*CHAPTER 1: PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
AND ASSESSMENT
 -Roots can be found in early twentieth
century in France 1905
 -Alfred Binet published a test designed to
help place Paris school
children
- WW1, military used the test to screen large
numbers of recruits
quickly for intellectual and emotional problems
 -WW2, military depend more on tests to
screen recruits for service
*PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
DEFINITION
-Gathering & integration of psychology-related
data for the purpose of making a psychological
evaluation with accompany of tools.
-Process of measuring psychology-related
variables by means of devices/procedures
designed to obtain a sample of behavior
*OBJECTIVE
-To answer a referral question,solve problem or
arrive at a decision thru the use of tools of
evaluation
-To obtain some gauge, usually numerical in
nature
*PROCESS
-Typically individualizedTesting may be
individualized or group
*ROLE OF
EVALUATOR
-Key in the process of selecting tests as well as
in drawing conclusions
-Tester is not key into the process; may be
substituted
*SKILL OF
EVALUATIOR
Typically requires an educated selection, skill
in evaluation
-Requires technician-like skills
*OUTCOME
-Entail logical problem-solvingapproach to
answer the referral ques.
-Typically yields a test score
*3 FORMS OF ASSESSMENT:
1. COLLABORATIVE PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT – assessor and
assesse work as partners from initial contact
through final feedback
2. THERAPEUTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT – self-discovery and
new understandings are encouraged throughout
the assessment
process
3. DYNAMIC PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT – follows a model (a)
evaluation (b) intervention (a) evaluation. -
Provide a means for
evaluating how the assesse processes or
benefits from some type of
intervention during the course of evaluation.
Tools of Psychological Assessment
A. The Test (a measuring device or procedure)
1. psychological test: a device or procedure
designed to measure
variables related to psychology (intelligence,
personality,
aptitude, interests, attitudes, or values)
2. format: refers to the form, plan, structure,
arrangement, and
layout of test items as well as to related
considerations such as
time limits.
a) also referred to as the form in which a test is
administered (pen and paper, computer, etc)
Computers can generate scenerios.
b) term is also used to denote the form or
structure of
other evaluative tools, and processes, such as
the
guidelines for creating a portfolio work sample
3. Ways That tests differ from one another:
a) administrative procedures
(1) some test administers have an active
knowledge
(a) some test administration
involves demonstration of
tasks
(b) usually one-on-one
(c) trained observation of
assessee’s performance
2) some test administers don’t even have to
be present
(a) usually administered to larger
groups
(b) test takers complete tasks
independently
b) Scoring and interpretation procedures
(1) score: a code or summary statement,
usually (but not necessarily) numerical in
nature, that reflects an evaluation of
performance on a test, task, interview, or
some other sample of behavior
(2) scoring: process of assigning such
evaluative codes/ statements to
performance on tests, tasks, interviews,
or other behavior samples.
(3) different types of score:
(a) cut score: reference point, usually numerical,
derived by judgement and used to divide a set of
data into two or more classifications.
(i) sometimes reached without any formal
method: in order to “eyeball”, teachers
who decide what is passing and what is
failing.
(4) who scores it
(a) self-scored by testtaker
(b) computer
(c) trained examiner
c) psychometric soundness/ technical quality
(1) psychometrics:the science of
psychological measurement.(a) referring to to how
consistently and how accurately a psychological
test measures what it purports to
measure.
(2) utility: refers to the usefulness or
practical value that a test or other tool of
assessment has for a particular purpose.
B. The Interview: method of gathering
information through direct
communication involving reciprocal exchange
1. interviewer in face-to-face is taking note of
a) verbal language
b) nonverbal language
(1) body language movements
(2) facial expressions in response to interviewer
(3) the extent of eye contact
(4) apparent willingness to cooperate
c) how they are dressed
(1) neat vs sloppy vs inappropriate
2. interviewer over the phone taking note of
a) changes in the interviewee’s voice pitch
b) long pauses
c) signs of emotion in response
3. ways that interviews differ:
a) length, purpose, and nature.
b) in order to help make diagnostic, treatment,
selection, etc
4. panel interview
a) an interview conducted with one interviewee
with
more than one interviewer
C. The Portfolio
1. files of work products: paper, canvas, film, video,
audio, etc
2. samples of ones abilities and accomplishments
D. Case History Data: 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 assessee
1. sheds light on an individual's past and current
adjustment as well as on events and circumstances
that may have contributed to any changes in
adjustment
2. provides information about neuropsychological
functioning prior to the occurrence of a trauma or
other event that results
in a deficit.
