PSY 370 Exam 3

What is the distinction between clinical and counseling perspectives?

Theoretically... • Counseling psychologists focus on those experiencing normal development problems. • Clinical psychologists focus on the mentally ill & those who exhibit abnormal behavior. In practice, this distinction is blurry... - Clinical psychologists are more likely to use assessment as an information gathering tool - Counselors are more likely to use assessment as part of therapy

How do we develop personality measures?

Three major approaches: - Theoretical - top-down - Factor analytic ("data reduction") - Empirical or criterion keying

What are work samples? What are simulation exercises?

Work Samples: certification tests, portfolios, work samples, Simulation exercises: a kind of work sample, but more interpersonal. Put the applicant in a simulated work-related situation and see what they do. This type of assessment has high face validity, reduced adverse impact, and are good predictors

Are cognitive ability tests good predictors of job performance?

Yes! They are among the best predictors of performance, particularly for complex jobs

What is a clinical interview?

a discussion that occurs between clinician and client - it can be structured, unstructured, or semistructured

Test Batteries

a group, series, or set of several tests designed to be administered as a unit in order to obtain a comprehensive assessment of a particular factor or phenomenon.

Certification

a professional credential individuals earn by demonstrating that they have met predetermined qualifications

Criteria/criterion in psychology

a standard against which a judgment, evaluation, or comparison can be made. For example, a well-validated test of creativity might be used as the criterion to develop new tests of creativity.

What is a trait?

a trait is "any distinguishable, relatively enduring way in which one individual varies from another." We often talk about traits as tendencies to a particular kind of behavior.

What is an empirically keyed test?

an assessment in which answers are scored in such a way as to establish differences in responses among groups already known to differ.

What does assessment mean in clinical psychology?

an integration of multiple pieces of information, including tests

What are projective methods of personality testing?

ask the test-taker to complete a task that is unstructured/ambiguous a trained test administer identifies patterns in responses that indicate various aspects of personality

What is a Mental Status Examination?

basic screening of essential mental health information

Where did the Big Five model of personality come from?

descended from a long line of research based on the lexical hypothesis. Lexical hypothesis: If a difference between people is important, society will develop words (adjectives) to describe that difference.

Measurement Equivalence

guarantees the cross-group equality of the intervals of the scale on which the latent concept is measured: An increase of one unit on the measurement scale has the same meaning in population A as in population B.

Scope

how broad of a construct we are measuring

Frame of reference

instructions to the respondent about what kind of behaviors or situations to focus on

Integrity Tests

measure individual attitudes and experiences toward honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and prosocial behavior

Culturally Loaded

needing knowledge about a particular culture to answer correctly For intelligence tests: Verbally-oriented items, specific facts, written instructions & responses, & many other factors tend to increase cultural load.

Lay people meaning

non-psychologists

What does an objective test mean? Specifically, what does "objective" refer to?

"Objective" refers to the way the test is scored.

What is the theoretical approach to developing personality measures?

"top-down" start with a theory about the structure of personality or an important trait, write items to reflect that trait, construct validate.

What is the Thematic Apperception Test? Main assumption?

(TAT) a projective test designed to reveal a person's social drives or needs by their interpretation of a series of pictures of emotionally ambiguous situations. - similar to the Rorschach - uses pictures and requires test taker to explain what they see - pictures are of people in classical human situations - test behavior is also scored - main assumption is that the test-taker identifies with the protagonist of the story they tell

What is the NEO-PI? Its limitations?

- an objective test - based on the 5 factor model - self-administered - social desirability can heavily impact results - cost of test is high

Applications of Neuropsychological Assessment

- anxiety - depression - schizophrenia

Describe unstructured clinical interviews...

- are flexible, allow the clinician to be responsive - may be susceptible to biases - hypothesis confirmation bias, self-fulfilling prophecy, ethnocentrism

The GRE (Graduate Record Examination) - focus - intended use - controversy

- designed to measure an individual's "academic readiness" for graduate level programs - is a maximal performance, unstandardized exam with objective and subjective elements - doesn't offer opportunity for improvement, takes a toll on student diversity, only weakly predicts those who will do well in their first year of grad school, too generalized for those that don't fall into a specific testing category

What are the benefits of projective tests?

