PSYASS - CHAP 2

Francis Galton

• Aspired to classify people "according to their natural gifts"

• Peas

• Coefficient of correlation

• Anthropocentric Records

• Sparked the interest in psych-related variable

Wilhelm Wundt

• First expe psych lab

• How are people similar?

James McKeen Cattel

• Dissertation in individual differences

• "Mental Test"

• Influenced by Galton

Charles Spearman

• Reliability

• Factor analysis

Victor Henri, Alfred Binet

Made papers suggesting how mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes.

Emil Kraeplin

An early experimenter with word association test.

David Wechsler

• Adult Intelligence (WAIS)

• Binet Developed Group Intelligence Tests (because of the World Wars)

Woodworth

• Developed the Woodworth Psychoneurotic Inventory

• First widely used self-report test of personality

• Respondents may have a poor insight into themselves

• Rise of the projective tests

The 20th Century

The birth of the first formal tests of intelligence.

Measurement of Personality

• The field of psych was too test oriented

• Not only intelligence, but also general adjustment and emotional stability

• "Personal Data Sheet" - probed for the existence of psychopathology

Academic Tradition

Furthering knowledge about human or animal behavior.

Applied Tradition

Administration of competitive civil service exams.

Culture

The socially transmitted behavior patterns, and products of work of particular population, community, or group of people.

Henry H. Goddard

He raised questions about how meaningful such tests are when used with people from various cultural and language backgrounds.

Henry H. Goddard

Found most immigrants from various nationalities to be mentally deficient when tested.

• Verbal communication

• Non-verbal communication and Behavior

• Standards of evaluation

• Tests and Group Memberships

Enumerate some issues regarding culture and assessment (4)

Affirmative action

Refers to voluntary and mandatory efforts undertaken by federal, state, and local governments, private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and to promote equal opportunity for all in education and employment.

Laws

Rules that individuals must obey for the good of the society as a whole—or rules thought to be for the good of society as a whole.

Ethics

A body of principles of right, proper, or good conduct.

Code of professional ethics

Recognized and accepted by members of a profession, it defines the standard of care expected of members of that profession.

Standard of care

The level at which the average, reasonable, and prudent professional would provide diagnostic or therapeutic services under the same or similar conditions.

Truth-in-testing legislation

The primary objective of these laws was to give test takers a way to learn the criteria by which they are being judged.

Discrimination

May be defined as the practice of making distinctions in hiring, promotion, or other selection decisions that tend to systematically favor members of a majority group regardless of actual qualifications for positions.

Reverse Discrimination

May be defined as the practice of making distinctions in hiring, promotion, or other selection decisions that systematically tend to favor members of a minority group regardless of actual qualifications for positions.

Disparate treatment

Refers to the consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that was intentionally devised to yield some discriminatory result or outcome.

Disparate impact

Refers to the consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that unintentionally resulted in a discriminatory result or outcome.

Litigation

Interpretations of existing law in the form of decisions handed down by courts.

Litigation

Sometimes referred to as “judge-made law” because it typically comes in the form of a ruling by a court.

Level A

Test-user qualification:

Tests or aids that can adequately be administered, scored, and interpreted with the aid of the manual and a general orientation to the kind of institution or organization in which one is working (for instance, achievement or proficiency tests).

Level B

Test-user qualifications:

Tests or aids that require some technical knowledge of test construction and use and of supporting psychological and educational fields such as statistics, individual differences, psychology of adjustment, personnel psychology, and guidance (e.g., aptitude tests and adjustment inventories applicable to normal populations).

Level C

Test-user qualifications:

Tests and aids that require substantial understanding of testing and supporting psychological fields together with supervised experience in the use of these devices (for instance, projective tests, individual mental tests).

Testing people with disabilities

1. Transforming the test into a form that can be taken by the test taker,

2. Transforming the responses of the test taker so that they are scorable,

3. Meaningfully interpreting the test data.

The right of informed consent

Test takers have a right to know why they are being evaluated, how the test data will be used, and what (if any) information will be released to whom.

The right to be informed of test findings

Giving realistic information about test performance to examinees is not only ethically and legally mandated but may be useful from a therapeutic perspective as well are being made as a consequence of the test data.

The right to privacy and confidentiality

The concept of the privacy right “recognizes the freedom of the individual to pick and choose for himself the time, circumstances, and particularly the extent to which he wishes to share or withhold from others his attitudes, beliefs, behavior, and opinions.”

The right to the least stigmatizing label

Protect the test taker from any rumors, etc.

Client, Psychologist

Privilege in the psychologist–client relationship belongs to the __________, not the __________.