3. insight into current academic and behavioral
standing
4. useful in making judgments for future class
placements
5. Case history Study: a report or illustrative
account concerning
person or an event that was compiled on the basis
of case history data
a) might shed light on how one individual’s
personality
and particular set of environmental conditions
combined to produce a successful world leader.
b) groupthink: work on a social psychological
phenomenon: contains rich case history material on
collective decision making that did not always
result
in the best decisions.
E. Behavioral Observation: monitoring the
actions of others or oneself by
visual or electronic means while recording
quantitative and/or qualitative
information regarding those actions.
1. often used as a diagnostic aid in various settings:
inpatient
facilities, behavioral research laboratories,
classrooms.
2. naturalistic observation: behavioral observation
that takes
place in a naturally occurring setting (as opposed to
a research
laboratory) for the purpose of evaluation and
information-
gathering.
3. in practice tends to be used most frequently by
researchers in
settings such as classrooms, clinics, prisons, etc.
F. Role- Play Tests
1. role play: acting an improvised or partially
improvised part in a
simulated situation.
2. role-play test: tool of assessment wherein
assessees are
directed to act as if they were in a particular
situation. Assessees
are then evaluated with regard to their expressed
thoughts, behaviors, abilities, etc
G. Computers as tools
1. local processing: on site computerized scoring,
interpretation, or other conversion of raw test data;
contrast w/ CP and teleprocessing
2. central processing: computerized scoring,
interpretation, or other conversion of raw data that
is physically transported from the same or other test
sites; contrast w/ LP and teleprocessing.
3. teleprocessing: computerized scoring,
interpretation, or other conversion of raw test data
sent over telephone lines by modem from a test site
to a central location for computer processing.
contrast with CP and LP
4. simple score report: a type of scoring report that
provides only a listing of scores
5. extended scoring report: a type of scoring report
that provides a listing of scores AND statistical
data.
ff. interpretive report: a formal or official
computer-generated
account of test performance presented in both
numeric and
narrative form and including an explanation of the
findings;
a) the three varieties of interpretive report are
(1) descriptive
(2) screening
(3) consultative
b) some contain relatively little interpretation and
simply call attention to certain high, low, or unusual
scores that needed to be focused on.
c) consultative report: A type of interpretive report
designed to provide expert and detailed analysis of
test data that mimics the work of an expert
consultant.
d) integrative report: a form of interpretive report of
psychological assessment, usually computer-
generated, in which data from behavioral, medical,
administrative, and/or other sources are integrated
7. CAPA: computer assisted psychological
assessment. (assistance to the test user not the test
taker)
a) enables test developers to create
psychometrically
sound tests using complex mathematical procedures
and calculations.
b) enables test users the construction of tailor-made
test with built-in scoring and interpretive
capabilities.
c) Pros:
(1) test administrators have greater access to
potential test users because of the global
reach of the internet.
(2) scoring and interpretation of test data
tend to be quicker than for paper-and-
pencil tests
(3) costs associated with internet testing tend to be
lower than costs associated with
paper-and-pencil tests
(4) the internet facilitates the testing of otherwise
isolated populations, as well as people with
disabilities for whom getting to a test center might
prove as a hardship.
(5) greener: conserves paper, shipping materials etc.
d) Cons:
(1) test client integrity
(a) refers to the verification of the identity of the
test taker when a test is administered online
(b) also refers to the sometimes varying interests of
the test taker vs that of the test administrator. The
test taker might have access to notes, aids, internet
resources etc.
(c) internet testing is only testing, not assessment
8. CAT: computerized adaptive testing: an
interactive, computer- administered test taking
process wherein items presented to the test taker are
based in part on the test taker's performance on
previous items
a) EX: on a computerized test of academic abilities,
the computer might be programmed to switch from
testing math skills to English skills after three
consecutive failures on math items.
H. Other tools
1. DVD- how would you respond to the events that
take place in the video
a) sexual harassment in the workplace
b) respond to various types of emergencies
c) diagnosis/treatment plan for clients on videotape
2. thermometers, biofeedback, etc
TEST DEVELOPER
 They are the one who create tests.
 They conceive, prepare, and develop tests. They
also find a way to
disseminate their tests, by publishing them either
commercially or
through professional publications such as books or
periodicals.