- difficult to fake - not really verbally loaded like paper and pencil tests - get a info you can't get any other way (the unconscious) - acknowledges the uniqueness of individuals

Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

- first test to include detailed instructions for consistent administration and scoring - first test to create alternate forms - adaptive testing design

Achievement Testing

- focused on acquired skills or information - often combined into test batteries

Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) - goal - intended use - validity evidence - when do you use it

- measures depressive symptoms primarily in clinical settings - high face validity Test-retest reliability- ranges from 0.73 to 0.96 over a two-week interval (Wang & Gorenstein, 2013) ● Internal consistency - the BDI-I had an alpha around .85 and for the BDI-II it was increased to .90 ranging from .83 to .96 (Wang & Gorenstein, 2013) ● Inter-rater reliability - self-report and objective scoring ● Alternate forms - the correlation between the BDI-13 and the BDI ranges from .89 to .97 (Beck, Rial & Rickles, 1974)

Why are cognitive ability tests controversial?

- minority group members tend to score lower on cognitive ability tests than majority group members.

Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale - main idea - intention

- most widely used intelligence test - measures intelligence and cog. ability - main purpose is used in educational settings focusing on educational placement and planning

Describe structured clinical interviews...

- standard (published) set of questions or prompts - scoring guides/training available

What is the Rorschach Test? Main idea? How it is scored? Quality of test?

- test consists of 10 images of symmetrical inkblots. Test taker explains what they see. - is a maximal performance, constructed-response test - there are multiple scoring systems for the Rorschach Inkblot test - has high construct validity - low interrater reliability

What are 3 assumptions that are inherent in projective tests? Are these assumptions testable?

- there is no such thing as the unconscious - every response has meaning - psychologists can accurately interpret symbolism - most of these assumptions are not testable!

What are the 3 phases of an unstructured interview?

1. Initial - build rapport, get client's perception of the problem, observe the client 2. Middle - social and medical history, observe coping behaviors, form and test hypotheses about diagnosis 3. Prognosis - ask client if they have questions, summarize the interview, explain and schedule further assessments/treatments

What are the 3 concerns of evaluating interviews as tests?

1. Interrater reliability - unstructured interviews often have poor interrater reliability 2. What are we agreeing on? reliability and validity are compromised when diagnostic criteria are not well-developed 3. Criterion-related validity sometimes a criterion validity coefficient published in, say, an interview manual is not reliable.

APA 4 Basic Rights of Test Takers

1. Privacy/Confidentiality - Confidentiality = information should not be shared with someone other than the client without the client's permission 2. Informed Consent - must be told: why they are being tested, how the data will be used, who will have access to the information 3. Knowing and Understanding Results - test-takers have a right to know the results of the test 4. The Least Stigmatizing Label - APA recommends avoiding labels as much as possible

What are the 3 ways testing is used in employee selection?

1. Screening 2. Selection 3. Classification/placement

What are the four benefits of testing students in the classroom?

1. Tests increase motivation 2. Tests improve retention and transfer of learning 3. Tests help students self-assess 4. Tests give information about teaching effectiveness

What is the Basic Projective Approach to personality testing?

1. present the test-taker with a series of stimuli that are ambiguous or incomplete in some way 2. ask the test-taker to describe the stimuli 3. record as much info as possible about responses 4. analyze and interpret the responses based on some kind of scoring system

What are the 3 characteristics of a good structured interview?

1. same questions asked to every applicant 2. questions are based on job analysis - directly relevant to the job 3. there is a consistent system for scoring answers

What are 3 types of specialized interviews?

1. stress interviews - puts pressure on interviewee 2. Hypnotic and cognitive interviews - used to aid recall 3. Collaborative interview - involves the interviewee directly in the assessment process

Actuarial personality assessment:

= empirical, scientific - relying on what is observable and (relatively) objective.

Can a test diagnose disabilities?

A single test should never be used as the sole basis for diagnosing a disability. Integrated assessment (combine test information with interviews, direct observation, and other methods) to diagnose. But, tests can be used to screen for disabilities.

What is adverse impact?

Adverse impact means that applicants from the majority group are selected at a disproportionate rate compared to minority applicants.

What is an integrity test? - uses - controversy - good predictor?

An integrity test is a specific type of personality test designed to assess an applicant's tendency to be honest, trustworthy, and dependable. - Uses: pre-employment screening, job performance, polygraph test in police investigation - easily fakeable

Covert vs Overt Test

An item is called "overt" when the respondents immediately understand what the item is intended to measure. An item is called "covert" when the respondents (at least those without a thorough knowledge of the construct under investigation) are unaware of what the item measures.

