Review Class:

Psychological Testing
 Assessment
• The Psychology Act (2010) defines psychological assessment as: ...gathering
and integration of psychology-related data for the purpose of making a
psychological evaluation, accomplished through a variety of tools, including
individual tests, projective tests, clinical interview and other psychological
assessment tools, for the purpose of assessing diverse psychological
functions including cognitive abilities, aptitudes, personality characteristics,
attitudes, values, interests, emotions and motivations, among others, in
support of psychological counseling, psychotherapy and other psychological
interventions.
Assessment

• The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American

Educational Research Association [AERA] defines assessment as “any
systematic method of obtaining information from tests and other
sources, used to draw inferences about characteristics of people,
objects, or programs.
Assessment

• Although assessment research literature promotes the use of multiple

method and multiple source assessment, current professional standards
focus primarily on the ethical use of standardized tests. Ironically,
counselors almost universally rely on unstructured interviews as the key
source of assessment information about a client, yet little mention is
made of the use of unstructured interviews or other informal, non-
standardized assessment methods in the current ethical codes (Leppma
& Jones, 2013).
 2200 – 2500 BC Greco-Roman attempted
personality typing using bodily fluids; Chinese
used tests for aspiring public officials and for
work evaluation/promotion

1860 -1880 Francis Galton initiated the social

science testing movement measuring individual
differences while studying human heredity

Brief 1890 James Cattell coined the term mental test

History of
Assessmen 1917 Group intelligence testing was developed;
Army Alpha (routine testing) and Army Beta
(non-language assessment); Arthur Otis
t developed multiple choice format; Woodsworth
Personal Data Sheet was used to test personality
Brief • 1921 Rorschach Inkblot Test was published

• 1923 Terman and colleagues developed

History of Stanford Achievement test which was the first

standardized achievement battery

Assessmen • 1926 Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) was

t
published by the College Entrance
Examination Board (CEEB); Strong Vocational
Interest Blank was created for vocational
counseling

• 1938 Oscar Buros developed the Mental

Measurements Yearbook to provide information
about tests and their properties
• 1942 Hathaway and McKinley developed MMPI
and incorporated validity scales to counter
impression management
Ethical Principles in Testing
How will the test How could the
What does the or test battery be testing process be
client want helpful to the harmful to the
(autonomy)? client client
(beneficence)? (nonmaleficence)?
Are you working
in the client’s
Is the test a fair
best interests
measurement tool
when you use
for the client
tests in
(justice)?
counseling
(fidelity)?
Rights and
Responsibilities in Testing

Rights and Responsibilities of Responsible Test Use

Test Takers  Knowledge and skill in test use
 Right of informed consent and development (Level A, B, C)
 Right to be informed of test  Keeping test materials and
findings results secure
 Right to privacy  Establishing rapport with
 Right to confidentiality examinees
 Right to least stigmatizing  Proper use of copyrighted
label materials
 Test
(Psychological)
• A test is a systematic and often standardized
process for sampling and describing a behavior
of interest for individuals or groups. Tests can
measure past, present, and/or future behavior
or some reflection or feeling toward a behavior
of interest. Tests can be interpreted in reference
to a test taker’s previous performance (self-
referenced), some objective or criterion, or that
of a standardization sample.
Categories of Tests
• Standardized - administered in the same way, under similar conditions whenever it
is administered. Scores from a standardized test are interpreted in relationship to either
a norm group i.e., a group of people that are similar to the test takers in such
dimensions as age, gender, grade (norm-referenced) or against a performance criteria
(criterion-referenced). Your score will likely reflect the number of items answered
correctly and some criterion, such as a grade or percentage score, will be agreed upon

• Non-standardized - do not have defined administration protocols and have not

been extensively studied to create norms or criterion-related scoring protocols
 Evaluating
Tests
• Reliability - the consistency of a measuring
tool, how much a test measures what it aims to
measure with little measurement error; frequently
calculated based on the degree of consistency
between two sets of scores using correlation
• Validity - What an instrument measures and
how well it does that task in a particular context; a
judgment based on evidence about
appropriateness of inferences drawn from test
scores
Types of Reliability
• Test-retest – measures consistency over time; a reliability coefficient is calculated simply by
correlating the performance on the first administration with the performance on the second
administration