TEST USER
 They select or decide to take a specific test off
the shelf and use it for
some purpose. They may also participate in other
roles, e.g., as
examiners or scorers.
TEST TAKER
 Anyone who is the subject of an assessment
 Test taker may vary on a continuum with respect
to numerous
variables including:
o The amount of anxiety they experience & the
degree to
which the test anxiety might affect the results
o The extent to which they understand & agree with
the
rationale of the assessment
o Their capacity & willingness to cooperate
o Amount of physical pain/emotional distress they
are
experiencing
o Amount of physical discomfort
o Extent to which they are alert & wide awake
o Extent to which they are predisposed to agreeing
or
disagreeing when presented with stimulus
o The extent to which they have received prior
coaching
o May attribute to portraying themselves in a good
light
 Psychological autopsy – reconstruction of a
deceased individual’s
psychological profile on the basis of archival
records, artifacts, &
interviews previously conducted with the deceased
assesee
TYPES OF SETTINGS
 EDUCATIONAL SETTING
o achievement test: evaluation of accomplishments
or the
degree of learning that has taken place, usually with
regard to an academic area.
o diagnosis: a description or conclusion reached on
the basis
of evidence and opinion though a process of
distinguishing
the nature of something and ruling out alternative
conclusions.
o diagnostic test: a tool used to make a diagnosis,
usually to
identify areas of deficit to be targeted for
intervention
o informal evaluation: A typically non systematic,
relatively
brief, and “off the record” assessment leading to the
formation of an opinion or attitude, conducted by
any person in any way for any reason, in an
unofficial context and not subject to the same ethics
or standards as evaluation by a professiomal
 CLINICAL SETTING
o these tools are used to help screen for or diagnose
behavior problems
o group testing is used primarily for screening:
identifying
those individuals who require further diagnostic
evaluation.
 description of the test
COUNSELING SETTING
o schools,prisons, and governmental or privately
owned institutions
o ultimate objective: the improvement of the
assessee in terms of adjustment, productivity, or
some related variable.
GERIATRIC SETTING
o quality of life: in psychological assesment, an
evaluation of variables such as perceived
stress,lonliness, sources of satisfaction, personal
values, quality of living conditions, and quality of
friendships and other social support.
 BUSINESS AND MILITARY SETTINGS
 GOVERNMENTAL AND
ORGANIZATIONAL CREDENTIALING
How are Assessments Conducted?
 protocol: the form or sheet or booklet on which a
tes ttaker’s responses are entered.
o term might also be used to refer to a description
of a set of test- or assessment- related procedures,
as in the sentence, “the examiner dutifully followed
the complete protocol for the stress interview”
 rapport: working relationship between the
examiner and the examinee
ASSESSEMENT OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITITES
 Define who requires alternate assessement, how
such assessment are to be conducted and how
meaningful inferences are to be drawn from the
data derived from such assessment
 Accommodation – adaptation of a test, procedure
or situation or the
substitution of one test for another to make the
assessment more suitable for an assesee with
exceptional needs.
 Translate it into Braillee and administere in that
form.
 Alternate assessment – evaluative or diagnostic
procedure or process
that varies from the usual, customary, or
standardized way a
measurement is derived either by virtue of some
special accommodation made to the assesee by
means of alternative methods
 Consider these four variables on which of many
different types of
accommodation should be employed:
o The capabilities of the assesse
o The purpose of the assessment
o The meaning attached to test scores
o The capabilities of the assessor
REFERENCE SOURCES
 TEST CATALOUGES – contains brief
 TEST MANUALS – detailed information
 REFERENCE VOLUMES – one stop
shopping, provides detailed information for each
test listed, including test publisher, author, purpose,
intended test population and test administration
time
 JOURNAL ARTICLES – contain reviews of
the test
 ONLINE DATABASES – most widely used
bibliographic databases
TYPES OF TESTS
 INDIVIDUAL TEST – those given to only one
person at a time
 GROUP TEST – administered to more than one
person at a time by single examiner
 ABILITY TESTS:
o ACHIEVEMENT TESTS – refers to previous
learning (ex. Spelling)
o APTITUDE/PROGNOSTIC – refers to the
potential for learning or acquiring a specific skill
o INTELLIGENCE TESTS – refers to a person’s
general potential to solve problems
 PERSONALITY TESTS: refers to overt and
covert dispositions
o OBJECTIVE/STRUCTURED TESTS –
usually self-report, require the subject to choose
between two or more alternative responses
o PROJECTIVE/UNSTRUCTURED TESTS –
refers to all possible uses, applications and
underlying concepts of psychological and
educational test
CHAPTER 2: HISTORICAL, CULTURAL
AND LEGAL/ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE19TH
CENTURY
 Tests and testing programs first came into being
in China
 Testing was instituted as a means of selecting
who, of many applicants would obtain government
jobs (Civil service)
 The job applicants are tested on proficiency in
endeavors such as
music, archery, knowledge and skill etc.
