Psychological Testing and Assessment - Essay Example

Psychological Testing and Assessment al Affiliation Psychological Testing and Assessment A psychological assessment refers to an attempt by a skilled professional or counselor, in most cases a psychologist, to use the various techniques and mechanisms of psychology to learn a particular fact about another individual. The assessment can either be used to give information to others about how they function at present or to predict how they will behavior and functioning in the future times (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). This exercise often involves the use of tests and do not involve defined procedures and steps. It contributes to various decision processes to specific human problems, redefining and breaking them down into smaller pieces or in certain circumstances highlighting particular part(s) of the problem. This assessment requires the counselors to consider, evaluate and integrate data sets before producing results that aren’t based on psychometric grounds (Groth-Marnat, 2009). Psychologists do administer tests and assessments for a wide variety of reasons, and these evaluations tend to serve a similar purpose. They use these tests and other assessment tools to measure and observe a person’s behavior so as to achieve a diagnosis and guide on adequate treatments (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Question one There are several resources that are available to assist the counselors in selecting psychological tests and assessments and these include: Informal surveys. These provide crucial information for individuals, focusing more importantly on groups. They assist in assessment selection in providing information about groups and further in informing decisions made on them. In particular instances where surveys have focused on individual outcomes, they are constructed using scales (Wright, 2011). Interview information. These interviews that usually provide very crucial information about clients can either be structured or unstructured. The structured ones are usually designed to provide a diagnosis for a client by asking detailed questions with a forced choice format and are usually broken up into different parts reflecting the diagnosis being dealt with (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). These kinds of interviews often use closed questions that call for simple pre-determined answers. The unstructured interviews, on the other hand, do allow the clients to have a higher level of control of the topics at hand and the direction taken by the interviews. They are more preferred in situations of general information gathering as opposed to the structured interviews that are often used for specific information gathering. These interviews, unlike the structured ones, make use of open questions. As a result, they seek for more elaborations and explanations to the facts presented (Wright, 2011). School or medical records. In performing psychological assessments, one of the useful and available resources would be the client’s records kept by their schools or medical facilities. A lot of information can be derived from such files that can be used to assess the clients. Historical problems and conditions could help in examining the client’s psychological needs to influence the appropriate assessment measures. Such vital information can be obtained from the medical records before testing is carried out (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Observation data. Particular psychological assessment techniques and measures could be purposefully considered from the observation data obtained from various individuals to undergo various treatments. This, however, would invalidate the key principle of free response required for psychological assessment (Coaley, 2010). Clinical interviews. These resources are made available when the psychologist gets speaks to a client regarding his or her concerns and history. They then get equipped with the knowledge of how their clients think reason and interact with the other people. It may involve interviewing other people who could be deemed close to these clients including their coworkers, family relations and teachers. This, however, should be done with their full consent. Together, testing and assessment allows a psychologist to see the full picture of a persons strengths and limitations (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Question two Some of the most important issues a counselor should consider when selecting a psychological test for his or her various clients would include: The Content of the tests. The counselor must consider the fact that a set of tests that, for instance, would be used to measure similar characteristics or attributes of individuals would require the clients to perform behaviors that are significantly different or answer to different questions. The structuring of the tests should be carried out in a way that it addresses particular attributes or individual characteristics. Theoretical orientations should also be an essential component guiding the differences in the contents of these tests (Wright, 2011). The administration and format of the tests. Psychological tests can reasonably differ both in their formats and in how they are administered. They can either be administered in paper and pencil format to individuals or groups of individuals or on a computer set up or through verbal administration. These tests can also be in the structured formats where closed questions are used or the unstructured formats that utilize the open-ended questions. Others can have a mixture of both the formats hence it is up to the counselors to make guided choices on these selections In (Cicchetti & In Cohen, 2006) Scoring and interpretation. In various circumstances, psychological tests can also differ in terms of how they are scored and interpreted. Some are hand scored by the test givers while others are computer scored. The clients themselves best score others on the other hand. When interpreting these tests, it is important to consider too that some usually generate results that are easily interpreted while others do in some situations require a referral to more knowledgeable professional to give detailed and accurate feedbacks (Groth-Marnat, 2009). The psychometric quality of the tests. The tests offered to the clients should be made to measure what they claim to measure, and the conclusions drawn from them appropriate. Good tests should conform to the concepts of reliability and validity. Reliability means the consistency of the test results. Validity refers mostly to how well a test measures what it says it does. The test results should also be made to be inclusive enough especially in cases where normative samples or a general population is considered (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). Question three Psychological tests should not be regarded as one-size-fits-all measures. Thus, every counselor has got to pick and choose a particular set of assessments and tests for each of his/her individual clients. In the determination of the appropriate tests for the clients, the counselors should a) Perform a comprehensive assessment of his clients using their historical and test scores. These would help provide guidance to the necessary and specific assessments that would be required by particular clients (Cohen, Swerdlik, & Sturman, 2013). b) Understand the nature and rights of the parties involved, in particular, psychological assessment suits, concerning the test takers and tests utilizers. This would have an impact on the nature and the specific psychological tests that would be preferred. c) Through the interviews and after careful observation of the client, the counselor should be in a position to specify the appropriate diagnosis and tests to be given to particular patients. Reference Coaley, K. (2010). An introduction to psychological assessment and psychometrics. London: SAGE. Cohen, R. J., Swerdlik, M. E., & Sturman, E. D. (2013). Psychological testing and assessment: An introduction to tests and measurement (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Companies. ISBN-13: 9780078035302. Groth-Marnat, G. (2009). Handbook of psychological assessment. Hoboken, N.J: John Wiley & Sons. In Cicchetti, D., & In Cohen, D. J. (2006). Developmental Psychopathology: Volume One. Wright, A. J. (2011). Conducting psychological assessment: A guide for practitioners. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley. Read More