What is an objective personality test?

An objective test is a psychological test that measures an individual's characteristics in a way that isn't influenced by the examiner's own beliefs; in this way, they are said to be independent of rater bias. ... The most common form of objective test in personality psychology is the self-report measure.

Confidentiality vs. Anonymity

Anonymity Claiming that a project or data collection is anonymous means two things: 1. The project does not collect any unique identifiers of individual subjects (e.g., name, address, Email address, SS#, phone number, etc.)2. The project does not collect any identifiers that combined would allow an individual to be identified. For example, age alone is not a unique identifier, but the combination of demographics like age, gender, major, living learning community participation, honors program participation, number of semesters at Roanoke could allow a participate to be identified. If data is in any way identifiable or can be connected to the participant (directly or indirectly, even if only by the researchers), the data collection process cannot make the claim of being anonymous. Confidentiality Claiming that information collected will be kept confidential means that only the investigator(s) or co-investigator(s) will ever be able to identify the responses of individual subjects. This means that data will never be reported in a way that allows an individual respondent's identity to be known or tied to their responses.This clarification of terms does not mean that no unique identifiers should ever be collected. Rather, this clarification of terms is designed to provide a greater level of precision when communicating with research participants. It is important to understand the claims that you are making regarding their responses. In general, participants are at greater risk when their responses can be tied to their identity. Typically, it is best to collect only the data that is necessary to complete the research objective.

Difference between achievement test and aptitude test?

Aptitude tests evaluate a distinct aspect of a person's cognitive abilities. That makes them different from another kind of evaluation: the achievement test. While aptitude is the potential to learn, achievement is learning itself. An achievement test evaluates the information or skills a student has already learned.

Authentic Assessment: advantages and disadvantages

Authentic assessment: assessment based on a complex behavior Adv. - captures real behavior - less anxiety-provoking Dis. - rarely have well-defined scoring criteria - reliability and validity are unknown - very subjective - hard to administer on large scale

Do traits exist?

Both traits and situations re important and neither alone can fully predict or explain behavior.

What is clinical assessment? Why is it important?

Clinical assessment is information-gathering and interpretive skills used by the professional counselor-therapist Assessment opens up access to the science of psychology, as well as the art of interpersonal social support

What one factor seems to best improve the accuracy of clinical prediction?

Consistency

criterion-related validity

Criterion validity (or criterion-related validity) measures how well one measure predicts an outcome for another measure. A test has this type of validity if it is useful for predicting performance or behavior in another situation (past, present, or future).

What is the factor analytic approach to developing personality measures?

Factor analysis allows the researcher to reduce many specific traits into a few more general "factors" or groups of traits, each of which includes several of the specific traits.

What are formative assessment, diagnostic assessment, and summative assessment? How are they different from one another?

Formative Assessment: what are students learning and not learning? Diagnostic Assessment: assessing an individual, not a class. Checking for learning disabilities or other learning problems Summative Assessment: have students mastered the material? What grade does each student deserve?

What is the main idea behind 360° feedback? What is the problem with 360° feedback?

Idea: Ratings come from multiple perspectives instead of just the supervisor. It was meant to be used for employee development, NOT performance appraisal

Lexical hypothesis

If a difference between people is important, society will develop words (adjectives) to describe that difference.

What is the difference between clinical and actuarial approaches to personality assessment?

In the clinical method the decision-maker combines or processes information in his or her head. In the actuarial or statistical method the human judge is eliminated and conclusions rest solely on empirically established relations between data and the condition or event of interest.

What did Alfred Binet think intelligence was?

Intelligence = reasoning, judgement, memory, abstraction these processes interact when problem solving (no seperation) developed the first widely used intelligence test - intended to assess French children w intellectual disabilities

What did Sir Francis Galton think of intelligence?

Intelligence = sensory ability the more we perceive, the more we have to work with measured with sensorimotor and perceptual tests

Why measure job attitudes?

Job attitudes predict: - going above and beyond at work - turnover - absenteeism and tardiness

Neuropsychological Assessment: Low Tech vs High Tech

Low Tech: - focuses on basic functions - not a test of intelligence - goal is to assess brain damage/dysfunction High Tech: - electrophysiological techniques: EEG, ERP - Neuroimaging: PET, MRI

Why is the idea of "g" (general intelligence) controversial and what are some alternatives?