GRECO-ROMAN WRITINGS (Middle Ages)
 World of evilness
 Deficiency in some bodily fluid as a factor
believed to influence personality
 Hippocrates and Galen
RENAISSANCE
 Christian von Wolff – anticipated psychology
as a science and
psychological measurement as a specialty within
that science
CHARLES DARWIN AND INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES
 Tests designed to measure these individual
differences in ability and personality among people
 “Origin of Species” chance variation in species
would be selected or rejected by nature according to
adaptivity and survival value.“survival of the
fittest”
FRANCIS GALTON
 Explore and quantify individual differences
between people.
 Classify people “according to their natural gifts”
 Displayed the first anthropometric laboratory
KARL PEARSON
 Developed the product moment correlation
technique.
 His work can be traced directly from Galton
WILHEM MAX WUNDT
 First experimental psychology laboratory in
University of Leipzig
 Focuses more on relating to how people were
similar, not different
from each other.
JAMES MCKEEN CATELL
 Individual differences in reaction time
 Coined the term mental test
CHARLES SPEARMAN
 Originating the concept of test reliability as well
as building the mathematical framework for the
statistical technique of factor analysis
VICTOR HENRI
 Frenchman who collaborated with Binet on
papers suggesting how mental tests could be used to
measure higher mental processes
EMIL KRAEPELIN
 Early experimenter of word association
technique as a formal test
LIGHTNER WITMER
 “Little known founder of clinical psychology”
 Founded the first psychological clinic in the U.S.
PSYCHE CATELL
 Daughter of James Cattell
 Cattel Infant Intelligence Scale (CIIS) &
Measurement of Intelligence in
Infants and Young Children
RAYMOND CATTELL
 Believed in lexical approach to defining
personality which examines
human languages for descriptors of personality
dimensions
20thCENTURY
- Birth of the first formal tests of intelligence
- Testing shifted to be of more understandable
relevance/meaning
A. THE MEASUREMENT OF
INTELLIGENCE
o Binet created first intelligence to test to identify
mentally retarded school children in Paris
(individual)
o Binet-Simon Test has been revised over again
o Group intelligence tests emerged with need to
screen intellect of WWI recruits
o David Wechsler – designed a test to measure
adult intelligence test for him Intelligence is a
global capacity of the individual to act
purposefully, to think rationally and to deal
effectively with his environment.
 Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale 
Wechsler Adult Intelligence Test – was revised
several times and extended the age range of
testakers from young children through senior
adulthood.
B. THE MEASUREMENT OF PERSONALITY
o Field of psychology was being too test oriented
o Clinical psychology was synonymous to mental
testing
o ROBERT WOODWORTH – develop a measure
of adjustment and emotional stability that could be
administered quickly and efficiently to groups of
recruits
 To disguise the true purpose of the test,
questionnaire was labeled as Personal Data
Sheet
 He called it Woodworth Psychoneurotic
Inventory – first widely used self-report test of
personality
o Self-report test:
 Advantages:
 Respondents best qualified
 Disadvantages:
 Poor insight into self
 One might honestly believe something about self
that isn’t true
 Unwillingness to report seemingly negative
qualities
o Projective test: individual is assumed to project
onto some
ambiguous stimulus (inkblot, photo, etc.) his or her
own
unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivations
 Ex.) Rorschack inkblot
o C. THE ACADEMIC AND APPLIED
TRADITIONS
Culture and Assessment
Culture: ‘the socially transmitted behavior patterns,
beliefs, and products of work f a particular
population, community, or group of people’
Evolving Interest in Culture-Related Issues
Goddard tested immigrants and found most to
be feebleminded
-invalid; overestimated mental deficiency, even in
native English-speakers
Lead to nature-nurture debate about what
intelligence tests actually measure
Needed to “isolate” the cultural variable
Culture-specific tests: tests designed for use with
ppl from one culture, but not from another-
minorities still scored abnormally low
ex.) loaf of bread vs. tortillas
today tests undergo many steps to ensure its
suitable for said nation
-take testtakers reactions into account
Some Issues Regarding Culture and Assessment
 Verbal Communication
o Examiner and examinee must speak the same
language
o Especially tricky with infrequently used
vocabulary or
unusual idioms employed
o Translator may lose nuances of translation or give
unintentional hints toward more desirable answer
o Also requires understanding of culture
 Nonverbal Communication and Behavior
o Different between cultures
o Ex.) meaning of not making eye contact
o Body movement could even have physical cause
o Psychoanalysis: Freud’s theory of personality and
psychological treatment which stated that symbolic
significance is assigned to many nonverbal acts.
