Psychological Assessment

• Testing and Assessment

  1905: Alfred Binet published a test designed to help place Paris school children in appropriate classes
• Testing – refer to everythingꟷfrom administration of test to interpretation of the test scores

  Once used to describe the group of screening individuals of thousands of military recruits

  In many psychological evaluation contexts, conducting an assessment requires greater education, training and skill than simply administering a test, professsionals
• Psychological Assessment – gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making psychological evaluation
•  Psychological Testing – process of measuring psychology-related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior
• Tests are usually numerical in nature and can be administered individually or by group.
• The assessor is the key to the process of selecting tests and/or other tools of evaluation.
• Testing requires an educated selection of tools of evaluation, skill in evaluation, and thoughtful organization and integration of data.
• Testing entails logical problem-solving that brings to bear many sources of data assigned to answer the referral question.
• Test administrators can be interchangeable without affecting the evaluation.
• Testing requires technician-like skills in terms of administration and scoring.
• Tests yield a test score or a series of test scores.
• Assessment

  Answers the referral question through the use of different tools of evaluation

  Administered individually

  Assessor is the key to the process of selecting tests and/or other tools of evaluation

  Requires an educated selection of tools of evaluation, skill in evaluation, and thoughtful organization and integration of data

  Entails logical problem-solving that brings to bear many sources of data assigned to answer the referral question
• Varieties of Assessment

  Educational – evaluate abilities and skills relevant in school context
•  Retrospective – draw conclusions about psychological aspects of a person as they existed at some point in time prior to the assessment

  -past events, actions and decisions to analyze what to improve
• Remote – subject is not in physical proximity to the person conducting the evaluation

         - evaluating something from a distance often using technology
• Ecological Momentary – “in the moment” evaluation of specific problems and related cognitive and behavioral variables at the very time and place that they occur

  Process of Assessment

         - to gather accurate in-the-moment information for research or self-reflection
• Process of Assessment

         - to gather accurate in-the-moment information for research or self-reflection

  Begins with referral

  Clarify aspects of the reason for referral

  Selecting the tools of assessment to be used

  Formal Assessment

  Report of the Findings

         - to answer the referral question

   
• Collaborative Psychological Assessment– the assessor and assesee may work as “partners” from initial contact through final feedback
• Therapeutic Psychological Assessment – therapeutic self-discovery and new understanding are encouraged
• Dynamic Assessment - describe interactive approach to psychological assessment that usually follows the model: evaluation > intervention of some sort > evaluation
• Dynamic – interactive, changing or varying nature

  typically employed in educational settings

  • provides a means for evaluating how the assessee processes or benefits from some type of intervention (feedback, hints, instruction, therapy, and so forth) during the course of evaluation

  -way of measuring not just learning but “learning potential”, or “learning how to learn” skills
• Tools of Psychological Assessment

   Test – measuring device or procedure
• Psychological Test – device or procedure designed to measure variables related to psychology
• Format – form, plan, structure, arrangement, layout

  -form in which a test is administered: computerized, pencil-and-paper, or some other form
• Administration Procedures

  – one-to-one basis active and knowledgeable test administrator

  • group administration- test takers independently complete required task
• Score – code or summary of statement, usually but not necessarily numerical in nature, but reflects an evaluation of performance on a test
• Scoring – the process of assigning scores evaluative codes or statements to performance
• Cut-Score – reference point derived by judgement and used to divide a set of data into two or more classification
• Psychometric Soundness – technical quality

  • technically reliable and valid
• Psychometrics – science of psychological measurement
• Psychometrist and Psychometrician – refer to professional who uses, analyzes, and interprets psychological data
• Utility - usefulness or practical value that a test or other tool of assessment has for a particular purpose

   
• Tools of Psychological Assessment

  Interview - method of gathering information through direct communication involving reciprocal exchange
• Panel Interview (Board Interview) – more than one interviewer participates in the assessment
• Motivational Interview – used by counselors and clinicians to gather information about some problematic behavior, while simultaneously attempting to address it therapeutically

        - therapeutic dialogue that combines person-centered listening skills such as openness and empathy with the use of cognition-altering techniques designed to positively affect motivation and effect therapeutic change
• Case History Data – refers to records, transcripts, and other accounts in written, pictorial, or other form that preserve archival information, official and informal accounts, and other data and items relevant to an assessee
•  Case study – a report or illustrative account concerning a person or an event that was compiled on the basis of case history data
• Groupthink – result of the varied forces that drive decision-makers to reach a consensus
• Behavioral Observation – monitoring of actions of others or oneself by visual or electronic means while recording quantitative and/or qualitative information regarding those actions
• Naturalistic Observation – observe humans in natural setting