Cog Assessment - Week 1 Sldies

Week 1 Lecture - APA Ethics

enforceable standards in apa ethics

• pertains only to role as a doctoral level psychologist/student

• does not apply to personal life

• does not apply to work doing in another facet of psychology

• does not equate to legal obligation (unless crime was committed)

standard 9.01 - bases for assessment

• base opinions/recommendation on info obtained from findigns

• opinions/recs must be created after admisitration, scores, interpretation, and synthesized data

document efforts to clarify impact + state limitations

standard 9.02 - use of assessment

• select measures that are appropriate and useful

• validity/reliability of assessment must have been established for the population being used; state limittations of validity/reliability is not established

• assessment measures must be appropriate for client language preference and competency

standard 9.03 - informed consent

• obtain before conducting assessment unless mandated by law

• explain in understandable language

• obtain interpreters if needed

standard 9.04 - release of test data

• raw and scaled scores, examinee responses, records, recordings, testing observations

• may refrain from releasing data to client to protect them from harm or misuse/misrepresentation

standard 9.05 - test construction

• if making a new test,, use appropriate psychometric properties and scientific/professional knowledge regarding standardization, test design, validation, reduction of bias, and intended use

standard 9.06 - interpretation of assessment results

• take into account contextual factors and other data sources

standard 9.07 - assessment by unqualified persons

• must be a trainee under direct supervision of someone trained in assessment

standard 9.08 - obsolete tests and outdated tests results

• dont base assessment on intervention or decision on outdated tests

  • they can be used, but must discuss limitation of it being outdated

standard 9.09 - test scoring and interpretation

• describe test in your interpretation (what it measures, what scoring it uses, validity/reliability)

• psychologists are responsible for assessment data

standard 9.10 - explaining assessent results

• provide results to the intended recipient in a way they can understand

standard 9.11 - maintain test security

• responsible for maintaining test security or may lead to legal consequences and/or ethical sanctions

intelligence

generally attributes to adaptation to the environment, basic mental processes, and higher order thinking

cognitive reserves

capacity to maintain normal cogntion in the presence of brain pathology (function)

• think cognition level

brain reserve

brains resillience in the presence of brain pathology (structure)

• structure: the weaker the structure (due to pathology), the less cogntive reserve (cognitive level)

developmental considerations of intelligence

• infant development is passive

• early childhood - fund of info increases rapidly

• late adolescnce/early adulthod - development of frontal lobe and exectuive functions

• adulthood - fluid reasoning; short term memory and processing decline with age but long term memory shows little decline

window of plasticity

• 0-10/12 years old

• time when brain is most malleable and characterized by rapid growth and developments

• as window closes, cognitive abilities become more stable and less liekly to change

strengths of intelligence tests

• predicts success in wider endeavors

• reveal talents and improve educational opportunities for gifted students

• provide standardized ways of comparison

• measures ability to compete is society in ways that have economic and social consequences

• provide profile of cognitive strengths/weakness

limitations of intelligence tests

• limited understanding of intelliegence

• classifies people into categorical stereotypes

• knowledge of IQ may inhibit individual aspiration and affect self concept

• failures to measure underlying responses (ex. guessing)

• cannot capture multidimensional nature of intelligence

• fail to give credit to unconventional, orginal, or novel responses

role of an evaluator

• have characteristics: professional, self aware, prepared, and flexible

• ability to observe: appeareance, motor skills, verbal/nonverbal, attitude, attention, and mood/affect

• assess: using appropriate tests with accommodations as needed, knowing the test materials and setting up setting with materials, reading instructions

beware of expectancy efects

• can indadvertly lead to forming overgeneralization

• be prepared but flexible

• manuals/standard test do not account for every possible nuance

how to mitigate or reduce potential expectancy effects

• looks for confirmatory or divergent info

• formualte alternate hypothesis

• use statistical info to support/refute hypothesis

• send feedback from others regarding accuracy and usefulness of acquired info