Psychological Assessment

• Psychological Assessment


  The gathering and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a psychological evaluation that is accomplished through the use of tools such as tests, interviews, case studies, behavioral observation, and specially designed apparatuses and measurement procedures
• Psychological Testing


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


  Typically, to obtain some gauge, usually numerical in nature, with regard to an ability or attribute
• Assessment


  Typically, to answer a referral question, solve a problem, or arrive at a decision through the use of tools of evaluation
• Tester


  Not key to the process; practically speaking, one tester may be substituted for another tester without appreciably affecting the evaluation
• Assessor


  Key to the process of selecting tests and/or other tools of evaluation as well as in drawing conclusions from the entire evaluation
• Testing


  Typically requires technician-like skills in terms of administering and scoring a test as well as in interpreting a test result
• Assessment


  Typically requires an educated selection of tools of evaluation, skill in evaluation, and thoughtful organization and integration of data
• Testing


  Typically yields a test score or series of test scores
• Assessment


  Entails a logical problem-solving approach that brings to bear many sources of data designed to shed light on a referral question
• Psychological Assessment


  • Founded upon an objective, scientific and empirical approach to making justifiable and verifiable predictions about people, rather than being based on subjective opinion
  • Refers to the integration of information from multiple sources in order to describe, predict, explain, diagnose and make decisions
• Psychometrics


  Instruments which measure people's characteristics, having been subjected to standardization using scales which enable scores to be compared
• Items

  The tasks or questions in an assessment instrument
• Where an instrument has right/wrong items it is often referred to as a test; whilst others are better referred to as questionnaires or inventories
• It is important for those who make use of these instruments to do so in an ethical way and to adhere to codes of practice
• Tests and testing programs first came into being in China


  2200 B.C.E.
• Chinese testing


  • Used to select government job applicants
  • Tested proficiency in music, archery, horsemanship, writing, arithmetic, agriculture, geography, revenue, civil law, military strategy, rites and ceremonies, classical literature
• Passing the Chinese examinations could result in exemption from taxes or government interrogation by torture
• Han Dynasty in China develops test batteries


  206 B.C.E. to C.E.
• Ming Dynasty in China develops multistage testing


  1368 C.E. to 1644 C.E.
• English East India Company copies Chinese system to select employees for overseas duty

  1832
• The British government and the US government adapted the testing programs of China for the efficient employee selection for government jobs
• Charles Darwin's influence on early psychology


  • His principal thesis was that members of a species exhibit variability of characteristics and this variability results in some being better suited than others to any particular set of environmental conditions
• Francis Galton


  • Adopted the new scientific ideas which he thought could be proven only by careful enquiry and used his wealth to pursue this
  • Became obsessed with making all kinds of measurements of people in his research laboratory
  • More than 17,000 people paid for the privilege of providing measurements, such as height, weight, strength, rate of movement and reaction times
  • Discovered a number of statistical procedures to analyze data - for example he found that a wide range of measures of human physiology and abilities produce what is still referred to as a 'normal curve'
  • Considered by some the founder of psychometrics
  • Pioneered rating scales & questionnaires
  • First to document individuality of fingerprints
  • First to apply statistics in the measurement of humans
  • Founder of Eugenics
• Karl Pearson


  • Galton's student who was noted for saying: 'Have you ever attempted to conceive all there is in the measurement of a human being?'
• Francis Galton

  • First to emphasize the importance of individual differences
  • Created the first tests of mental ability
  • First to use questionnaires
  • Discovered statistical procedures to analyze data
  • Found that a wide range of measures of human physiology and abilities produce a 'normal curve'
  • Suggested the use of mean and standard deviation to describe measures of human attributes
  • Considered the founder of psychometrics
  • Pioneered rating scales & questionnaires
  • First to document individuality of fingerprints
  • First to apply statistics in the measurement of humans
  • Founder of Eugenics
• Karl Pearson

  • Galton's student
  • Contributed to the development of regression analysis and the correlation coefficient
  • Discovered the chi-square test of statistical significance
• James Mckeen Cattel


  • Coined the term "Mental test"
  • Developed tasks to measure reaction time, word association test, keenness of vision and weight discrimination
• Wilhelm Max Wundt


  • Founded the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig
  • Tried to formulate a general description of human abilities with respect to variables such as reaction time, perception, and attention span
  • Focused on how people were similar, not different
• Charles Spearman


  • Originated the concept of test reliability
  • Built the mathematical framework for the statistical technique of factor analysis
• Victor Henri


  • Collaborated with Alfred Binet on papers suggesting how mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes
• Emil Kraepelin


  • Early experimenter with the word association technique as a formal test
  • Influenced by experimental psychology, pioneered psychological testing with psychiatric patients
• E. B. Titchener


  • Succeeded Wundt, brought Structuralism to America
• Lightner Witmer


  • Cited as the "little-known founder of clinical psychology"
  • Founded the first psychological clinic in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania
  • Founded the journal Psychological Clinic
• Alfred Binet


  Published articles arguing for the measurement of abilities such as memory and social comprehension<|>Published a 30-item "measuring scale of intelligence" designed to help identify mentally retarded Paris schoolchildren - Binet-Simon Scale of 1905
• Lewis Terman


  Gave the first Stanford revision of the Binet-Simon scale in 1916
• David Wechsler


  Introduced a test designed to measure adult intelligence in 1939<|>Defined intelligence as "the aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment"<|>Originally named the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, later revised and renamed the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)
• Robert Yerkes


  • Convinced the U.S. government and the army that all of its recruits should be given intelligence tests for purposes of classification and assignment
  • Gave rise to the Army Alpha and the Army Beta examinations
• Army Alpha


  Required reading ability
• Army Beta


  Did not require reading ability