Psychological Assessment

• Psychological Testing


  Process of measuring psychology-related variables by means of devices or procedures designed to obtain a sample of behavior
• Psychological Testing


  • Numerical in nature
  • Individual or by group
  • Administrators can be interchangeable without affecting the evaluation
  • Requires technician-like skills in terms of administration and scoring
  • Yield a test score or series of test score
  • Minutes to few hours
• Psychological Assessment


  Gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making psychological evaluation
• Psychological Assessment


  • Answers referral question thru the use of different tools of evaluation
  • Individual
  • 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
• Types of Psychological 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
  • Remote: subject is not in physical proximity to the person conducting the evaluation
  • Ecological Momentary: "in the moment" evaluation of specific problems and related cognitive and behavioral variables at the very time and place that they occur
  • Collaborative: the assessor and assesee may work as "partners" from initial contact through final feedback
  • Therapeutic: therapeutic self-discovery and new understanding are encouraged
  • Dynamic: describe interactive approach to psychological assessment that usually follows the model: evaluation > intervention of some sort > evaluation
• Psychological Test


  Device or procedure designed to measure variables related to psychology
• Components of a Psychological Test

  • Content: subject matter
  • Format: form, plan, structure, arrangement, layout
  • Item: a specific stimulus to which a person responds overtly and this response is being scored or evaluated
  • Administration Procedures: one-to-one basis or group administration
  • 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 to performances
  • Cut-Score: reference point derived by judgement and used to divide a set of data into two or more classification
  • Psychometric Soundness: technical quality
  • Psychometrics: science of psychological measurement
  • Psychometrist or Psychometrician: refer to professional who uses, analyzes, and interprets psychological data
• Types of Psychological Tests

  • Ability or Maximal Performance Test
  • Typical Performance Test
  • Personality Test
• Ability or Maximal Performance Test


  Assess what a person can do
• Types of Ability or Maximal Performance Tests

  • Achievement Test: measurement of the previous learning
  • Aptitude: refers to the potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill
  • Intelligence: refers to a person's general potential to solve problems, adapt to changing environments, abstract thinking, and profit from experience
• Typical Performance Test


  Measure usual or habitual thoughts, feelings, and behavior
• Types of Personality Tests

  • Structured Personality tests: provide statement, usually self-report, and require the subject to choose between two or more alternative responses
  • Projective Personality Tests: unstructured, and the stimulus or response are ambiguous
  • Attitude Test: elicit personal beliefs and opinions
  • Interest Inventories: measures likes and dislikes as well as one's personality orientation towards the world of work
• Other Types of Tests

  • Speed Tests
  • Power Tests
  • Values Inventory
  • Trade Test
  • Neuropsychological Test
  • Norm-Referenced test
  • Criterion-Referenced Tests
• Interview


  Method of gathering information through direct communication involving reciprocal exchange
• Types of Interviews


  • Standardized/Structured: questions are prepared
  • Non-standardized/Unstructured: pursue relevant ideas in depth
  • Semi-Standardized/Focused: may probe further on specific number of questions
  • Non-Directive: subject is allowed to express his feelings without fear of disapproval
• Examples of Interviews


  • Mental Status Examination: determines the mental status of the patient
  • Intake Interview: determine why the client came for assessment; chance to inform the client about the policies, fees, and process involved
  • Social Case: biographical sketch of the client
  • Employment Interview: determine whether the candidate is suitable for hiring
  • 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
• Portfolio


  Samples of one's ability and accomplishment
• 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
• Examples of Case History Data

  • 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
• Types of Behavioral Observation

  • Naturalistic Observation: observe humans in natural setting
  • SORC Model: Stimulus, Organismic Valuables, Actual Response, Consequence
• Role Play


  Acting an improvised or partially improvised part in a stimulated situation
• Role Play Test


  Assesses are directed to act as if they are in a particular situation
• Other Assessment Tools


  • Computer
  • Physiological devices (biofeedback devices)
• Psychological Assessment Process


  • Determining the Referral Question
  • Acquiring Knowledge relating to the content of the problem
  • Data collection
  • Data Interpretation
• Hit Rate


  Accurately predicts success or failure
• Profile


  Narrative description, graph, table. Or other representations of the extent to which a person has demonstrated certain targeted characteristics as a result of the administration or application of tools of assessment
• Actuarial Assessment


  An approach to evaluation characterized by the application of empirically demonstrated statistical rules as determining factor in assessors' judgement and actions
• Mechanical Prediction


  Application of computer algorithms together with statistical rules and probabilities to generate findings and recommendations
• Extra-Test Behavior


  Observations made by an examiner regarding what the examinee does and how the examinee reacts during the course of testing that are indirectly related to the test's specific content but of possible significance to interpretation
• Parties in Psychological Assessment

  • Test Author/Developer
  • Test Publishers
  • Test Reviewers
  • Test Users
  • Test Takers
  • Test Sponsors
  • Society
• Test Battery


  Selection of tests and assessment procedures typically composed of tests designed to measure different variables but having a common objective
• Assumptions about Psychological Testing and Assessment

  • Psychological Traits and States Exist
  • Psychological Traits and States can be Quantified and Measured
  • Test-Related Behavior Predicts Non-Test-Related Behavior
  • Test and Other Measurement Techniques have strengths and weaknesses
  • Various Sources of Error are part of the Assessment Process
  • Testing and Assessment can be conducted in a Fair and Unbiased Manner
  • Testing and Assessment Benefit Society
• Trait


  Any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another
• State


  Characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving in a concrete situation at a specific moment in time
• Construct


  An informed, scientific concept developed or constructed to explain a behavior, inferred from overt behavior
• Overt Behavior


  An observable action or the product of an observable action
• Reliability


  Dependability or consistency of the instrument or scores obtained by the same person when re-examined with the same test on different occasions, or with different sets of equivalent items
• Classical Test Theory (True Score Theory)


  Score on a ability tests is presumed to reflect not only the testtaker's true score on the ability being measured but also the error
• Measurement Error


  All of the factors associated with the process of measuring some variable, other than the variable being measured