1 Introduction to Psychological Assessment

• Testing: The process of measuring psychology-related variables using devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior.
• Assessment: The gathering and integration of psychology-related data to make a psychological evaluation through tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation, and other methods.
• Collaborative Psychological Assessment: The assessor and assessee work as partners.
• Therapeutic Psychological Assessment: Therapeutic self-discovery is encouraged through the assessment process.
• Dynamic assessment is typically employed in educational settings but also may be used in corporate, neuropsychological, clinical, and other settings
• Dynamic Assessment: Evaluation - Intervention - Evaluation
• Test: A measurement device or technique used to quantify behavior or aid in the understanding and prediction of behavior
• Psychological test refers to a device or procedure designed to measure variables related to psychology.
• Content: The subject matter of the test. It depends on the theoretical orientation of test developers and the unique way in which they define the construct of interest.
• Format: The form, plan, structure, layout of test items, and other considerations (e.g., time limits).
• Administration: Tests may require certain tasks to be performed, trained observation of performance, or little involvement by the test administrators (e.g., self-report questionnaires).
• Scoring and Interpretation: Scoring of tests may be simple, such as summing responses to items, or may require more elaborate procedures.
• Cut Score: A reference point, usually numerical, used to divide data into two or more classifications (e.g., pass or fail).
• Technical Quality or Psychometric Soundness: Psychometrics is the science of psychological measurement. This depends on how consistently and accurately the test measures what it purports to measure.
• Achievement test : refers to previous learning
• Aptitude test: the potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill
• Intelligence tests: refers to a person’s general potential to solve problems, adapt to changing circumstances, think abstractly and benefit from experience.
• Personality tests: the tendency of a person to show a particular behavior in a given situation
• Structured personality tests: the subject has to choose between 2 or more alternative responses
• Projective personality tests: the stimulus or the required response are ambiguous.
• Psychological Assessment: The process psychologists use to collect and evaluate information in order to make diagnoses, plan treatment, and predict behavior
• The Portfolio: A file containing the products of one’s work. May serve as a sample of one’s abilities and accomplishments
• Case History Data: Information preserved in records, transcripts, or other forms.
• Behavioral Observation: Monitoring the actions of people through visual or electronic means
• Role-Play Tests: Assessees are directed to act as if they were in a particular situation. Useful in evaluating various skills.
• Computers as Tools: Computers can assist in test administration, scoring, and interpretation.
• Computer Assisted Psychological Assessment (CAPA) and Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) have allowed for tailor-made tests with built-in scoring and interpretive capabilities.
• Scoring may be done on-site (local processing) or at a central location (central processing).
• The test developer – tests are created for research studies, publication (as commercially available instruments), or as modifications of existing tests.
• The test user – Tests are used by a wide range of professionals
• The test-taker – Anyone who is the subject of an assessment or evaluation.
• Society at large – Test developers create tests to meet the needs of an evolving society.
• Other parties - Organizations, companies, and governmental agencies sponsor the development of tests.
• Educational settings: Students typically undergo school ability tests and achievement tests.
• Clinical settings: Includes hospitals, inpatient and outpatient clinics, private-practice consulting rooms, schools, and other institutions.
• Counseling settings: Includes schools, prisons, and governmental or privately owned institutions.
• Geriatric settings: Assessment primarily evaluates cognitive, psychological, adaptive, or other functioning. At issue is quality of life.
• Business and military settings: Decisions regarding careers of personnel are made with a variety of achievement, aptitude, interest, motivational, and other tests.
• Government and organizational credentialing: Includes governmental licensing, certification, or general credentialing of professionals (e.g. attorneys, physicians, and psychologists)
• Test catalogues - distributed by publishers of tests. Usually brief, and un-critical, descriptions of tests.