PSYCHOLOGICAL

TESTING & ASSESSMENT

CHAPTER 1
 BRIEF INTRODUCTION

• Ma. Isabel S. Lemen, MBA, MS-Psych, RPsy

• Psychological Testing and Assessment: the road to
RPm
 REQUIREMENTS

• Mandatory: Join the class FB page, which will be

created today
• Study Materials: Always available for download right
after each class.
• Format: Mondays: Lecture; Tuesdays: Drills;
Wednesdays: Lecture and Drills : Chapter Quiz (2
Chapters)
• Exercises.
• Final Project: Development of a test (Group Project)
• Final Project: Preparation of a Psychological Test
(Individual Project)
 INTRODUCE YOURSELVES

• Where you graduated from

• A little bit about yourself
• What you hope to learn from this subject
• How much work you anticipate having for this class
 WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• As a student of
psychological
measurement
• Familiarity with some
of the commonly
used units of measure
in psychology
• Knowledge of some
of the many
measuring tools
employed
TESTING & ASSESSMENT HISTORY

• 1905: Alfred Binet & a

colleague published
a test designed to
help Paris
schoolchildren in
appropriate classes
• 10 years later: English
language version of
Binet’s test as
prepared for use in
schools in the United
States
 HISTORY

• 1917: US declared
war on Germany and
entered WWI.
• Military screened
large numbers of
recruits quickly for
intellectual and
emotional numbers
• Psychological testing
provided this
methodology
HISTORY

• WWII: Military would

depend even more
on psychological
tests to screen recruits
for service.
• Following the war,
more and more tests
purporting to
measure
psychological
variables were
developed and used
 TYPES OF TESTS

• Intelligence
• Personality
• Aspects of brain
functioning
• Performance at
work
• Many other aspects
of psychological
and social
functioning
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING &
ASSESSMENT DEFINED
 TESTING

• Term used to refer

to everything from
administration to
interpretation of a
test score
• Process of testing:
aptly described the
group screening of
thousands of
military recruits
 TESTING VS. ASSESSMENT

• By WWII, semantic
distinction between
the terms began to
emerge.
 ASSESSMENT OF MEN

• US Office of Strategic
Services (OSS) used a
variety of procedures
and measurement
tools (psychological
tests) in selecting
military personnel for
highly trained
positions (espionage,
intelligence
gathering, etc)
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

• Gathering and
integration of
psychologically-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 process
 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING

• Process of
measuring
psychology-related
variables by means
of devices or
procedures
designed to obtain
a sample of
behavior
PROCESS OF ASSESSMENT

• Referral for assessment

• Referral question/s are
put to the assessor
about the assessee
• Assessor meets
assessee or others
before the formal
assessment
• Follow institutional
guidelines
• Formal assessment
begins
 TESTING VS ASSESSMENT: OBJECTIVE

TESTING ASSESSMENT
Obtain some numerical Answer referral question,
gauge of ability or solve a problem, or arrive
attribute at a decision through
evaluation tools
TESTING VS ASSESSMENT: PROCESS

TESTING ASSESSMENT
• Can be individual or • Individualized
group • Typically focuses on
• After test administration, HOW an individual
tester adds up number of processes rather than
correct answers or
simply the results of the
number of certain types
of responses with little
processing
regard for the how or
mechanics of such
contents
 TESTING VS ASSESSMENT: ROLE OF
EVALUATOR

TESTING ASSESSMENT
• Tester is not key to the • Assessor is key to
process process of selecting
• One tester may be tests and/or other tools
substituted for another of evaluation and in
tester without drawing conclusions
appreciably affecting from the entire
the evaluation evaluation
 TESTING VS ASSESSMENT: SKILL OF
EVALUATOR

TESTING ASSESSMENT
• Typically requires • Typically requires an
technician-like skills in educated selection of
terms of administering tools of evaluation, skill
and scoring a test as in evaluation, and
well as in interpreting a thoughtful organization
test result and integration of
data.
 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
ASSESSMENT
• Collaborative
Psychological
Assessment:
assessor and
assessee may work
as ”partners” from
initial contact
through final
feedback
DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
ASSESSMENT
• Therapeutic
Psychological
Assessment:
Therapeutic self-
discovery and new
understandings are
encouraged
throughout the
assessment process
 DIFFERENT APPROACHES TO
ASSESSMENT
• Dynamic
Assessment:
interactive
approach that
usually follows the
model of
• Evaluation
• Intervention
• Evaluation
 TOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT
• Test
• Interview
• Portfolio
• Case History Data
• Behavioral
Observation
• Role-Play Tests
• Computers as tools
• Other tools
 TEST

