Psychological

Testing and
Assessment
Chapter
Contents
A. Testing and
Assessment
B. Tools of
Psychological
Assessment
C. Who, What, Why,
How, and Where
Testing
• The term used to refer to everything
from the administration of a test. The
use of testing to denote everything
from test administration to test
interpretation can be found in
postwar textbooks, as well as in
various test-related writings for
decades thereafter. However, by
World War II a semantic distinction
between testing and a more inclusive
term, assessment, began to emerge.
 Psychological
Assessment
• The gathering and
integration of
psychology- related data
for the purpose of making
a psychological
evaluation that is
accomplished using tools
such as tests, interviews,
case studies, behavioral
observation, and
specially designed
apparatuses and
measurement
procedures.
Psychological
Test
• The process of
measuring
psychology-related
variables by means
of devices or
procedures
designed to obtain
a sample of
behavior.
Differences between Psychological Testing and Assessment

Testing Assessment

Objectives Typically, to obtain some gauge, usually Typically, to answer a referral question,
numerical in nature, with regards to an solve a problem, or arrive at a decision
ability or attribute. through the use of tools of evaluation.

Process After test administration the tester will Assessment more typically focuses on
typically add up “the number of correct how an individual processes rather than
answers or the number of certain types of simply the results of that processing.
responses with little if any regard for the
how or mechanics of such content”
(Maloney & Ward, 1976, p. 39).
Differences between Psychological Testing and Assessment

Testing Assessment

Role of The tester is not key to the process. The assessor is key to the process of
Evaluator One tester may be substituted for selecting tests and/or other tools of
another tester without appreciably evaluation as well as in drawing
affecting the evaluation. conclusions from the entire evaluation.

Skills of Testing typically requires technician-like Assessment typically requires an

Evaluator skills in terms of administering and scoring educated selection of tools of
a test as well as in interpreting a test evaluation, skill in evaluation, and
result. thoughtful organization and integration
of data.

Outcome Testing yields a test score or series of test Assessment entails a logical problem-
scores. solving approach that brings to bear
many sources of data designed to shed
light on a referral question.
 Referral Questions

