Midterms 2.

Interviews
 Involves one-on-one conversation
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT 3. Portfolio
 Files containing the client’s works or
ASSESSMENT AND TESTING personal information
Purpose of Psych Assessment: To answer a referral 4. Behavioral Observation
question  Monitoring the actions of others by
visual or electronic means
Referral  Usually the one being monitored is in
his/her natural environment
- Why a person needs to be assessed
5. Roleplay Tests
Process of Psych Assessment  Example: An employee is asked by her
manager how she would talk to an
1. Referral
angry customer.
2. Pre-assessment Meeting – For clarifications,
especially to the referral party Parties Involved in Testing
3. Selecting Assessment Tools
4. Formal Assessment Test Developer
5. Evaluation, Integration, and Written Report to Test Publisher
answer referral question
6. Feedback Session - with the client or the Test Reviewer
referral party Test User
Approaches to Psych Assessment Test Administrator
 Collaborative Test Taker
o More interaction between the
client and the assessor Society
o E.g., therapy LAB EXERCISE #1
 Dynamic (Items with Answers)
o Evaluation, intervention, then
evaluation again Instruction: Identify whether TESTING or ASSESSMENT
o The assessor alone plans out an is appropriate for the ff. scenarios.
intervention based on the client’s ASSESSMENT 1. A school psychologist clinically
referral question evaluates a child experiencing learning difficulties to
Tools of Psych Assessment determine what factors are primarily responsible for it.

1. Tests ASSESSMENT 2. A prison psychologist is ordered by the

 Different from psych assessment in
terms of:
o Content – Stanford-Binet &
WAIS are intelligence tests but
differ in the items
o Administration Procedure
o Format
o Scoring & Interpretation
o Technical Quality
 Reliability (consistency)
 Validity (accuracy)
 Utility (usefulness)
court to give an expert opinion regarding the extent and
status of a convicted violent prisoner’s rehabilitation.
TESTING 3. A tutor wants to know if her tutorial classes
in English are effective at improving her student’s
spelling ability.
ASSESSMENT 4. A court-appointed psychologist is asked
to give his expert opinion as to a defendant’s
competency to stand trial.
TESTING 5. A therapist wants to know if her client’s
stress level has worsened.
ASSESSMENT 6. A psychotherapy researcher wants to
determine if a particular method of psychotherapy is
effective in treating a particular problem.
ASSESSMENT 8. A guidance counselor wants to know
what career is best suited for one of her HS clients.
TESTING 9. An athletics coach wants to look for the
fastest runner in her PE class so she can offer a varsity
scholarship to this student for the track-and-field team.
ASSESSMENT 10. A military psychologist wants to
determine whether one of their lieutenants should be
promoted to a higher leadership position.
LAB EXERCISE #2
(Items with Answers)
Instruction: Identify what ASSESSMENT TOOL is being
used in the ff. scenarios.
INTERVIEW 1. A clinician meets with a 35-year-old
married female named Sara. Sara was referred to
treatment after having a stillbirth. She shows symptoms
of grief and complicated bereavement. The clinician sits
down with Sara and asks a series of structured
questions about her thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
TEST 2. A researcher asks participants to complete a
series of puzzles and problem-solving tasks to assess
their cognitive abilities.
CASE HISTORY DATA 3. Denise, a 59-year-old widow,
experiences symptoms including loneliness, difficulty
coping, and sadness after her husband was diagnosed
with cancer. To help her better, the psychologist
reviews her medical records, including past treatment
history and family medical history, to gain a better
understanding of her psychological condition.
BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION 4. A teacher observes
Alex’s behavior in the classroom, noting how they
interact with peers and engage in learning activities.
ROLEPLAY TESTS 5. A therapist asks a client to act out a
scenario relevant to their issue, such as a conflict with a
family member, to gain insight into their feelings and
reactions.
TEST 6. A therapist asks a client to act out a scenario
relevant to their issue, such as a conflict with a family
member, to gain insight into their feelings and
reactions.
INTERVIEW 7. A therapist asks a client to recall and
describe past experiences to explore their thoughts,
emotions, and behaviors.
BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION 8. A researcher observes
how children interact with a new toy to assess their
social skills and problem-solving abilities.
INTERVIEW 9. A clinician asks a patient to describe their
daily routines, habits, and any recent changes in
behavior to understand their current mental state.
ROLEPLAY TESTS 10. A school counselor asks a student
to imagine they are in a difficult situation and to
respond as they normally would, allowing the counselor
to assess their coping strategies.
NORMS AND BASIC STATISTICS FOR
TESTING
Steps of Psych Assessment
1. DATA
 Raw scores
 Information about the client
 Sources: Case study, observation,
portfolio
2. SORTING
 Categorizing gathered information
based on personality, behavior, etc
 Grouping
3. ARRANGING
 Determining what scores are high and
low
 Identifying what we should focus from
the sorting
4. PRESENTED VISUALLY
 Using charts, tables, graphs
 Why? To organize
 Since step 1-3 is still theoretical, it is
important to visually present it so that
it can be easily understood or read
5. EXPLAINED WITH A STORY
 To make the client understand
 Interpreting the result that is relevant
to the clients’ needs
 Explaining the meaning behind the
scores and results
Tests must determine the low, high, and average
scorers. It is not effective if it’s too easy or too hard.
 Tests must be able to discriminate the as the
characteristics among the test takers/individuals. difference
between two
Why We Need Statistics? other points
1. Description – describe the numbers Absolute Zero 0 means true Money in a
absence, as in wallet
2. Inferences – provide significant results
nothing
Descriptive Statistics Identity The number has Room numbers,
a particular jersey numbers
- Summarizes characteristics meaning
- 3 basic categories:
o Frequency Distribution
o Central Tendency (Mean, Median,
Mode)
o Variability – dispersion of the scores

