Chapter 2: Historical, Cultural, and Legal/Ethical Considerations Flashcards

Vocabulary-style flashcards covering the historical, cultural, legal, and ethical aspects of psychological testing and assessment based on the lecture notes.

Imperial examination system

A formal, meritocratic selection process for government officials in China beginning in the seventh century and lasting until 1906.

Charles Darwin

Author of On the Origin of Species (1859) who spurred scientific interest in individual differences through his theories on natural selection and adaptivity.

Francis Galton

A researcher who aspired to classify people according to their natural gifts and pioneered the use of the statistical concept of the coefficient of correlation.

Wilhelm Max Wundt

A medical doctor who founded the first experimental psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, focusng on how people are similar rather than different.

James McKeen Cattell

An American psychologist who coined the term mental test in an 1890 publication and was instrumental in founding the Psychological Corporation.

Lightner Witmer

Cited as the little-known founder of clinical psychology, he founded the first psychological clinic in the United States at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896.

Alfred Binet

Collaborated with Theodore Simon to create a 30-item measuring scale of intelligence in 1905 to identify Paris schoolchildren with intellectual disability.

David Wechsler

A clinical psychologist who introduced the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale in 1939, designed to measure adult intelligence.

Robert S. Woodworth

Chair of the Committee on Emotional Fitness who developed the Personal Data Sheet, the first widely used self-report measure of personality.

Self-report

A process where assessees supply assessment-related information by responding to questions, keeping a diary, or monitoring their own thoughts or behaviors.

Projective test

A type of test, such as the Rorschach inkblots, in which an individual is assumed to project unique needs, fears, and hopes onto an ambiguous stimulus.

Culture

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

Henry H. Goddard

A controversial researcher who used Binet's test at Ellis Island and concluded that the majority of certain immigrant groups were feebleminded.

Eugenics

The science of improving the qualities of a breed, such as humans, through intervention with factors related to heredity.

Culture-specific tests

Tests designed for use with people from one culture but not from another, attempting to isolate cultural variables.

Individualist culture

A culture that values self-reliance, autonomy, and independence, typically associated with the United States and Great Britain.

Collectivist culture

A culture that values conformity, cooperation, and group goals, typically associated with many countries in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI)

A DSM-5 tool consisting of 16 questions designed to help clinicians comprehensively account for relevant cultural factors during assessment.

Affirmative action

Voluntary or mandatory efforts undertaken by governments and employers to combat discrimination and promote equal opportunity in education and employment.

Disparate treatment

The legal term for the consequence of an employer's hiring or promotion practice that was intentionally devised to yield a discriminatory result.

Disparate impact

The legal term for the consequence of an employer's hiring or promotion practice that unintentionally yielded a discriminatory result.

Standard of care

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

Truth-in-testing legislation

State-level laws beginning in the 1980s that mandate the disclosure of criteria and answers for postsecondary and professional school admissions tests.

Level C tests

Tests requiring substantial understanding of testing and supporting psychological fields together with supervised experience, such as individual mental tests.

Oregon's Death with Dignity Act (ODDA)

A law providing that terminally ill patients may request lethal medication, contingent on a psychological evaluation of competence and psychiatric health.

Informed consent

The right of testtakers to know why they are being evaluated, how data will be used, and what info will be released before agreeing to testing.

Privileged information

Data protected by law from disclosure in legal proceedings, such as communications within a psychologist-client relationship.

Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California

A 1974 case where the court ruled that protective privilege ends where public peril begins, establishing a therapist's duty to warn endangered third parties.

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals

A 1993 Supreme Court case that gave federal judges wide discretion in acting as gatekeepers for what qualifies as scientific evidence in court.

Frye v. the United States

A 1923 case establishing that scientific research is admissible as evidence only if the study or method enjoys general acceptance in the scientific community.