• Alternate-form or parallel-form – comparing consistency of scores of individuals within the

same group on two alternate but equivalent forms of the same test

• Split-half – a single test is divided in half usually by odd and even numbered items; needs a
good number of items because fewer items decrease reliability

• Inter item- a single test is assessed to determine how items on a test are related to each
other and the total score;

• Inter rater – two or more judges rate events or behaviors simultaneously;

Measures of Reliability
1. Spearman-brown formula – corrects split-half reliability estimates because it provides a good
estimate of what the reliability coefficient would be if the halves were increased to the original
length of the instrument.

2. Kuder-Richardson formula- enables to calculate reliability by examining internal consistency of one

administration of an instrument
• KR-20 estimates the average of all split-half reliabilities computed from all possible ways of splitting the
instruments into halves used when items are heterogenous
• KR-21 used for homogenous items

3. Coefficient alpha or Cronbach’s alpha – used when scoring is not dichotomous; Coefficient alpha
(α) takes into consideration the variance of each item.
Types of Content – sample of items is
Validity representative and reflects all major
content components of a domain

Criterion-related – degree of
prediction of a client’s performance
on a criterion assessed at the same
time (concurrent) or sometime in the
future (predictive)

Construct – degree to which an

assessment is related to a
theoretical construct (convergent) or
not (divergent/discriminant)
Test Development
• Conceptualization - – test developers need to make sure that the content is aligned with materials
presented and that clients are assessed at varying cognitive levels (test design)
• Construction - test developers consider item type carefully (item development)
• Pilot Testing – trying out the test to have an initial check on comprehensibility,
reliability, and validity
• Item analysis - the process by which items can be evaluated according to difficulty and discrimination.
• Item difficulty is the proportion of students who correctly answers a particular item, computed as the ratio between
number of correct responses to the total number of responses.
• Item discrimination determines the extent to which an item differentiates different levels of mastery. To do this,
participants are divided into 3 groups, where the upper and lower group of scorers are considered, and the
difference between the percentages of these groups are considered.
 Measurement
Scales
• Nominal – most basic measurement scale that is used for
naming or classifying only.

• Ordinal – refers to order or rank of nominal categories and

characterizes some degree of magnitude but the relative
size of intervals is not precise

• Interval – possesses magnitude and equal intervals but has

no absolute zero

• Ratio – the most advanced and precise because it

possesses magnitude, equal intervals, and an absolute zero
Interpreting Norm-
referenced Tests

Frequency Distributions
- A distribution is a set of scores arranged for
recording
- A frequency distribution table/polygon or a
histogram provides a visual display to see how
scores are distributed among the test takers
- In grouped frequency distributions raw scores
are bracketed into class interval
 Interpreting Norm-
referenced Tests
Measures of Central Tendency – a statistic that indicates the average
between extreme scores in a distribution

a. Arithmetic mean – sum of scores or observations divided by the

number of observations and is most appropriate for ratio or
interval data where distribution is approximated to be normal

b. Mode – most frequent score in a distribution, used with

nominal data

c. Median – the score which cuts the distribution in half, when

arranged in ascending or descending order, where 50% of the
people had a score above and below it. (used with interval or
ratio data)
 Interpreting Norm-
referenced Tests
Measures of Variability – describes how scores in a
distribution is scattered or dispersed
a. Range – the difference between the highest and lowest
score
b. Standard Deviation – square root of the variance;
indication of the average deviation from the mean in the
original unit of measurement
c. Variance – squared standard deviation; allows for
determining degree of contribution by a variable to the
variance associated with a dependent variable
 Types of Scores
a. Raw Score – obtained by following rules of scoring but has no meaning

b. Percentile Rank – indicates the percentage of people in the norming group who had a score at or
below a given raw score.

c. Standard Score – raw score that has been converted from one scale to another
o z Score – conversion of a raw score indicating how many standard deviation units the raw score is
from the mean of distribution
o T Score – a standard score system composed of a scale that ranges from 5 standard deviations below
or above the mean which is fixed at 50
o Stanine – a standard score with a mean of 5 and a standard deviation of approximately 2 divided
into nine units
Interpreting Scores: IQ
(ss with sd 15)
 Steps in Testing
Test Selection: Refers to the decision-making process counselors
use throughout the counseling relationship to aid in client
evaluation and treatment planning. The counselor decides which
specific test would be best to use considering the test’s reliability,
validity, normative data, and practicality for its intended purpose.

