History, Cultural, Legal, and Ethical Considerations in Assessment

Vocabulary flashcards covering the historical evolution, cultural factors, legal precedent, legislation, and ethical standards in psychological assessment.

Imperial Examination

State-sponsored examinations (meritocratic) originating in China around 2200 B.C.E. used to select government officials efficiently, formally, and meritocratically based on general knowledge.

Christian von Wolff

An 18th-century scholar who in 1732 and 1734 anticipated psychology as a science and psychological measurement as a specialty within that science.

Francis Galton

An influential contributor to measurement who aspired to classify people according to their natural gifts (1869), devised questionnaires and rating scales, and pioneered the correlation coefficient.

Wilhelm Max Wundt

A German psychologist at the University of Leipzig who focused on general descriptions of human abilities and viewed individual differences as a frustrating source of error in experimentation.

James McKeen Cattell

A student of Wundt who studied individual differences in reaction time, coined the term "mental test" in 1890, and helped found the Psychological Corporation in 1921.

He founded a number of publications (Psychological Review, Science, and American Men of Science).

Lightner Witmer

The little-known founder of clinical psychology who established the first psychological clinic at the University of Pennsylvania in 1896 and founded the journal Psychological Clinic in 1907.

Emil Kraepelin

A psychiatrist who was an early experimenter with the word association technique as a formal test in 1896.

Victor Henri & Alfred Binet

Collaborated in 1896 to suggest that mental tests could be used to measure higher mental processes

Charles Spearman

A psychologist credited with originating the concept of test reliability and building the mathematical framework for factor analysis.

Binet-Simon Scale

A 30-item measuring scale of intelligence published in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon to help identify Paris schoolchildren with intellectual disability.

David Wechsler

Introduced a test designed to measure adult intelligence.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS)

It was first termed as Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (1993). The extend the age range of testtakers from early childhood through senior adulthood was also developed.

Intelligence

The aggregate or global capacity of the individual to act purposefully, to think rationally, and to deal effectively with his environment.

Group Intelligence tests

Developed by Binet came into being in the United States in response to the military's need for an efficient method of screening the intellectual ability of World War I recruits in US and prepared for entry into World War II.

Army Alpha Test

A group intelligence test administered to World War I recruits who could read, containing tasks such as general information questions, analogies, and scrambled sentences.

Army Beta Test

A group intelligence test designed for foreign-born recruits with poor English knowledge or illiterate recruits who could not read a newspaper or write a letter home.

Late 1930s

Approximately 4,000 different psychological tests were in print and clinical psychology was synonymous with mental testing.

Robert S. Woodworth

A governmental Committee on Emotional Fitness was assigned in developing a measure of adjustment and emotional stability that could be administered quickly and efficiently to groups of recruits, w/c is Personal Data is Sheet.

Personal Data Sheet (PDS)

A measure of adjustment developed by Robert S. Woodworth and the Committee on Emotional Fitness during World War I to screen recruits' general emotional stability using yes-or-no questions.

Woodworth Psychoneurotic Inventory

The first widely used self-report measure of personality, developed for civilian use after World War I based on the Personal Data Sheet.

Self-Report

A process whereby assessees themselves supply assessment-related information by responding to questions, keeping a diary, or self-monitoring thoughts or behaviors.

Henry A. Murray, Christiana D. Morgan, and their colleagues

At the Harvard Psychological Clinic used projective stimuli for assessment such as the pictures or photos.

Projective Test

An assessment method in which an individual is assumed to project their unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivations onto an ambiguous stimulus such as an inkblot, drawing, or photograph.

Culture

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

Culture-Specific Tests

Tests designed for use with people from one culture but not from another.

Laws

Rules that individuals must obey for the good of 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

A formal body of principles that 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.

Minimum Competency Testing Programs

Testing programs focused on students' education, grade promotions, awarding of diplomas, and identification of areas for remedial instruction.

Truth-in-Testing Legislation

Laws requiring the disclosure of test answers, purpose, scoring procedures, error notifications, and confidentiality policies within 30 days of test score publication for postsecondary admissions tests.

