Psychology Tests and Assessments - Essay Example

Psychology Tests and Assessments Psychology Tests and Assessments Psychological test is a collection of test carried out by a psychologist to help them understand an individual’s state of mental health. It also aims at providing insights into individual ways of doing things, knowledge and personality. Psychological test carried out on anybody is commonly focused on intelligence and skills testing. The test differs from one person to another because it is based on individual competencies. So the psychologist conducts the test with and objective of weighing an individual skills and report on it objectively but in a helpful manner. Principles governing psychological tests Every test should be an examination of the individual behavior. Secondly the test should not reveal traits but should allow inference be carried out about the person been tested. The test should also have validity and reliability. Test should be interpreted based on person’s cultural background, primary language, and any handicaps. Test should be dependent on the individual’s cooperation and motivation. Psychological is a very powerful tool but its effectiveness is highly dependent on the skills of the person carrying out the test. When used effectively by a skilled person they can provide many helpful insights into the person behaviour. Moreover, in case someone carries out the test on themselves they can offer much sight on personal ground. Converse is also true, since when conducted wrongly, they can result in the wrong outcomes and can lead to wrong decision-making. To ensure that there is a success in conducting the test the language should be appropriate and cautious. The psychologist must also be very observant because the result is not only recorded but observed from how the person is tested behave during the test. This includes things like facial express and body movements. The body language is known to offer more results more than the recorded results. The skills and knowledge are what that matters in the evaluation of a psychologist. Psychologist tests are applied in a wide range of situations. Most used by counsellors and health sector. For the case of marriage and family therapist, psychological test is a very powerful tool in the evaluation of many of the cases they tackle. They use the tests to understand the parties deeper. When a family or a client visits a counsellor little about the customer is known to the counsellor. Given that the counsellor would not use direct question about the client past, they use psychological test (Cohen et al. 1996). When the client is well familiar to the counsellor, the test is used to understand the thinking of the customer. This helps the counsellor on the techniques he should apply in the case. This ensures the client is fully involved, and this makes them feel free to participate. In the case of a family, the counsellor uses the test to test the relationship and feeling of each person towards the other. When the counsellor is well equipped with result he/she can move ahead to offer a lasting solution based on the results above. Psychological assessment is a practice of testing that uses a mixture of techniques to help arrive at some hypotheses about a person and their behavior, personality and capabilities. While psychological tests is an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior. The two differ in that assessment is a collection of many tests and other processes used in analyzing the situation and offering lasting solution while psychological test are used in assessments (Rust & Golombok, 2014). Psychological assessment has four broad components which help to make it successful that include Norm-Referenced Tests. This is a group of standards tests carried out on a person with an aim of evaluating personal skills, knowledge and consistence of an individual regarding psychological concepts. Then test are ranked norm so that the results of the test will reflect the persons results on mental standing. The other component is the interviews; this is the unstructured question to the affected person and person familiar with them. This offer much noble information that can’t be supplied by other tests because it allows the affected person to open up to the professional. The interview is the initial step in psychological assessment and can take between 30-60 minutes. It mainly focuses on the individuals past, childhood history, recent life experiences, work and school history, and family background. The third component is observation. This is when the psychologist takes time to observe the person’s life. How he carry himself around and the way he interacts with other people. This makes the psychologist come up with a very powerful treatment recommendation. The last component is the informal assessment. This is the assessment test that a professional feels that it should be carried out apart from the usual norm-inference test. The test processes are needed for marriage and family counsellor when they are tackling situations which are rarely known about them. This help them get hiding information and measure parties intelligence to be able to identify the most applicable method to solve this problem is to be applied (Kraus et al., 2010). The different psychological test discussed in the second chapter include: measurement of intelligence used as from 1895 and was aimed to measure memory ability and social comprehension. This test grew and diverse to be used in many areas like schools, hospitals, clinics, courts and even prisons. It was introduced to measure the aggregate capacity of individual to act purposefully, to think rationally and to deal effectively with his environment. This test is aimed to test the client‘s level of intelligence when carrying out their daily duties and when interacting with other. This also entails how they tackle issues arising in their life. Thus, it is used by the counsellor in solving issues such as family and stress. When well carried out they are highly effective (Cohen et al., 1996). The second test is the measurement of personality. The test was spurred by the way people received the intelligence measurement after the world war. The test was aimed to take care of the recruit adjustments; it was to compliment measurement of intelligence which didn’t take care of the above issues. This brought about self-report which is a process where a person assesses themselves, by supplying assessment related information, by responding to questions, keeping a diary or self- monitoring thoughts or behaviors (Cohen et al., 1996). This is the main tests used up to the date thou many amendments have been introduced to make them useful and modern. This have helped to keep them effective in carrying out they main purpose. Expertise has also played a great part in improving results observation and recording. Gadgets to a recorded heartbeat of a client as he response to the question is one of the most modern and effective technology in psychology tests and assessment (Oakland et al., 2011). When carried out psychological test, and assessment has the following advantages. Focus on development, this is well seen when a psychologist is carrying out the test and weigh the improvements in the life of the client. After weighing personal skills and shortcoming, they focus on improving them. Problem-solving, when a problem is identified in the test. The next step is to formulate a way out of the problem thus they are problem-solving. This among many reasons makes this test powerful tools of assessment. References Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E., & Phillips, S. M. (1996). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement. Mayfield Publishing Co. Kline, P. (2013). Handbook of psychological testing. Routledge. Rust, J., & Golombok, S. (2014). Modern Psychometrics: The science of psychological assessment. Routledge. Kraus, R., Stricker, G., & Speyer, C. (Eds.). (2010). online counseling: A handbook for mental health professionals. Academic Press. Oakland, T., & Harrison, P. L. (Eds.). (2011). Adaptive behavior assessment system-II: Clinical use and interpretation. Academic Press. Read More