• Measuring device or
procedure
• Medical Test: device or
medical procedure
designed to measure
some variable related
to the practice of
medicine
• Psychological Test:
device or procedure
designed to measure
variables related to
psychology
 PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTS

• Intelligence
• Personality
• Aptitude
• Interests
• Attitudes
• Values
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PSYCHOLOGICAL
TESTS AND OTHER ASSESSMENT TOOLS

• Content: subject matter

• Format: form, plan,
structure, arrangement,
layout of test items, &
time limits
• Administration
procedures: individual,
active and
knowledgeable test
administrator
• Scoring and
Interpretation Procedures
• Technical quality
 SCORE

• SCORE: 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
 SCORING

• Process of assigning
such evaluative
codes or statements
to performance on
tests, tasks,
interviews, or other
behavior samples
 CUT SCORE

• Category of scores
• Cutoff score or
cutoff
• Reference point,
usually numerical,
derived by
judgment and used
to divide a set of
data into two or
more classifications
MORE ON THE CUT SCORE
 GUIDELINES FOR SCORING AND
INTERPRETATION
• Scored by the
testtakers
themselves
• Scored by trained
examiners
• Scored and fully
interpreted by
computer
 TECHNICAL QUALITY

• Psychometric
soundness: how
consistently and
accurately a
psychological test
measures what it
purports to measure
• Psychometrics:
science of
psychological
measurement
UTILITY

• Usefulness or
practical value that
a test of assessment
technique has for a
particular purpose
 INTERVIEW

• In assessment,
typically involves
more than talk
• If face-to-face,
interviewer is
probably taking
note of the content
of what is said and
the way it is being
said
 NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR

• Body language
• Movements and
facial expressions in
response to the
interviewer
• Extent of eye contact
• Apparent willingness
to cooperate
• Manner of dressing
WAYS INTERVIEWS ARE CONDUCTED

• Face-to-face contact
• Telephone: be
conscious of changes
in tone, pitch, pauses,
signs of emotion
• Electronic: online
interviews, email
interviews, interviews
through text
messaging
INTERVIEW

• Method of
gathering
information through
direct
communication
involving reciprocal
exchange
 VARIABLES OF INTERVIEWS

• Purpose
• Length
• Nature
PANEL INTERVIEW (BOARD
INTERVIEW)
• More than one
interviewer
participates in the
personnel assessment
• Advantage: Any
idiosyncratic biases of
a lone interviewer
minimized by use of
two or more
interviewer
• Disadvantage: utility,
cost may not be
justified
 HOW INTERVIEWERS DIFFER

• Pacing of interviews
• Rapport with
interviewees
• Ability to convey
genuineness,
empathy, and
humor
 PORTFOLIO

• Consists of work
products-whether
retained on paper,
canvas, film, video,
audio, or some other
medium
• Commercial artists:
impressiveness of
sample drawings
• On-Air Radio Talent:
audio sample
CASE HISTORY DATA

• Records, Transcripts,
other accounts
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

• Letters and written

correspondence
• Photo and family
albums
• Newspaper and
magazine clippings
• Home videos
• Movies
• Audiotapes
 WHEN CASE HISTORY DATA ARE
USEFUL
• When it sheds light on
an individual’s past
and current events
• Circumstances that
may have contributed
to any changes in
adjustment
• Neuropsychological
evaluations:
functioning prior to the
occurrence of a
trauma or other even
that causes the deficits
BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATION

• Good when you want

to know how someone
behaves in a particular
situation, observe
his/her behavior in that
situation
• Monitoring actions of
others or oneself by
visual or electronic
means while recording
quantitative/qualitative
information regarding
the actions
WHERE BEHAVIORAL OBSERVATIONS
ARE USED
• Diagnostic aid in
the following
settings
• Inpatient facilities
• Behavioral research
laboratories
• Classrooms
• Corporate setting
• Behaviors of humans
in natural settings
ROLE-PLAY TESTS

• Role play: defined as

acting an improvised or
partially improvised in
part in a simulated
situation
• Role-play test: Tool of
assessment wherein
assessees are directed
to act as if they were in
a particular situation
• Role-play: hyphenated
when used as an
adjective or a verb but
not as a noun
 WHO ROLE-PLAYS?