Evaluate reason for referral

Planning data collection

Process of Data collection

Assessment
Interpreting the data

Communicating assessment

• Psychological Report
• Oral Feedback
Tools for Psychological Assessment
 Test
• May be defined simply as a measuring device
or procedure.
• Example: Medical test, Academic test,
Entrance Test
• Psychological Test
▪ Refers to a device or procedure designed
to measure variables related to psychology
(for example, intelligence, personality,
aptitude, interests, attitudes, and values).
▪ Standardized Test versus Non-standardized
Test
▪ Standardized Tests- are those that have
been administered to large group of
individual who are similar to a group for
whom the test has been designed.
▪ Standardized sample
▪ Norms
 What to look for in the
Psychological Test?
▪ Content
• Refers to the subject matter of the test.
• Took at the focus of the test since the
test was developed with the use of
different theoretical frameworks to
strengthen the test.
▪ Format
• Pertains to the form, plan, structure,
arrangement, and layout of test items as
well as to related considerations such as
time limits.
• Format is also used to refer to the form in
which a test is administered:
computerized, pencil-and-paper, or
some other form.
▪ Administration Procedure
• Will the test be given on a one-to-one
basis or in a group? Does the test
require a trained evaluator or not?
What to look for in the
Psychological Test?
▪ Scoring, Interpretation and Procedure
• Score
• Score as a code or summary
statement, usually but not necessarily
numerical in nature that reflects an
evaluation of performance on a test,
task, interview, or some other sample
of behavior.
• Scoring
• Is the process of assigning such
evaluative codes or statements to
performance on tests, tasks,
interviews, or other behavior samples.
• Cut Score
• (Also referred to as a cutoff score or
simply a cutoff)
• It is a reference point, usually
numerical, derived by judgment and
used to divide a set of data into two
or more classifications.
• Psychometrics
▪ May be defined as the
science of psychological
measurement. Variants of
these words include the
adjective psychometric
(which refers to
measurement that is
psychological in nature)
▪ Psychometrist and
Psychometrician (both
referring to psychological test
users).
 Interview
• It is a method of gathering information through direct
communication involving reciprocal exchange.
• Interview as a tool of psychological assessment
typically involves more than talk.
• What to look during the interview?
▪ Body language
▪ Facial expression
▪ Appearance
▪ Tone of voice
▪ Manner of speech
▪ Mood
• What are the assets of interviewing?
▪ Allows for establishing rapport with the client
▪ Provide opportunities to probe
▪ Allows observation of the client
▪ Results are placed in wider, more meaningful
content
▪ Useful in crisis situation…or other situation
where testing is not feasible.
Types of
Interview
▪ Structured- follows course of interview.
▪ Unstructured- does not follow a course of
interview.
▪ Semi-structured- combination of
structured and unstructured interview.
▪ Intake interview- to determine why the
client has come for assessment.
▪ Social Case Interviews- Biographical
sketch of client.
▪ Mental Status Examination
Portfolio
• Compilation of work products
made by the client—whether
retained on paper, canvas, film,
video, audio, or some other
medium.
Case Study History
• Refers to records, transcripts, and other accounts in
written, pictorial, or other form that preserve archival
information, official and informal accounts, and other
data and items relevant to an assessee.
• Another use of the term case history, one synonymous
with case study, concerns the assembly of case history
data into an illustrative account.
• Case history data may include files or excerpts from files
maintained at institutions and agencies such as schools,
hospitals, employers, religious institutions, and criminal
justice agencies. Other examples of case history data are
letters and written correspondence, photos and family
albums, newspaper and magazine clippings, and home
videos, movies, and audiotapes. Work samples, artwork,
doodling, and accounts and pictures pertaining to
interests and hobbies are yet other examples.
 Behavioral Observation
• As assessment professionals
employ it, may be defined as
monitoring the actions of others
or oneself by visual or electronic
means while recording
quantitative and/or qualitative
information regarding the
actions.
• Naturalistic Observation
▪ Researchers venture outside
of the confines of clinics,
classrooms, workplaces, and
research laboratories in order
to observe behavior of
humans in a natural setting.
Role-play
Tests
• It is a tool of
assessment
wherein assessees
are directed to act
as if they were in a
particular situation.
• Role-play is useful
in evaluating
various skills.
Computers as Tools
• Computers do much more than replace the
“equipment” that was so widely used in the past (a No. 2
pencil). Computers can serve as test administrators
(online or off) and as highly efficient test scorers. Within
seconds they can derive not only test scores but also
patterns of test scores.
• Simple Scoring Report
▪ Mere listing of score or scores in a test.
• Extended Scoring Report
▪ Which includes statistical analyses of the test
taker’s performance.
• Interpretive Report
▪ Which is distinguished by its inclusion of
numerical or narrative interpretive statements in
the report. Some interpretive reports contain
relatively little interpretation and are limited to
calling the test user’s attention to certain scores
that need to be focused on.
Computers as
Tools
• Consultative Report
▪ This type of report, usually written in
language appropriate for
communication between assessment
professionals, may provide expert
opinion concerning analysis of the
data.
• Integrative Report
▪ Will employ previously collected data
(such as medication records or
behavioral observation data) into the
test report.
• CAPA (Computer Assisted Psychological
Assessment)
▪ Refers to the term computer assisted
psychological assessment.
▪ The word assisted typically refers to the
assistance computers provide to the
test user, not the test taker.
WHO, WHAT, WHY, HOW,
AND WHERE?
 Who are the
parties?
1. The Test Developers. Test developers and
publishers create tests or other methods of
assessment. The American Psychological
Association (APA) has estimated that more
than 20,000 new psychological tests are
developed each year.
2. The Test Users. Psychological tests and
assessment methodologies are used by a
wide range of professionals, including
clinicians, counselors, school psychologists,
human resources personnel, consumer
psychologists, experimental psychologists,
social psychologists, the list goes on.
3. The Test Taker. Anyone who is the subject of
an assessment, or an evaluation can be a
test taker or an assessee. As amazing as it
sounds, this means that even a deceased
individual can be considered an assessee.
▪ Psychological autopsy may be defined as a
reconstruction of a deceased individual’s
psychological profile on the basis of archival
records, artifacts, and interviews previously
conducted with the deceased assessee or
with people who knew him or her.
Who are the parties?
4. Society. As society evolves and as the need to measure
different psychological variables emerges, test
developers respond by devising new tests. Through
elected representatives to the legislature, laws are
enacted that govern aspects of test development, test
administration, and test interpretation. Similarly, by
means of court decisions, society at large exerts its
influence on various aspects of the testing and
assessment enterprise.
5. Other Parties. Beyond the four primary parties we have
focused on here, let’s briefly make note of others who
may participate in varied ways in the testing and
assessment enterprise. Organizations, companies, and
governmental agencies sponsor the development of
tests for various reasons, such as to certify personnel.
Companies and services offer test-scoring or
interpretation services.
In What Types of Settings Are
Assessments Conducted, and Why?
1. Educational Settings. As mandated by law, tests are
administered early in school life to help identify children who
may have special needs. In addition to school ability tests,
another type of test commonly given in schools is an
achievement test, which evaluates accomplishment or the
degree of learning that has taken place. Your teacher
constructed some of the achievement tests you have taken in
school.
▪ Diagnosis- may be defined as a description or
conclusion reached on the basis of evidence and
opinion.
▪ Diagnostic Test- refers to a tool of assessment used to
help narrow down and identify areas of deficit to be
targeted for intervention.
2. Clinical Settings.
3. Counseling Settings. Assessment in a counseling context may
occur in environments as diverse as schools, prisons, and
government or privately owned institutions. Regardless of the
particular tools used, the ultimate objective of many such
assessments is the improvement of the assessee in terms of
adjustment, productivity, or some related variable.
In What Types of Settings Are
Assessments Conducted, and
Why?
4. Geriatric Settings.
5. Business and Military Settings.
6. Governmental and Organizational
Credentialing. One of the many
applications of measurement is in
governmental licensing, certification, or
general credentialing of professionals.
Before they are legally entitled to
practice medicine, physicians must pass
an examination. Law-school graduates
cannot present themselves to the public
as attorneys until they pass their state’s
bar examination. Psychologists, too,
must pass an examination before
adopting the official title of
“psychologist.”
7. Other Settings.
How Are Assessments Conducted?
▪ Regardless of the specific test or measurement procedure employed, there will most likely be
some common ground in terms of how the assessor prepares for the assessment, how the
assessment is administered, how the scores or results of the assessment are used, and how the
entire record of the assessment is stored. This is so because of published guidelines for test use
promulgated in the Standards and related publications. Responsible test users have obligations
before, during, and after a test or any measurement procedure is administered. For purposes of
illustration, consider the administration of a paper-and-pencil test. Ethical guidelines dictate
that, before a test is administered, it should be stored in a way that reasonably ensures that its
specific contents will not be made known in advance. Another obligation of the test user
before the test’s administration is to ensure that a prepared and suitably trained person
administers the test properly. The test administrator (or examiner) must be familiar with the test
materials and procedures and must have at the test site all the materials needed to properly
administer the test. Materials needed might include a stopwatch, a supply of pencils, and a
sufficient number of test protocols. According to principles of professional ethics promulgated
by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP), school psychologists have another
pretest obligation: selecting and using tests that are most appropriate for the individual student
being tested.
▪ Test users have the responsibility of ensuring that the room in which the test will be conducted is
suitable and conducive to the testing. To the extent that it is possible, distracting conditions
such as excessive noise, heat, cold, interruptions, glaring sun- light, crowding, inadequate
ventilation, and so forth should be avoided. Of course, creating an ideal testing environment is
not always something every examiner can do.
Where to Go for Authoritative
Information: Reference
Sources

