Psyc Measurement and Testing (Bottom-Up)

Clinical Psychology

Branch of psych that focuses on the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of abnormal behavior

Examples of where clinical psychs are employed include

Mental hospitals, hospitals, independent practice, academia

Counseling Psychology

Branch of psych that shares similar concerns w/ clinical. Focuses moreso on the everyday concerns of human life (e.g. marriage, family, career)

Premorbid Functioning

Level of psychological and physical performance before a disorder/illness developed

Biopsychosocial assessment

multidisciplinary approach to assessment. explores relevant biological, psychological, social, and cultural variables.

Factors that play a role in insight to mental disorder

fatalism, self-efficacy, social support

Purpose of biopsychosocial assessment

Evaluating how variables may have contributed to the disorder/problem

Stress interview

Placing the interviewee in a pressured state

Hypnotic interview

Interviewee is under hypnosis

Cognitive interview

Rapport is established and the interviewee is encouraged to use imagery and retrieval to recall info

Collaborative interview

Allows the interviewee wide latitude to interact w/ the interviewer

Mental status examination

Examination used to screen for intellectual, emotional, neurological deficits

ADRESSING:

stands for: age, disability, religion, ethnicity, social status, sexual orientation, indigenous heritage, national origin, and gender

Forensic psych assessment

theory and application of psych eval in legal contexts

competence to stand trial

defendant’s ability to understand the charges against them and assist in their own defense

profiling

process that draws upon psych and criminological expertise applied to the evidence

Custody eval

Psych assessment of parents or guardians and their capacity and/or of children and their parental needs

Barnum effect

People tend to accept vague personality descriptions as accurate

Clinical prediction

application of one’s own training as a factor in clinical judgment and actions

Mechanical prediction

Application of empirically demonstrated rules/probabilities to the computer generation of findings and recommendations

Neurology

Branch of medicine that focuses on the nervous system

Neuropsych

Branch of psych that focuses on relationship between brain functioning and behavior

Neuropsych assessment

Evaluating brain and nervous system functioning as it relates to behavior

Neuotology

Branch of medicine that focuses on problems related to hearing, balance, facial nerves. Subsection of behavioral neurology

Neuron

nerve cell

Central nervous system

consists of the brain and the spinal cord

Peripheral nervous system

Consists of the neurons that convey messages to rest of body

Contralateral control

Each of the two cerebral hemispheres receive sensory info from the opposite sides of the body.

Neurological Damage

May take the form of a lesion in the brain, or any other site within NS

Lesion

Alteration of tissue such as that which could result from injury/infection

Brain damage

General reference to any physical/functional impairing in the CNS that results in deficit(s).

Organicity

Organic brain syndrome

Hard sign

Indicator of definite neurological deficit

Soft sign

Merely suggestive of deficit

Parkinson’s

Progressive illness that may also have several nonmotor symptoms associated w/ it

Deep brain stimulation

Neurosurgical treatement for use with patients who have advanced PD

Pattern analysis

Using certain patterns within tests to determine/indicate particular deficits

Executive function

Organizing, planning, etc. and the inhibition of impulses associated w/ frontal/prefrontal lobe of brain (e.g. mazes)

Clock-drawing test (CDT)

Test to quickly screen for certain executive functions

Trail-making item

Task that is thought to tap many abilities including working memory, ability to switch between tasks

Field-of-search item:

Testtaker must scan a field of various stimuli to match a sample

Perceptual test

General reference to any of many instruments and procedures used to eval aspects of sensory functionining

Motor test

Procedures used to evaluate one’s ability and mobility

Perceptual-motor test

Procedures used to evaluate both perceptual and motor ability

Aphasia

Loss of ability to express oneself or understand spoken/written language

Procedural memory

Memory for skills

Declarative memory

Memory of factual material

Semantic Memory

Memory for facts

Episodic Memory

Memory for facts in a particular context or situation

Implicit memory

Referred to as unconscious memory

Personality

An individual’s unique constellation of psychological traits that is relatively stable over time

Personality assessment

Measurement and eval of traits, values, attitudes etc.

