1

Challenges that a clinical psychologist might encounter when;

Helen Gichia 19/03688

Ann Kariuki 14/02562

Ruth Mutindi 21/01009

Elizabeth Lanya 20/05002

Department of Psychology, KCA University

ACP 308: Psychological Testing and Assessment

Mr. Owino

November 13, 2021

 2

Discuss challenges a clinical psychologist might encounter when;

Testing elderly clients (those above 65 years) using a paper and pencil test

The elderly are people who are aging, this occurs due to the accumulation of diverse

deleterious changes occurring in cells and tissues with advancing age that are responsible for

increasing risk of disease and death. Older adults may experience reduced mobility, chronic pain,

frailty, dementia, bereavement and drop in social economic status due to retirement and may be

having regrets for the live they have lived (D’Onofio & Sancario, 2018)

Due to the changes in the body system and cells, the elderly suffers from diseases like

arthritis, which causes intense pain of the joints and sometimes causing deformity of the joints of

the hands and toes, this may make the elderly to have a bad handwriting or not write at all and

also not be able to walk, or may require to use a wheelchair or walking stick, this makes their

movement from the house to other places quite difficult.

The elderly also suffers from dementia due to old age, as such that their memory is not

good, some may even forget their family members or even where they live, whether they have

eaten or not, whether they have taken medication or not thus it becomes difficult to know if what

they are saying is the truth or not. Alzheimer disease occurs in some elderly people, causing to

lose memory and cannot think clearly or make decision this is due to aging of the brain cells, the

elderly may be easily irritable, not able to read or write and not in touch with the world.

Due to aging, the elderly may have loss of hearing, such that one has to shout when

talking to them, or if the hearing is lost completely, then they will need to be given hearing aids

in order to hear what one is saying. Also one may lose sight due to age or because of lifestyle

diseases like hypertension or diabetes, this puts the elderly at a risk of developing poor eyesight
 3

and thus one may not be able to see well or may need eye glasses and in some extreme cases of

diabetes the elderly may lose sight completely and have to use a guide to walk around.

Some of the elderly may be regretting how they lived their life and are not happy about it

and are filled with despair, for example if a person was an alcoholic, and they spent all their

money on drinking alcohol and not taking care of their children, at an old age, this person may be

filled with guilt, remorse and even depressed because of the way they lived their life and may

even wish to die and in some cases the elderly has committed suicide. Where an individual has

lived their life well, they feel proud, and are happy for what they have achieved as they continue

mentoring the young and are satisfied with what they did in life.

The paper and pencil test, involves an individual writing using their hands, has to answer

questions, or filling in a questionnaire or may require to draw. This kind of tests are

psychological tests like personality inventories, draw a person test, intelligence test or response

inventories like for checking self-esteem. This tests require the individual doing the test, to listen

and follow instructions from the clinical psychologist, then the individual should either draw or

answer questions as per according to the questionnaire and finish according to the time that is set

by the psychologist.

The elderly may have a challenge of doing this test because due to old age, the elderly

may not hear properly the instructions given and thus they may not do what is required for the

test or may even do their own things because they were not able to clearly hear the instructions

from the clinical psychologist. Also the clinical psychologist may also require to shout so that the

elderly can hear what they are saying, and sometimes the psychologist has to repeat again and

again so that the elderly can follow the instruction, this may distract other people who are not

doing the test due to the shouting

 4

The elderly may suffer from loss of sight, and not be able to see clearly, therefore they

may not be able to read the questionnaire, and be able to answer appropriately, and if they are

drawing they may not even have proper diagrams, and in severe cases where there is complete

loss of sight, the elderly may not even do this test of paper and pencil, and in some cases the

elderly may not be in a position to the psychologist they cannot see but will just keep quiet and

wait for you to discover

Due to memory loss, the elderly may easily forget the instructions you have given them,

and has to either keep on repeating the instructions, this makes them to use even more time than

what is expected as per the test being done, or the elderly will end up doing their own things and

in the end you will find that they have not followed the laid down guideline for that test,

therefore the ends up being not valid or reliable.

The changes in the nerves and joints, leading to joint deformities or even arthritis, may

make the elderly not to write properly or clearly such that the speed of writing may be slow thus

the test will be done for a longer period, or writing could be untidy or not clear so the

psychologist is not able to read properly what is written, this hands may also be painful and thus

make the elderly feel tortured and this may make them more irritable and may refuse to co-

operate with the clinical psychologist

Also due to reduce mobility, the elderly client may not want to leave the home

environment and if it necessary for them to see a clinical psychologist, the appointment should

be done as quick as possible to avoid the elderly getting tired, or suffer more pain due to

walking, and this case asking them to write is could cause them more pain to their already

deformed hands due to age and arthritis.