▪ Test Catalogues. Perhaps one of the most

readily accessible sources of information is a
catalogue distributed by the publisher of the
test. Because most test publishers make
available catalogues of their offerings, this
source of test information can be tapped by a
simple telephone call, e-mail, or note.
▪ Test Manuals. Detailed information concerning
the development of a particular test and
technical information relating to it should be
found in the test manual, which is usually
available from the test publisher.
Where to Go for Authoritative
Information: Reference Sources
▪ Reference Volumes.
▪ Journal Articles. Articles in current journals may contain
reviews of the test, updated or independent studies of its
psychometric soundness, or examples of how the instrument
was used in either research or an applied context.
• In addition to articles relevant to specific tests, journals
are a rich source of information on important trends in
testing and assessment.
▪ Online Databases. The American Psychological Association
(APA) maintains a number of databases useful in locating
psychology-related information in journal articles, book
chapters, and doctoral dissertations. PsycINFO is a database
of abstracts dating back to 1887. ClinPSYC is a database
derived from PsycINFO that focuses on abstracts of a clinical
nature. PsycSCAN: Psychopharmacology contains abstracts
of articles concerning psychopharmacology. PsycARTICLES is
a database of full-length articles dating back to 1988. Health
and Psychosocial Instruments (HAPI) contains a listing of
measures created or modified for specific research studies
but not commercially available; it is available at many
college libraries through BRS Information Technologies and
also on CD-ROM (updated twice a year). PsycLAW is a free
database, available to everyone, that contains discussions of
selected topics involving psychology and law. It can be
accessed at www.apa.org/psyclaw. For more information on
any of these databases, visit APA’s Web site at www.apa.org.
REFERENCE:

Cohen & Swerdik (2009). Psychological Testing

and Assessment: An Introduction to Tests and
Measurement 7th Edition.