Test Administration: Tests must be administered under

controlled conditions with uniform instructions and materials.
Counselors who administer the test must be familiar with
instructions and other aspects of administration.

Test Interpretation: Test interpretation includes evaluation of

data from a variety of methods and should be used intentionally
in integrating it within the counseling process
Types/Categories of Tests

Cognitive and
Neuropsychologi Affective Vocational
cal
Cognitive Tests
 Intelligence tests are designed as broad measures of cognitive ability While there is
ongoing controversy regarding the validity of the constructs that underlie intelligence
tests (for example, is general intelligence a useful concept?), it is essential that
professional school counselors be familiar with these tests. Examples of intelligence
test:
o Individually administered: Stanford Binet, Wechsler
o Group administered: Otis Lennon School Ability Test, Multidimensional Aptitude
Battery
o Culture-fair: Raven’s Progressive Matrices, Culture Fair Intelligence Test, Purdue
Non Language Test
Cognitive Tests

Achievement tests are typically used in

educational settings and are designed to
Aptitude tests are often used to help measure student learning. Individual
students understand personal strengths achievement tests that measure specific
and challenges, and by employers to areas of achievement (such as reading
help in the hiring process (predict future or math) are used diagnostically by
performance). learning disability specialists and school
psychologists (evaluate past
performance/how much you know).
• Graduate Record Examination, NMAT, • Stanford test, TOEFL, subject specific
LSAT achievement tests
Affective tests
 Screening Inventories – used for early identification of individuals at
potentially high risk for disorders
 PHQ-9, BDI, Suicide Risk Assessment

• Personality Inventories – designed to measure normal and abnormal

traits, attitudes, characteristics of an individual
• Objective
• Projective
Personality Tests

Objective personality tests

(structured personality Projective personality tests
inventories) are paper and pencil (performance based measures)
tests that require examinees to provide examinees with
answer questions in specific ways ambiguous tasks and examinees’
(such as multiple choice) and can answers can be quite varied.
be easily scored
• NEO PI-R, 16PF, MMPI-2 • DAP, SSCT, HTP, Rorschach, TAT
Vocational Tests

Measure of Individual
Measure of Career
Differences – assess
Process – assess levels
interests, values,
of career decision and
abilities for informed
maturity
career choices
• SDS, WVI, DAT • CDS, CDMSE, CMI
Other Interview
Descriptive

Forms of Diagnostic

Assessmen
t Behavioral Structured
Unstructur
Observation ed

Mental Status
Examination
Clinical Use of
Tests

• Diagnosing

• Case Conceptualization

• Treatment Planning
Diagnosing
• Diagnosis is the identification of a disease, disorder, or syndrome based on some form of
systematic assessment using a classification system that facilitates clinical research and helps to
determine what treatments are most effective with what types of problems.

• The creation of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth Edition (DSM-5)
occurred over 12 years and involved hundreds of people, mostly psychiatrists, in different work
groups. This provides a common nomenclature to aid clinicians in diagnosing.

• Assessment should be made both categorically (noting if symptoms are present or not and
counting them) and dimensionally (evaluate a full range of symptoms to rate both presence and
severity of symptom allowing a way to track client’s progress).
Case Conceptualization

Case conceptualization refers to the way that professional counselors make

meaning out of the information they have gathered. It involves:
 Identifying patterns and themes associated with the information gathered during the
assessment phase
 Applying a theory
 Considering how issues such as race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, socioeconomic status, family
structure, trauma and/or sexual and gender orientation impact a client’s presenting concerns
Treatment Planning

A three tiered system is a treatment plan that outlines goals, objectives

and interventions or strategies.
 Goals are broad statements of desired outcomes
 Objectives are statements of observable and measurable outcome targets
 Interventions are counseling strategies designed to meet the above objectives

• For each counseling goal, objectives are identified that will help the client reach the goal. For each
objective, strategies are identified that will help the client reach the objective.