 5

Some of the elderly could be regretting how they lived, so they may be suffering from

depression and have anger towards themselves and other people, such that when the clinical

psychologists asks them to draw or answer questions in a questionnaire, they may refuse, or

assume they have not heard, or verbally abuse the psychologist in some cases become irritable

and violent and may end up harming the people around them or the clinical psychologist.

It is therefore important for the clinical psychologist to assess the client, know the age of

the client, observe the client and decide the best tool to use for a particular client. If it is an

elderly client then the clinical psychologist may opt for other tools of psychological assessment

like clinical interview, observation and self-monitoring.

 6

Testing clients from minority cultures using a psychology test developed by a British

testing company

It is of importance when embarking on psychological test that the test maker will be

sensitive of cultural diversity. Research shows cultural factors can influence a client’s response

to the test items this is because it can be biased to some cultures depending on their beliefs and

the level of exposure that some people may be having. The modern clinician need to put this

diversity into consideration since most of the test makers are of the American origin and it can

make the test be complicated for the patients from other cultures.

It is also important that before one administers the test they should have some knowledge

about the test taker and their diversity, their origin, level of education and if they come from a

minority culture. Clinician test may need to use interpreter (Wester Meyer, 1990) or may need to

conduct family interviews and Psychological tests may need modification. (Marsella, 1989).

The American Psychologist Association (1993) guidelines acknowledge the necessary of

assessing individuals in the context of their ethnicity and culture, evaluating patients in their

primary language. The association’s guidelines stresses on both patients and clinician beliefs and

the development of cultural competent skills (sue et al.1992)

The challenges involved is that most test items experiences are of a certain culture

therefore other cultures may not be well acquainted with information that may be in it. Where by

the items on the test and its vocabulary could be beyond their understanding.

The test makers assume that we all share the same background therefore they don’t add

uniqueness of the subjects they are assessing.

 7

Lack of clear meaning of the words in assessment tool and the individual interpretation of

the test items since language impacts the understanding of test items and it can give incorrect

information which will in turn influence the validity of our test scores and even the constructs.

We have not had a way of getting to be trained on inter cultural communications skills

this too can cause the test taker not to understand clearly the on the meaning of every item.

Fear and timidity is a challenge too since people who have little exposure on this tests

may not want to give the correct information not knowing its importance in the test.

The test questions can be biased to a particular culture where other test takers may be

unfamiliar with the words that are used and some words could mean something else to others

some community could find other words not to be appropriate.

 8

Using the Rorschach inkblot test to test personality of candidates applying jobs in a

security company

The test relies heavily on examiners interpretation hence projective that is the interviewer

is the one who decides whether the candidate’s answers are correct or not. It brings about the

aspect of interviewers biases where they are placed at the pedestal because they decide if a

particular candidate passes the interview or not.

The test detects only one mental issue that is schizophrenia but is unable to identify other

mental issues like depression, anxiety accurately. Security work is very sensitive and need

someone critical and strong willed. If the interviewers fail to capture mental issues, then

accidents can happen during training or when the candidates are working for example when

police candidates who have weapons like guns kill each other during training.

Rorschach Inkblot test or any other tests are supposed to remain secret but in this

scenario the results are shared with the interview`s committee making it public. Considering

security is one of the companies that values secrecy the test contradicts what the company stands

for.

Candidates can Memorize answers where those who have attended the interviews

previously have already mastered the questions asked and how to answer those questions

correctly. These may lead to all candidates giving the same answers hence defeating the purpose

of the interviewers conducting the test.

The test lacks reliability in that the interpretation of the candidate’s data vary widely and

hence one candidate can yield different result depending on the interviewer. This means a

candidate can decide to rig the interview by bribing the interviewers because there is no one

answer that is applicable or that the test have no definitive answers.

 9

References

D’Onofrio, G. & Sancarlo, D. (2018) Gerontology Intech Open Limited. UK

Motive metrics. (2013) The Subjectivity of Focus Groups and Ink Blot Tests

http://blog.motivemetrics.com/The-Subjectivity -of-Focus-Groups-and-Ink-Blot-Tests

Very well mind. (April 26, 2021). How Projective Test Are Used to Measure Personality

https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-projective-test-2795586

Mvorganizing what are some criticisms of projective tests such as the Rorschach test

htttps://www.ovorganizing.org/what-are-some- criticisms-of-projective-tests-such-as-the

rorschach-test/