Many people dislike the idea of a general intelligence factor • Cattell - fluid vs. crystallized intelligence. • Thurstone - proposed 7 independent mental abilities. • Gardner - "multiple intelligences" • Emotional intelligence

The Wonderlic Personnel Test: - what it measures - intention - controversy

Measures intelligence for prospective employees. Used as an employee selection tool This is a good test for people who think conceptually and objectively but not for those who tend to sense and react. Bias against minorities

Nature vs Nurture debate w intelligence

Nature - Twin and genetic studies show more similarity among twins and siblings than we can explain by chance alone. Nurture - Family and home life variables affect the expression and development of intelligence.

Norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced vs authentic assessment achievement testing

Norm-referenced: test-taker is compared to others in the same norm group Criterion-referenced: test-taker is compared to an absolute standard Authentic assessment: assessment based on a complex behavior

Are personality tests good predictors of job performance? Which traits are good predictors of job performance?

Once thought to be a poor predictor, but recently has been shown to be a good predictor. Conscientiousness, extraversion, and emotional stability are all good predictors

How did David Wechsler measure intelligence?

Originally: Two factors: verbal and performance Now: Four factors: verbal comprehension, working memory, perceptual organization, processing speed - measured in ways that allow separating the factors

What is an alternative to self reports for personality? Issues?

Other-reports Cons: - raters only see person in one context (situation/environment) - different raters may not agree raters are not perfectly accurate

Guidelines for Accommodating Test Takers with Disabilities

Page 77-78

Performance Appraisal: - are they tests?

Purpose: to give feedback, improve performance, document evidence for organizational decisions It is a test!

What is race norming?

Race-norming, more formally called within-group score conversion and score adjustment strategy, is the practice of adjusting test scores to account for the race or ethnicity of the test-taker.

What is the most common source of information about personality? Advantages and disadvantages?

Self-reports Pros: - some info you can't get any other way - you spend the most amount of time w yourself Cons: - not sure if people are honest - faking and social desirability

Clinical vs Statistical Prediction: which is more accurate at predicting outcomes?

Statistical prediction is a little more accurate. Still requires a good model

Which type of interview has good interrater reliability, reduces bias, and does the best job of predicting outcomes and is the best type of interview in clinical psychology according to Dr. Gibbons?

Structured clinical interviews

Structured vs Unstructured interviews: - which is better?

Structured is always better! - more reliable - more valid - more legally acceptable

Test Taker vs Test User

Taker: a person who responds to test questions or whose behavior is measured. User: gives the test

What is the 80% or the 4/5ths rule?

The 80% (or 4/5ths) rule: the selection ratio for a minority group needs to be at least 80% of the selection ratio for the most selected group. Not 80% of the number selected - 80% of the ratio.

What is the MMPI? Its original goal? How is it scored?

The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) is a psychological test that assesses personality traits and psychopathology. It is primarily intended to test people who are suspected of having mental health or other clinical issues. - Originally developed by selecting phrases that were endorsed by people already diagnosed with a specific mental illness (empirically keyed) - lacks internal consistency

What example of an objective test was talked about it class?

The NEO-PI

What example of a projective test was discussed in class?

The Rorschach Test

Define... (types of interviews) o Case history o Stress interview o Hypnotic interview o Cognitive interview o Collaborative interview o Mental status examination

o Case history - a record of information relating to a person's psychological or medical condition. Used as an aid to diagnosis and treatment, a case history usually contains test results, interviews, professional evaluations, and sociological, occupational, and educational data. Also called patient history. o Stress interview - an interview in which the person being questioned is deliberately subjected to confrontational, emotionally unsettling, or otherwise stressful conditions, such as a combination of aggressive questioning and environmental influences (e.g., harsh lighting). A stress interview is used to put an interviewee in an awkward position and to throw them off balance. It is designed to reveal how a candidate acts under pressure, deals with stress, and handles workplace conflict. o Hypnotic interview - use hypnosis to collect information, especially eyewitness information o Cognitive interview - The cognitive interview (CI) is a questioning technique used by the police to enhance retrieval of information about a crime scene from the eyewitnesses and victim's memory. o Collaborative interview - Collaboration (vs. Confrontation) Collaboration is a partnership between the therapist and the client, grounded in the point of view and experiences of the client. o Mental status examination - The mental status examination is an assessment of current mental capacity through evaluation of general appearance, behavior, any unusual or bizarre beliefs and perceptions (eg, delusions, hallucinations), mood, and all aspects of cognition (eg, attention, orientation, memory).

