Assessment Techniques in Counseling Final

Chapter 1 - Use of Assessment in Counseling

What is intelligence assessment?

Evaluation of cognitive abilities

What is ability assessment?

Assessment of acquired information (achievement) or an ability to acquire information (aptitude) about a particular subject matter or domain

What is career assessment?

Measure of a client's career development process as well as the content domains of that process

What is personality assessment?

Examination of individual attributes, types, and traits

What are the five steps to problem-solving?

1. Problem orientation

2. Problem identificaiton

3. Generation of alternatives

4. Decision-making

5. Verification

______________ ___________________ concerns how counselors and clients consider various issues that the client may be experiencing.

Problem orientation

________________ ___________________ concerns how counselors and clients clarify the nature of a problem or issue.

Problem identification

____________________ ______ ______________________ concerns the process in which counselors and clients work together to try to find alternative solutions for their issue.

Generation of alternatives

_________________ ___________________ concerns when counselors and clients determine the appropriate treatment for the client.

Decision making

___________________ concerns when counselors and clients evaluate the effectiveness of the implemented solution.

Verification

What was the first form of assessment?

Intelligence assessment

Most of the instruments mental health counselors administer, score, and/or interpret require additional ___________________.

training

What are the three main types of assessment in career counseling?

Interest, aptitude, and values testing

T or F: School counselors are more and more often required to make high-stakes decisions with the assessment findings from standardized tests.

True

What are the six key questions in selecting an assessment for a client?

1. Who is making the assessment?

2. What is being assessed?

3. Where is the assessment taking place?

4. When is the assessment occurring?

5. Why is the assessment being taken?

6. How is the assessment conducted?

Chapter 2 - The Assessment Process

______________ assessments allow information to be obtained from many people within a short period of time at relatively little cost.

Group

________________ assessments permit counselors to adapt the test administration to the needs of the client.

Individual

Standardized tests are _________________ while non-standardized tests are ___________________.

objective/more dependable, subjective/less reliable

_____________ tests place a heavy emphasis on speed of response while _____________ tests contain items of varying difficulty, most of which the person is expected to complete within the time limits.

Speed, power

_____________ scales provide subjective estimates of various behaviors or characteristics based on a rater's observations.

Rating

What are the five common errors of rating scales?

1. halo effect

2. error of central tendency

3. leniency error

4. drift

5. decay

What is the halo effect?

Rater shows a tendency of generalizing one aspect of the client to all other aspects

What is the error of central tendency/range of restriction error?

Rater shows a tendency to rate all people as "average"

What is the leniency error?

Rater shows a tendency to rate the characteristics of people more favorably than they should be rated

What is drift?

Systematic changes in how a variable is interpreted or defined over time

What is decay?

Decreased reliability in how well an event is observed (usually as a function of an increased observation period)

What is the semantic differential technique of rating?

Requires raters to rate concepts by a means of a series of bipolar scales (or rank-order scales)

What is the situational test of ranking?

Requires a person to perform a task in a situation that is similar to the situation for which the person is being evaluated

__________________ assessments use vague or ambiguous stimuli to which people must respond with their own interpretations.

Projective

____________________ observations refer to behaviors that can be observed and counted.

Behavioral

___________________ can be structured, where a more standardized set of questions is used to solicit client data, or unstructured, where there are no preset list of questions.

Interviews

____________________ measures refer to accomplishments or experiences as reported by the client or as reflected in historical records.

Biographical

_____________ includes information maintained in cumulative records by schools or in personnel records.

Biodata

______________________ data can be particularly helpful in understanding and monitoring client behavior because of the unique information it provides.

Physiological

What are Prochaska's five stages of change?

1. precontemplation

2. contemplation

3. preparation

4. action

5. maintenance

The assessment process functions as a cycle of four stages. What are these stages?

1. Test selection

2. Test administration

3. Test interpretation

4. Communication of findings

T or F: Therapists and clients should collaborate on test selection.

True

What is one of the largest databases for information on assessments?

Mental Measurements Yearbook

T or F: Communication of findings can occur both during and after test interpretation.

True

Chapter 3 - Ethical, Legal, & Professional Considerations in Assessment

The ________ code of ethics specifies principles of ethical conduct and standards of professional behavior for counselors.

ACA

The _________ code of ethics was developed based on the aforementioned ACA code of ethics as well as the RUST statement. This code provides 95 competencies, including the essential six competencies.

NBCC

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing provide criteria for evaluating both the _________ themselves and the use of the ________. (same word) Also prevents false advertising of testing.

tests

The Joint Committee on ______________ ________________ was established as a forum for associations to collaborate for the common good for fair, accessible, and appropriate use of tests.

Testing Practices

What are three major documents produced by the Joint Committee on Testing Practices?

1. Responsible Test Use

2. Rights and Responsibilities of Test Takers

3. Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education

The Standards for Qualifications of Test Users is a document that details seven competencies required of test administrators. Who was it developed by?

ACA

The ACA Position Statement on _________ ___________ Testing includes ten recommended principles to consider with use of high-stakes achievement tests.

High Stakes

The Responsibilities of Users of Standardized Tests was developed by the _________ and lists responsibilities of test users in seven categories.