Standard Deviation is just the square root of the

variance.

Skewness

- The hiwi of the scores

Levels of Measurement

Nominal Scales

- Classification or categorization
- Examples: Gender, Religion

Ordinal Scales
Kurtosis
- Rank
- The curve of the scores - Ordering
- Example: Top 10 Billboard awards

Interval Scales

- Each unit is equal to every other unit

- No absolute zero point
- Examples: Temperature
o Why? Because 0 Celsius means
“freezing point”
Parametric statistical tests usually require the use o Unlike in Ratio, 0 really means no value
of SCALE DATA, which are the levels of INTERVAL and
RATIO. Ratio Scales

Properties of Measurement - Has a true zero point

- Examples: Cigarettes smoked in a day
Property Meaning Example o Why? Because we can say that perhaps
Magnitude “Moreness” Exam scores on that day a person did not smoke so
Equal Intervals The difference Money
zero means no cigarette smoked
between two
points has the
same meaning
Types of Data To calculate the number of scores that scored
higher or worse when the PR is already given:
Qualitative (Categorical)

- Nominal and Ordinal N x (1-PR)

Quantitative Structure of a Psychological Report

- Interval and Ratio I. Referral Question

- Discrete II. Evaluation Tools and Procedures
o Values are whole numbers III. Behavioral Observations
- Continuous IV. Background Information (Relevant History)
o Values can be fractional or have V. Test Results
decimals VI. Impressions and Interpretations
VII. Summary and Recommendations
If the ranking has numerical value, it is ORDINAL. If
not, it’s just nominal. For example, socioeconomic Sachs Sentence Completion Test Scoring and
status is just nominal, unless you’d put numbers on the Interpretation
levels like this: (1-poor, 2-midclass, 3-wealthy). 2 - SEVERELY DISTURBED - Appears to require the
therapeutic aid in handling emotional conflicts in this
PERCENTILE AND PERCENTILE RANKS area
Percentile Rank 1 – MILDLY DISTURBED - Has emotional conflict in this
- It gives an actual number of the score’s area but appears able to handle them without
placement in the distribution. therapeutic aid.
- For example, if you are 80%, that means 80% 0 – No Significant disturbance rated in this area
are the people who scored lower than you.
X – Unknown, Insufficient evidence
How to Calculate a Percentile Rank

(1) Determine how many cases fall below the score of

interest

(2) Determine how many cases are in the group

(3) Divide the number of cases below the score of

interest (Step 1) by the total number of cases in the
group (Step 2)

(4) Multiply the result of Step 3 by 100

Must arrange the scores first from highest to lowest

to determine the number of scores that fall below your
score of interest.