Civil Rights Act of 1964

prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and gender. • Applies to a wide variety of decisions - employment, education, housing, etc. • Created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission - among other things, sets guidelines for fair and appropriate employment testing.

interrater reliability

the amount of agreement in the observations of different raters who witness the same behavior

Internal Consistency

the degree of interrelationship or homogeneity among the items on a test, such that they are consistent with one another and measuring the same thing. Internal consistency is an index of the reliability of a test.

Within-group norming

the practice of administering the same test to every test taker but scoring the test differently according to the race of the test taker

What is the projective hypothesis?

the way we create structure for unstructured stimuli is based on our personality. • Can reveal needs, fears, impulses, conflicts, etc. - even when the person we are assessing is not consciously aware of these.

The Flynn Effect

• Average scores on intelligence tests appear to rise over time. • But outcomes don't seem to change... not an increase in "true intelligence."

Disability

• Education for All Handicapped Children, 1975 - requires appropriate, professional testing of children suspected to have a disability. • Goal is to determine child's educational needs and meet them. • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act , 1997 - requires appropriate testing to establish disability status and educational progress. • Educational progress tests must accommodate students with disabilities as far as is reasonably possible. • Americans with Disabilities Act, 1990 - prohibits discrimination on the basis of disabilities. • Tests must accommodate persons with disabilities as far as is reasonably possible, unless the testing method is essential for the job.

What is the empirical keying approach to developing personality measures?

• Empirical keying = selecting items on the basis of whether they predict a criterion or not. a method for developing personality inventories in which the items (presumed to measure one or more traits) are created and then administered to a criterion group of people known to possess a certain characteristic (e.g., antisocial behavior, significant anxiety, exaggerated concern about physical health) and to a control group of people without the characteristic. Only those items that demonstrate an ability to distinguish between the two groups are chosen for inclusion in the final inventory.

Test-Takers' Rights

• Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, 1974 - parents and students have the right to access school records, including tests. • May request a hearing to challenge test scores. • Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, 1996 - individuals have the right to know (and control) who has access to their medical information, including psychological test results.

The Factor Analytic Approach to Intelligence...

• If two intelligence tests are positively correlated, we could infer that they are measuring something in common. •The factor analytic approach to intelligence: • By studying the relationships among all of the various tests we use to measure intelligence, we can figure out how many dimensions (or kinds) of intelligence there are.

David Wechsler's idea of intelligence

• Intelligence = "aggregate or global capacity... to act purposefully... think rationally and... deal effectively with [the] environment." - consists of multiple abilities and we can separate them (unlike Binet's thinking)

What can measuring personality tell us?

• Job selection • Executive coaching • Mental health - personality disorders • Establishing a clinical relationship • Recommending treatment • Tracking development • Assessing brain injury

What are some problems that may arise when translating a test?

• Translation choices can change the meaning of an item (or even a whole test). • Different cultures may have different response styles. • Constructs themselves may mean different things in different cultures.

APA - 5 General Ethical Principles

•1. Beneficence and Nonmaleficence •Do good; avoid doing harm. • Consider the effects of your choices on others. • In testing: Test with a purpose, be mindful of the consequences of test results. •2. Fidelity and Responsibility •Understand that you are in a position of trust. • Be accountable; address conflicts of interest. • In testing: Use information carefully, be mindful that people are trusting you with information about sensitive things. • 3. Integrity • Encourage accuracy, honesty, and truthfulness. • When it's necessary to be deceptive, do so very carefully. • In testing, we're not talking about research deception (confederates, etc.) - we're talking about what we tell our test-takers about what we are doing and why! • Deception by omission counts too! •4. Justice • Ensure that all people have equal access to services and equal quality of service. • In testing, work to make your tests fair and appropriate for all people. Understand where bias might affect test results and weigh them appropriately. •5. Respect for People's Rights and Dignity • Acknowledge the dignity and worth of all people. • Respect all people's rights to privacy, confidentiality, and self determination. • Respect cultural, individual, and role differences.

Spearman's Theory and later research

•Spearman found that all intelligence tests were correlated with one another to some extent. • Thus, he argued that there is a general common factor, g, underlying all intelligence tests. •Tests are more or less "saturated" with g. • Tests with a lot of g measure overall intelligence. • Tests with less g measure more specific abilities. • Specific abilities may also form clusters Later research expanded on Spearman's theory: intermediate level clusters are called group factors