Reverse Discrimination

The practice of making distinctions in hiring, promotion, or selection decisions that systematically tend to favor members of a minority group regardless of actual qualifications.

Disparate Treatment

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

Disparate Impact

The consequence of an employer's hiring or promotion practice that unintentionally resulted in a discriminatory result or outcome.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990

Legislation mandating that employment testing materials and procedures must be essential to the job and not discriminate against persons with handicaps.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 (amended 1991)

Legislation (Equal Opportunity Employment Act) making it an unlawful employment practice to adjust scores, use different cutoff scores, or alter test results on the basis of race, religion, sex, or national origin.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (1974)

Legislation establishing that parents and eligible students must be given access to school records and have a right to challenge findings in records by a hearing.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)

Federal legislation providing privacy standards that limit the ways in which health care providers and others can use patients' personal information.

Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142)

1975 law mandating screening for children suspected of handicaps, requiring qualified team evaluations and periodic reevaluations, later amended to extend protections downward to infants and toddlers.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 (PL 105-17)

Legislation stating children should not be inappropriately placed in special education due to cultural differences and requiring accommodations for district- and state-wide assessments.

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (2015)

Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 (NCLB) designed to close achievement gaps by setting strict standards for school accountability and periodic assessments.

Hobson v. Hansen (1967)

U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ability tests developed on white students could not lawfully be used to track Black students in the school system because it could result in resegregation.

Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California (1974)

Landmark case ruling that therapists and psychological assessors must reveal privileged information if a third party is endangered, establishing that protective privilege ends where public peril begins.

Larry P. v. Riles (1979, 1986)

California ruling that the use of intelligence tests to place Black children in special classes had a discriminatory influence because the tests were racially and culturally biased.

Debra P. v. Turlington (1981)

Federal court ruling that minimum competency testing in Florida was unconstitutional because it perpetuated the effects of past discrimination.

Griggs v. Duke Power Company (1971)

U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling against broad testing devices and requiring employment tests to fairly measure the knowledge or skills required by a particular job.

Albemarle Paper Company v. Moody (1976)

Court ruling establishing that discriminatory consequences in employment testing are unlawful even if unintended.

Regents of the University of California v. Bakke (1978)

U.S. Supreme Court ruling ordering Alan Bakke's admission to medical school while affirming that diversity considerations in admissions decisions are not precluded.

Allen v. District of Columbia (1993)

Court decision finding in favor of a fire department's promotion test, ruling that the examination was a valid measure of abilities and probable future success despite score differences.

Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena et al. (1995)

U.S. Supreme Court 5-4 decision ruling that federal affirmative action policies must meet strict scrutiny, stating government may treat people differently by race only for compelling reasons.

Jaffee v. Redmond (1996)

Supreme Court decision establishing that communication between a psychotherapist/assessor and a patient/client is privileged in federal courts.

Grutter v. Bollinger (2003)

U.S. Supreme Court ruling approving the time-limited use of race in admissions decisions to further the educational benefits of student body diversity.

Mitchell v. State (2008)

Nevada Supreme Court ruling that a court order for a compulsory psychiatric examination of a criminal defendant did not violate his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

Ricci v. DeStefano (2009)

U.S. Supreme Court ruling forbidding public sector employers from using race-conscious remedies (such as altering cutoff scores) without a strong basis in evidence.

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 institution (e.g., achievement or proficiency tests).

Level B Test-User Qualification

Tests or aids requiring technical knowledge of test construction, statistics, individual differences, and psychology of adjustment (e.g., aptitude tests and adjustment inventories).

Level C Test-User Qualification

Tests and aids requiring substantial understanding of testing and supporting psychological fields along with supervised experience (e.g., projective tests, individual mental tests).

Computer-Assisted Psychological Assessment (CAPA)

The use of computers in psychological test administration, scoring, and interpretation.

Right to Privacy

The freedom of an individual to pick and choose for himself the time, circumstances, and extent to which he wishes to share or withhold his attitudes, beliefs, behavior, and opinions.