Trait

Any distinguishable way in which one varies from another (Robert Holt)

Type-A Personality

Competitiveness, haste, impatience, need for dominance

Type-B

Laid back, mellow

Personality profile

Narrative description to which a person has demonstrated certain PTs

Personality state

exhibition of some personality trait

self-concept

one’s attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and related thoughts about theirself

SC differentiation

a person has different SCs in different roles

response style

tendency to respond to a test item or interview question in some characteristic manner regardless of the content of item/Q

impression management

trying to manipulate others impressions thru selective exposure of info, while suppressing other info

validity scale

subscale of test designed to assist in judgment regarding the honesty of the taker, and whether responses were products of response style, carelessness, etc

frame of reference

aspects of the focus of exploration such as the timeframe, as well as other issues that involve people, places, events

Q-sort technique

the task is to sort a group of statements in ranking order. Carl Rogers used this to identify discrepancies between the perceived and actual self

Nomothetic approach

efforts to learn how a limited # of PTs can be applied to everyone

Idiographic approach

efforts to learn about an individual’s collection of PTs

Criterion group

group of test takers who share specific characteristics; their response to test items serve as a standard according to which items will be included/excluded from a final version

empirical criterion keying

using criterion groups to dev. test items

MMPI

Has three validity scales: L scale, F scale, K scale

L Scale

question’s the examinee’s honesty

F scale

contains items that do not fall into any deviance, helps determine if the examinee randomly responded and/or is a malingerer.

K scale

associated with defensiveness and social desirability

Cannot Say Scale

fourth scale, denoted with “?” counts the number of times an examinee failed to respond to a Q (voluntary or involuntary)

Acculturation

Ongoing process by which one’s thoughts, values, etc. develop in relation to those of a particular cultural group

Instrumental values

Guiding principles to help one attain an objective (e.g. honesty)

Terminal values

guiding principles that are endpoint objectives (e.g. comfortable life, accomplishment)

Worldview

Assessees’ unique way of interpreting their perceptions as a result of their experiences, background, etc.

Integrative assessment

multidisciplinary approach to eval that assimilates input from relevant sources

aptitude tests

focus on informal learning or life experiences rather than structured learning

readiness

aptitude during preschool development time

psychoeducational test battery

test kit that contains both ability measure test and educational achievement measured test

performance task

work sample designed to elicit representative knowledge, skills, values from a domain of study

portfolio assessment

eval of one’s work samples

authentic assessment

eval of relevant, meaningful tasks that may be conducted to eval learning of respective subject matter. may also demonstrate the student’s application of that subject to real-world.

peer appraisal

helps call attention to one who is experiencing academic, social, personal, or work difficulties

interest measure

evals testtakers’ likes, dislikes, leisure activities, curiosities, etc. in pursuit for comparison with groups of occupations and professions

self-directed search

explores interests within the context of Holland’s (1997) theory of personality type and work environment

Bennet Mechanical Comprehension Test

Paper-pencil measure of one’s ability to understand the relationship between physical forces and various tools and other common objects

Integrity test

designed to predict employee theft, honesty, adherence to procedures, potential violence

Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

used to classify psychological type and shed light on the differences in ways humans take info and make decisions

screening

process of eval based on minimal standards, criteria, requirements

selection

each person evald for a position is either accepted or rejected

classification

categorization with respect to two or more criteria

placement

disposition, transfer, or assignment to group/category made on the basis of one criterion.

assessment center

tool used in selection that involves multiple techniques like paper-pencil and situational performance

physical tests

entails evaluation of one’s somatic health and intactness and observable sensory motor abilities

drug testing

used to determine the presence, if any, of alcohol and other psychotropic substances by means of laboratory analysis of blood, urine, hair

measure of productivity

helps define current position of a business and what’s required to reach goals

forced distribution

procedure in which distribution of a predetermined number of assessees into various categories

critical incident technique

supervisor records positive and negative employee behavior