o Timing tests in cultures not obsessed with speed
o Lack of speaking could be reverence for elders
 Standards of Evaluation
o Acceptable roles for women differ throughout
culture
o “judgments as to who might be the best
employee,
manager, or leader may differ as a function of
culture, as
might judgments regarding intelligence, wisdom,
courage,
and other psychological variables”
o must ask ‘how appropriate are the norms or other
standards that will be used to make this evaluation’
Tests and Group Membership
 ex.) must be 5’4” to be police officer- excludes
cultures with short
stature
 ex.) Jewish lifestyle not well suited for corporate
America
 affirmative action: voluntary and mandatory
efforts to combat
discrimination and promote equal opportunity in
education and employment for all Psychology,
tests, and public policy
Legal and Ethical Condiseration
Code of professional ethics: defines the standard
of care expected of members of a given profession.
The Concerns of the Public
 Beginning in world war I, fear that tests were
only testing the ability to take tests
 Legislation
o Minimum competency testing programs: formal
testing programs designed to be used in decisions
regarding various aspects of students’ educations
o Truth-in-testing legislation: state laws to provide
testtakers with a means of learning the criteria by
which they are being judged
 Litigation
o Daubert ruling made federal judges the
gatekeepers to determining what expert testimony is
admitted
o This overrode the Frye policy which only
admitted scientific testimony that had won general
acceptance in the scientific community.
The Concerns of the Profession
 Test-user qualifications
o Who should be allowed to use psych tests
o Level A: tests or aids that can adequately be
administered,
scored, and interpreted with the aid of the manual
and a general orientation to the kind of institution or
organization in which one is working
o Level B: tests or aids that require some technical
knowledge of test construction and use and of
supporting
psychological and educational fields
o Level C: tests and aids requiring substantial
understanding of testing and supporting psych
fields with experience
 Testing people with disabilities
o Difficulty in transforming the test into a form that
can be taken by testtaker
o Transferring responses to be scorable
o Meaningfully interpreting the test data
 Computerized test administration, scoring, and
interpretation
o simple, convenient
o easily copied, duplicated
o insufficient research to compare it to pencil-and-
paper versions
o value of computer interpretation is questionable
o unprofessional, unregulated “psychological
testing” online
The Rights of Testtakers
 the right of informed consent
o right to know why they are being evaluated, how
test datam will be used and what information will
be released to whom
o may be obtained by parent or legal representative
o must be in written form:
 general purpose of the testing
 the specific reason it is being undertaken
 general type of instruments to be administered
o revealing this information before the test can
contaminate the results
o deception only used if absolutely necessary
o don’t use deception if it will cause emotional
distress/
o fully debrief participants
 The right to be informed of test findings
o Formerly test administrators told to give
participants only positive information
o No realistic information is required
o Tell test takers as little as possible about the
nature of their performance on a particular test. So
that the examinee would leave the test session
feeling pleased and statisfied.
o Test takers have the right also to know what
recommendations are being made as a consequence
of the test data
 The right to privacy and confidentiality
o Private right: “recognizes the freedom of the
individual to pick and choose for himself the time,
circumstances, and particularly the extent to which
he wishes to share or withhold from others his
attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, and opinions”
o Privileged information: information protected
by law from being disclosed in legal proceeding.
Protects clients
from disclosure in judicial proceedings. Privilege
belongs to
the client not the psychologist.
o Confidentiality: concerns matters of
communication outside the courtroom
 Safekeeping of test data: It is not a good policy
to maintain all records in perpetuity
 The right to the least stigmatizing label
o The standards advise that the least stigmatizing
labels should always be assigned when reporting
test results.