAUS - Studied learning and memory CLARK WISSLER - Proponent of the learning & forgetting - Redirected experimental psychology, curve moving away from the use of brass - Administered tests of arithmetic instruments computation, memory span, and - Proposed the idea to take the galtonian sentence completion to school-children test and administer it to a group of students - Used standardized instruments (calibrated to correlate their scores (mental test measures) in a controlled environment scores) with their grade point average - “The more repitition, the higher the retention” “If there is no repetition, Goal: To demonstrate that the test results forgetting is manifested” could predict academic performance Findings: No relationship between the SIR FRANCIS GALTON obtained mental test scores and GWA of - Father of psychological testing students. The galtonian test does not - Obsessed with measurements measure intelligence. - Attempted to measure intellect by means of reaction time & sensory discrimination - Explored and quantified individual ALFRED BINET differences between people - Invented the 1st modern intelligence test - Wrote a book entitled, Inquiries into Human (1904) Faculty and its Development (1883) - In 1905, was appointed to a commission - Showed how objective exams might be charged with devising a method for created and how standardized methods evaluating children who, due to mental could yield meaningful results retardation or other developmental delays, could not profit from regular classes Intellectual Ability – a function of the in the public school system and would keenness of one’s senses in perceiving and require special education discriminating stimuli (Galtonian Test) Binet-Simon Scale (1905) In order to investigate the notion - Binet & Theodore Simon that intellectual gifts tend to run in - The 1st useful instrument for the families, he set up a lab where he measurement of general cognitive collected data on a number of abilities or global intelligence physical and physiological - Consisted of 30-item measuring scale of characteristics− arm span, height, intelligence designed to help identify weight, vital capacity, strength of mentally retarded Paris schoolchildren grip, and sensory acuity− on  - Varied in content and difficulty, - First to distinguish mental illness and mental designed mostly to assess judgment retardation and reasoning ability Mental - Abrupt onset in adulthood Questions dealing with vocabulary, Illness - Might show improvement comprehension, differences between pairs of concepts, - Lifelong developmental phen. Mental repeating series of numbers, - Incurable intellectual defect Retardation following directions, completing - Present from birth/early infancy fragmentary text passages, drawing - Suggested that the ability to use language is the most dependable criterion for establishing a person’s level of functioning LEWIS M. TERMAN - A professor from Stanford University Levels of Mental Retardation: - Popularized IQ testing with his substantial 1. Uses short phrases revision of the Binet-Simon scales 2. Uses monosyllables 3. Cries only, no speech (the worst) Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale (1916) - The most famous revision of the Binet- GODDARD ESQUIROL Simon scales Moron Educable (can go to school) - Became the standard for intelligence testing Trainable (can go to school Imbecile - The number of items was increased to w/ assistance) 90 - The IQ or ratio between mental age Idiot Custodial (24/7 assistance) and chronological age was first used According to DSM V, the term mental retardation is no longer used, it is now DAVID WESCHLER called Intellectual Disability. - In 1939, designed a test to measure adult intelligence Diagnosing with intellectual disability will - Tried to solve the problem of psychological be based on adaptive functioning in testing which is its dependence on social, conceptual, & practical skills. language - Developed new nonverbal parts to go along with the verbal parts of the test EDOUARD SEGUIN - Devised a better way of integrating age - A student of Esquirol into the scoring of intelligence tests - Helped establish a new humanism toward those with mental retardation - Pioneered in the training of the mentally HENRY H. GODDARD retarded - First translated the Binet scales in the USA - In 1837, he established the first school - Hired to do research on the classification & devoted to the education of mentally education of feebleminded children retarded children Idiots – 0 to 2 yo (0-25 IQ) Imbeciles – 3 to 7 yo (26-50 IQ) Development of Nonverbal Tests Morons – 7 to 12 yo (51-70 IQ) - A new measuring device - Not entirely appropriate for non-English speaking subjects, and those with JEAN-ETIENNE DOMINIQUE ESQUIROL speech & hearing impairments - Worked closely with psychiatric patients  1. Seguin Form Board – trains people w/ a. Factor Analysis mental retardation; the individual is b. Absence of practical application for required to insert variously shaped such refined instruments blocks into the corresponding recesses as quickly as possible Personality Test 2. Knox’s Cube Test – a test on short-term - Concerned with the affective or non- memory intellectual aspects of behavior - Measures of such characteristics as emotional 3. Mazes adjustment, interpersonal relations, motivation, interests, and attitudes 4. Block Design – measure of abstract reasoning; ability to breakdown a designs & synthesize it again. ROBERT S. WOODWORTH - Was assigned the task of developing a measure of adjustment and emotional ROBERT M. YERKES stability that could be administered quickly - Developed a group test of intelligence and efficiently to groups of recruits that could be efficiently administered to all recruits going into the US Army, to help in Personal Data Sheet (P-D Sheet) making personnel assignments - The prototype of the personality questionnaire Group Testing - A questionnaire developed during WW1 - The military’s need for an efficient to screen recruits who might suffer from method of screening the intellectual mental illnesses and who would be unfit ability of WW1 recruits for military service - Consisted of 116 statements dealing Army Alpha with common neurotic symptoms to - Designed for general routine which the respondent answered simply testing yes or no - Administered to recruits who have English as their first Ex.: Are you troubled with the idea that language and those who had people are watching you on the street? schooling - Consisted of 8 subtests measuring verbal, numerical, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory and reasoning abilities, as well - By Hathaway & McKinley, 1940 as practical judgment and - The most successful objective general info personality inventory - Introduced the use of validity scales to Army Beta identify fake and random responses - A supposedly equivalent test - Has built-in features that can detect if a that did not require reading person is lying - Used with recruits who were illiterate or non-English speaking LOUIS LEON THURSTONE - Authored inventory of neurosis - Believed that intelligence comprises Aptitude Test several different mental abilities - Measures more specialized and defined - Created tests to measure various factors of abilities intelligence and determine what are the - Its development lagged intelligence test due to intellectual strengths of a person 2 key reasons: Development of Interest Inventories are typically asked to tell a story - Designed to assess a person’s areas of interest about the picture they are shown. to help identify their suitable job - Guidance and counseling The stories told are then analyzed in terms of what needs and EDWARD K. STRONG motivations the respondents may - Designed SVIB be projecting onto the ambiguous pictures. Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB, 1927) - One of the most widely used interest inventories Thematic Apperception Test - A tool used to measure individuals' - Morgan & Murray interests and compare them to those of - Tests the entire continuum of human people working in various occupations behavior JOHN HOLLAND Philippine Psychology Act of 2009 (R.A. 10029) - Holland’s Theory, which helps you choose - An act to regulate the practice of psychology a career or education program that fits - Recognizes the importance of psychologists, your personality and interests their functions and services - Aims to protect the public by preventing inexperienced or untrained individuals from HERMANN RORSCHACH offering psychological services - Focused on the tendency of patients to reveal their innermost conflicts unconsciously - Published a test consisting of 10 inkblots to be presented for interpretation, one at a time, to the examinee (Rorschach Inkblot Test) Projective Test – an individual is assumed to “project” onto some ambiguous stimulus (inkblot, drawing, photograph) his or her own unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivation Projective Techniques - Orginated from Galton’s word association method, Freud’s therapeutic tool in psychoanalysis - Represents a 3rd approach to the study of personality - The subject is given a relatively unstructured task that permits wide latitude in its solution Ex. Drawing, arranging toys to create a scence, extemporaneous dramatic play, interpreting pictures or inkblots When pictures or photos are used as projective stimuli, respondents