AARC

The AARC also developed the Standards for ____________________ Assessment. This document has thirty-eight multicultural assessment standards that are categorized into five major clusters.

Multicultural

What are three ways that counselor competence in assessment is determined?

1. Test publishers

2. Professional associations

3. States

What are the three main concerns with assessment and client welfare?

1. Confidentiality (may have to report results to courts, etc.)

2. Test security

3. Use of tests in research (disclosing too much through informed consent)

What are four other professional issues in assessment?

1. Testing and technology

2. Counseling process

3. Test anxiety

4. Coaching

Chapter 4 - Multicultural Considerations in Assessment

What are the four areas of cultural competence outlined by the MSJCC?

1. counselor self-awareness

2. counseling relationship

3. client worldview

4. counseling and advocacy interventions

T or F: Culturally fair tests are completely free of bias.

False; as free as possible of bias

What is one of the most central consequences of bias in assessment?

Risk of misdiagnosis or misdirection in treatment

What are the four requirements to maintain fairness is testing?

1. Absence of bias

2. Equitable treatment

3. Equal standing and scoring

4. Equal learning

How does the culture of counseling impact assessment?

Different cultural and ethnic groups have different interpretations of counselors

T or F: Some counselors engage in discrimination.

True

What are three of the main mistakes counselors make in the clinical decision-making process?

1. Underdiagnosis

2. Overdiagnosis

3. Misdiagnosis

How can counselors avoid being misled by rates of mental disorders?

Consider the cultural contexts of collected rates

Client ________________ can impact assessment since different racial groups may be influenced to perform in different ways due to stereotyping.

motivation

______________ impacts assessment through language and stereotyping. By replacing words like policeman with police officer, language challenges can be combatted.

Gender

Dynamic testing is a method of removing bias from assessment. What does it entail?

Counselors provide minimal instruction and observe the client's performance. Can immediately gauge further instructional needs.

_____________ counselors are usually involved in and often responsible for the organization and administration of testing and accommodations.

School

Assessments of older adults are often adapted based on their _______________ abilities.

cognitive

Chapter 5 - Measurement Concepts

What are the four scales of measurement?

nominal, ordinal, interval, ratio

_____________ scales are used for naming or classification ONLY.

Nominal

____________ scales are used to indicate magnitude of variables, but they lack clear intervals between variables.

Ordinal

______________ scales indicate both magnitude and equal intervals between variables, but they do not have an absolute zero.

Interval

__________ scales indicate magnitude, equal intervals, and have an absolute zero.

Ratio

_______________ is to the consistency of reported scores of a measure, while ______________ is to the truth or accuracy of scores of a measure.

Reliability, validity

What are the five major types of reliability?

1. Test-retest reliability

2. Alternate forms reliability

3. Split-half reliability

4. Inter-item reliability

5. Interrater reliability

_______________ reliability measures consistency over time. A test is administered to the same individual twice over a period of time.

Test-retest

_______________________ reliability ensures that items are consistent (alternate forms produce the same results). Two tests that measure the same content are administered in the same day (or nearly the same day).

Alternate-forms

Split-half, inter-item, and interrater reliability all measure ______________ consistency.

internal

T or F: Split-half reliability entails administering comparable halves of a test to the same individual back-to-back.

False; administered to two different individuals

_________________ consistency assesses the extent to which the items on a test are related to each other AND the total score.

Interitem

What are the two types of invalidity?

1. Construct underrepresentation

2. Construct irrelevant variance

What are the four types of validity?

1. Content validity

2. Construct validity

3. Criterion validity

4. Treatment validity

______________ validity refers to the representativeness of items from a population of items (i.e., how well do the items represent a domain of interest?).

Content

______________ validity pertains to validity evidence obtained by comparing test scores with performance on a criterion measure (i.e., grades, diagnosis, job satisfaction).

Criterion

What are the two types of criterion validity?

1. concurrent validity

2. predictive validity

Construct validity concerns the relatedness of the test results to the desired ________________ of measurement.

variable(s)

Test scores should both be similar to and different from tests that measure the same constructs, or they should possess ______________ and _______________ validity.

convergent, discriminant

Chapter 7 - Initial Assessment in Counseling

The purpose of the _____________ interview is to assess the nature and severity of the client's problems and to determine possible treatment programs.

intake

What is the anchoring error of judgment?

Placing too much emphasis on information obtained early in the interview

What is the availability error of judgment?

Relying too much on one's favorite theory or on popular diagnoses

What is the diagnostic overshadowing error of judgment?

Ignoring or minimizing problems because they are less noticeable or are of less interest to the counselor

What is the attribution error of judgment?

Attributing the problem primarily to the client without giving sufficient consideration to the environment

The _____________ ________________ examination is used to assess client level of functioning through a series of questions and observations.

mental status

T or F: The mental status examination can be used to make a diagnosis.

False; can help suggest areas of further assessment, though

Screening inventories are administered in a (self-report/interview) format.

self-report

Screening inventories measure three aspects of a client's recent symptoms of mental illness. What are they?

1. Frequency

2. Intensity

3. Duration

Counselors screen for _______________ with measures like the Columbia.

suicidality

The DSM-5-TR moved from a categorical model of mental illness to a _______________ model.

dimensional