Psychological Assessment Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards based on lecture notes about psychological assessment, covering key terms, definitions, and concepts discussed in the course.

Psychological Assessment

An in-depth assessment to obtain a comprehensive picture of an individual’s functioning for the purposes of identifying challenges, diagnosing, as well as identifying problems, disorders and to facilitate treatment/therapeutic intervention.

Assessment Measures

Different procedures that can be used in psychological, occupational, and educational assessment and can be administered to individuals, groups, and organizations; a broader term for tests.

Assessment Tool

An objective, standardized measure that is used to gather data for a specific purpose (e.g. to determine what a person’s intellectual capacity is).

Assessment battery

A compilation of tests used for a particular presenting problem.

Psychometrics

A subfield of psychology that refers to the manner in which psychological measures are developed and the technical measurement standards (e.g., reliability and validity) required.

Astrology

The study of positions and movements of celestial bodies, with the conviction that they influence human behaviour.

Physiognomy

The art of reading personality traits from faces.

Humorology

The understanding that differences in people’s moods were associated with four body humours or fluids (blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm).

Phrenology

The ‘science’ of linking the contours on the skull to various personality characteristics.

Graphology

Systematic study of handwriting as an expression of personality characteristics.

Random Error

Errors that function in a random way, affecting measurement accuracy unpredictably.

Systematic Measurement Error

Constant errors of measurement that occur when all test scores are excessively high or low.

Category scales

Generates categorical data, specifically ordinal data, to classify behavior or characteristics without focusing on intensity or agreement.

Likert-type scales

Generates categorical data; commonly used due to its easy usability and easier implementation in assessment measures, measuring the intensity of attitudes or behaviors.

Semantic Differential Scales

Provides a series of semantic differentials or opposites to measure the meaning of concepts.

Intensity scales

Extreme poles of the response given with no descriptors or categories between these two poles.

Constant-sum scales

The respondent is requested to allocate a fixed percentage or proportion of marks between different available options.

Paired-comparison scales

Respondents are requested to divide 100 marks between or allocate 100 points to two attributes.

Graphic rating scales

Response scale is presented in the form of a visual display.

Forced – choice scales

Respondent is asked to choose options that best describe them (normally for the purposes of assessing intra-individual differences).

Ipsative Scales

“Force” respondents to compare two or more item options from different scales and pick one that is most preferred.

Guttman Scales

Developed to test the single dimensionality of a set of items.

Mean

Calculated by the sum of all scores divided by the number of scores; the average.

Median

The middle number when you arrange a set of numbers in order from smallest to largest.

Mode

The most frequently occurring score.

Norm-referenced measures

Test-takers performance is interpreted relative to a standardization sample or norm group.

Criterion-referenced measures

Compare the test-takers performance with the attainment of a defined skill or content.

Norm

A measurement against which an individual’s raw score is evaluated so that the individual’s position relative to that of the normative sample can be determined.

Developmental Scales

Rationale is that certain human characteristics increase progressively with increases in age and experience.

Percentiles

A percentile rank score is the percentage of people in a normative standardization sample who fall at or below a given raw score.

Standard Scores

Classified as z-scores; linearly transformed z-scores and normalised standard scores.

Deviation IQ Scale

Used by well-known individual intelligence measures – consists of a normalised standard score with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.

Test-retest Reliability

The reliability of a measure when administered twice to the same group of people.

Alternate-form Reliability

Two equivalent forms of the same measure are administered to the same group on two different occasions.

Split-half Reliability

Obtained by splitting the measure into two equivalent halves (after a single administration of the test) and computing the correlation coefficient between these two sets of scores; also called “coefficient of internal consistency”.

Inter-item consistency

Obtained using the Kuder-Richardson method where the items are scored either a 1 or 0 (for right or wrong responses).

Inter-scorer reliability

Determined by having all the test-takers’ test protocols scored by two practitioners; the correlation coefficient between these two sets of scores reflects the inter-scorer reliability coefficient.

Intra-scorer reliability

Refers to the consistency of ratings for a single rater; repeated ratings or scores by the same rater would give an indication of the degree of error variance between such ratings for that particular rater.

Content Validity

Ensures that a test covers all relevant aspects of the construct it intends to measure.

Construct Validity

Ensures the test accurately measures the psychological concept it is supposed to measure.

Criterion Validity

Measures how well a test predicts future performance or aligns with an existing gold standard.

Face Validity

Type of validity in non-psychometric or non-statistical terms; does not refer to what the test actually measures, but rather to what it appears to measure.

Factorial Validity

Technique used for analysing the interrelationships of variables; aims to determine the underlying structure or dimensions of a set of variables.

Convergent Validity

Measure demonstrates construct validity when it correlates highly with other variables with which it should theoretically correlate.

Discriminant Validity

Measure demonstrates construct validity when it correlates minimally with variables from which it should differ.

Concurrent Validity

The accuracy with which a measure can identify or diagnose the current behaviour or status regarding specific skills or characteristics of an individual.

Predictive Validity

Accuracy of a measure to predict future behaviour or functioning of an individual.

Test

Standardized tool measuring one trait, such as an IQ Test (WAIS-IV).

Assessment Measure

Any tool used in psychological assessment, like a personality questionnaire.

Testing

One-time evaluation using a test, for example, a school IQ Test.

Assessment Battery

Combination of multiple tests, such as a neuropsychological battery for ADHD including a clinical interview, attention test, and cognitive test.

Psychological Assessment

Comprehensive evaluation using multiple methods, resulting in a full psychological report for clinical diagnosis.

Telepsychology

The practice of psychology using technology, often involving remote therapy or assessment.

Reliability

Refers to the consistency of a psychological assessment tool in measuring what it is intended to measure.