• Corporate
• Industrial
• Organizational
• Military
• Clinical context
(interventions with
substance abusers)
 COMPUTERS AS TOOLS: SOME TERMS

• Local Processing:
scoring done on-site
• Central Processing:
processing occurs at
a central location
• Teleprocessing:
scores/data are sent
to/from central
facility by phone lines
COMPUTERS AS TOOLS: SOME TERMS

• Simple scoring report: a

mere listing of a score
of scores
• Extended scoring
report: Includes
statistical analyses of
the testtaker’s
performance
• Interpretative report:
distinguished by its
inclusion of
numerical/narrative
interpretive statements
in the report
 VINELAND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR
SCALES, 2ND ED
• Measure of
adaptive behavior
from birth to
adulthood
• Paper and pencil
• From birth to 90
years old
• ASSIST software or
manual scoring
SAMPLE
COMPUTERS AS TOOLS: MORE TERMS

• Consultative Report:
Usually written in
language
appropriate for
communication
between
assessment
professionals, may
provide expert
opinion concerning
analysis of data
 MORE TERMS: INTEGRATIVE
REPORT
• Designed to integrate
data from sources
other than the test
itself into the
interpretive report
• Will employ previously
collected data
(medication records
or behavioral
observation data)
into the test report
COMPUTER ASSISTED PSYCHOLOGICAL
ASSESSMENT (CAPA)
• Provides assistance
to the test user not
taker
 COMPUTER ADAPTIVE TESTING

• Adaptive: reference
to the computer’s
ability to tailor the
test to the
testtaker’s ability or
testtaking pattern
AN ILLUSTRATION
 OTHER TOOLS

• Videos: to determine
how an individual
would respond to a
situation at the
workplace
• Biofeedback
Equipment: measure
bodily reaction
• Penile
Plethysmograph: to
measure male sexual
arousal
 THE ASSESSMENT ENTERPRISE

• Who are the parties?

• In what types of settings
are assessments
conducted?
• Why is assessment
conducted?
• How are assessments
conducted?
• Where does one go for
authoritative
information about
tests?
 WHO ARE THE PARTIES?

• Test Developer:
create tests or other
methods of
assessment
• 20,000
psychological tests
published each
year
STANDARDS FOR EDUCATIONAL AND
PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING
• Covers issues related
to test construction
and evaluation, test
administration and
use, and special
applications of tests
(linguistic minorities)
• Published in 1954 but
revisions were
published in 1966,
1974, 1985, and 1999,
2014
 TEST USER

• Professionals:
• Clinicians
• Counselors
• School Psychologists
• Human resources
personnel
• Consumer
Psychologists
• Experimental
Psychologists
• Social Psychogists
TESTTAKER

• Anyone who is the

subject of an
assessment or an
evaluation can be
a testtaker or an
assessee
 PSYCHOLOGICAL AUTOPSY

• Reconstruction of a
deceased
individual’s
psychological profile
on the basis of
• Archival records
• Artifacts
• Interviews previously
conducted with the
deceased assessee
• Interviews with people
who knew him/her
SOCIETY AT LARGE

• As society evolves and

as the need to
measure different
psychological variables
emerges, test
developers respond by
devising new tests
• Through court
decisions, society at
large exerts its
influence on various
aspects of the testing
and assessment
enterprise
 OTHER PARTIES

• Organizations
• Companies
• Governmental
Agencies
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: EDUCATIONAL
SETTINGS

• School Ability Tests:

Administered early in
school to identify
children with special
needs
• Achievement test:
evaluates
accomplishment or
degree of learning
that has taken place
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: EDUCATIONAL
SETTINGS
• Diagnostic Test: tool of
assessment used to
help narrow down and
identify areas of deficit
to be targeted for
intervention
• Reading, Mathematics,
other academic subjects
• Informal Evaluation:
typically nonsystematic
assessment that leads
to the formation of an
opinion or attitude
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: CLINICAL SETTINGS
• Public
• Private and military
hospitals
• Inpatient and
outpatient clinics
• Private Practice
consulting rooms
• Schools and other
institutions
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: CLINICAL SETTINGS
• Private
psychotherapy
client wishes to be
evaluated to see if
the assessment can
provide any
nonobvious clues
regarding his/her
maladjustment
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: CLINICAL SETTINGS
• School psychologist
clinically evaluates
a child
experiencing
learning difficulties
to determine what
factors are primarily
responsible for it
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: CLINICAL SETTINGS
• Psychologist-
consultant retained
by an insurance
company is called on
to give an opinion as
to the reality of a
client’s psychological
problems:
malingering or
experiencing
problems?
TYPES OF TESTS IN CLINICAL SETTINGS

• Intelligence tests
• Personality tests
• Neuropsychological
tests
• Other specialized
instruments
• (Depending on
problem area)
 TESTING IN CLINICAL SETTINGS

• One individual at a
time
• Group testing
primarily used for
screening
• Screening: identifying
individuals who
require further
diagnostic evaluation
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: COUNSELING
SETTINGS
• Schools
• Prisons
• Government
institutions
• Privately owned
institutions
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: COUNSELING
SETTINGS
• Ultimate objective:
improvement of
assessee in terms of
adjustment,
productivity or some
related variable
• Measures of social
and academic skills
and measures of
personality, interest,
attitudes, and values
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: COUNSELING
SETTINGS
• Referral Questions:
• How can a child
better focus on
tasks?
• For what career is the
client best suited?
• What activities are
recommended for
retirement?
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: GERIATRIC SETTINGS
• Goal: evaluate cognitive,
psychological, adaptive,
or other functioning
• Issue: quality of life
• Quality of life: evaluation
in terms of perceived
stress, loneliness, sources
of satisfaction, personal
values, quality of living
conditions, and quality of
friendships and other
social support
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: BUSINESS AND
MILITARY SETTINGS
• Tests used in
decisionmaking
about careers of
personnel
• Achievement,
aptitude, interest,
motivational tests for
hiring, promotions,
transfer, job
satisfaction, and
eligibility for further
training
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: BUSINESS SETTINGS
• Research to help
people at home, in
the workplace, and
in the military
• Diagnose needs of
existing and older
brands and products
and identify how they
might be revitalized
or made more
appealing
SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE CONDUCTED
IN: GOVERNMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL
CREDENTIALING
• Board exams
• Specialization
 SETTINGS ASSESSMENTS ARE
CONDUCTED IN: OTHER SETTINGS
• Court: to determine if
defendant is
competent to stand
trial
• Health psychology:
assess current state of
affairs with regard to
some disease or
condition, gauge
treatment progress,
and evaluate
outcome intervention
HOW ASSESSMENTS ARE CONDUCTED:
ETHICAL GUIDELINES
• Before a test is
administered, stored in a
way that reasonably ensures
its specific contents will not
be made known in
advance
• Ensure that a prepared and
suitably trained person
administers test properly
• Familiar with test materials
and procedures
• Must have tests at the site
and all materials needed to
properly administer the test
• Selecting most appropriate
test for the individual being
tested
 MATERIALS NEEDED

• Stopwatch
• Supply of pencils
• Sufficient number of
test protocols
RAPPORT

• Working relationship
between examiner
and examinee
• Few words of small
talk when examiner
and examinee are
introduced
• Without
compromising rules of
test administration
instructions
 ASSESSMENT OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES
• Obtain employment
• Earn professional
credential
• Screen for
psychopathology
ASSESSMENT OF PEOPLE WITH
DISABILITIES
• Alternate Assessment:
• Accomplished by means
of some accommodation
made to the assessee
• Accommodation:
adaptation of a test,
procedure, or situation,
or the substitution of
one test for another, to
make the assessment
more suitable for an
assessee with
exceptional needs
 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 assessee or
by means of alternative
methods designed to
measure the same
variable
 DIFFERENT TYPES OF
ACCOMMODATION
• Capabilities of the
assessee
• Purpose of the
assessment
• Meaning attached
to test scores
• Capabilities of the
assessor
 REFERENCE SOURCES

• Test catalogues (from

publisher to test)
• Test manuals (detailed
information)
• Reference volumes
(Mental Measurement
Yearbook)
• Journal Articles:
reviews, studies of
psychometric
soundness
• Online Databases
• Other Sources