psychometic testing questions

describe the development of the stanford binet scales from its original version to the 5th edition. what are the strengths and weaknesses of the current edition

- 1905 - alfred binet publlished 30 item measuring scale of intelligence with theordore simon 1908 version - criterion used in measuring mental age and various tests grouped into age levels 1909 - translated into english by goddard - wanted to use test for eugenics 1986 - fourth edition 2003 - fifth edition advantages - cover large age range 2- 85 - nonverbal and verbal routing tests - allows for easy comparison to other tests - more gamelike disadvantages

explain the challenges to assessing pre school children

- development is constantly changing - development is not precise - formal assessment processes are foreign to young children - deficit based vs strength based - global vs specific domains of development

describe the utility and application of the MMPI and MMpI 2. Why are these tests the most widely used personality instruments

- most widely used personality instrument - flexible administration and scoring scale development - items for each scale were chosen based on ability to statistically discriminate between clinical subgroups and control groups MMPI application - assess major symptoms of social and personal maladjustment - identify suitable candidates for hight risk public safety positions - support classification, treatment, and management decisions in criminal justice and correctional settings - strong empirical foundation for clinician's expert testimony - assess medical patients and design effective treatment strategies, including chronic pain management - evaluate participants in substance abuse programs and select appropriate treatment approaches - support college and career consoling recommendations - structured to adress psychometic and practical flaws - improved normative sample - update items deemed inappropriate outdated - devise a version for adolescent population

where you can find psychological tests. pro and cons

1. test catalogue from publisher or distributor pro - contains general description of test - what and who it is designed for - readily available con - seldom contain critical reviews - not detailed enough 2. test manual pros - most detailed source available for information regarding the standardization sample and test administration cons - difficult to obtain - details of psychometric sounds are usually self-serving 3. journal articles pros - up to date reviews and studies of psychometrics soundness - cons - could be bias 4. online databasis pro - usefull information containing varying amounts of information con - some sites are misleading

professor Sullivan is a developmental psychologist who is constructing a new test to measure children's motor coordination. she decided to give children ice cream cones with two scoops of ice cream as a method to measure coordination. Her indicator of motor coordination is the amount of time between the ice cream cone being placed in the child's hand and the ice cream falling to the ground. While norming her test, she is alarmed to discover that children in the samples all across northern ontario are far less coordinated than all the children in the sample from southern ontario A) prof sullivan who lives in toronto is arguing for the face validity of the test, while her colleages at laurentian university is sudbury are arguing against the validity of the test. choose one of the positions and present the argument for or against the test's construct validity B) explain how professor sullivan failed to consider the concept of validity when she constructed this motor coordination test c) how could professor sullivan increase validity of this test

A) arguments for construct validity: when i line up my 5 clumsy nephews and 5 coordinated nieces on my lawn during the mouth of april in toronto, i find a significant difference in the time before dropping ice cream between the clumsy and coordinated arguments against construct validity: when i line up mu clumsy nephews with my coordinated nieces on my lawn in northern ontario in january, they all drop their ice cream at approximately the same time. i think professor sullivan is confusing temperature with motor coordination B) failure to consider validity: professor sullivan has failed to consider other variable that might explain why children drop their ice cream in different climates c) increasing validityL standardizing sample with different internal expectations for region, time of year, age of children, type of ice cream type of cone. should consider rethinking this test as a measure of motor coordination

in factor- analysis, test developers begin with a large data set consisting of intercorrelations between a large number of items. then this data set is factor analyzed a) explain the purpose of factor analysis b) explain how test developers identify labels, or names, for the factors

A) purpose: a data reduction method, designed to identify variables on which people may differ. The purpose is to find the minimum number of factors that accounts for as much variability in the data as possible b) Identification of labels: researchers assign labels by ascertaining what the items related to a particular factor have in common the first step in factor analysis involves choosing a set of tests or measure. These measure or variables could be items on one test or two or more complete tests. Once the measures are chosen, they are administered to a sample of testers. the second step is to compute all correlations among the set of measures chosen to represent the construct or constructs. The third step in a factor analysis is to factor the matrix of intercorrelations among a set of measures. It is up to the researcher to decide which of the factors produced by the factor analysis are the common factors, since that is typically the purpose of doing a factor analysis. The results of factor analysis provide a numerical index called an eigenvalue, or characteristic root. This research competes an index called communality which assesses how well each measure is explained by the common factor

psychological assessment versus psychological test

Assessment is more than testing Psychological testing (e.g., an intelligence test, personality test, or mental health test) occurs as part of the process of psychological assessment. Professional psychological assessment usually also includes: interview demographic information medical information personal history observations by others Thus, the results of a psychological test are rarely used on their own. The following definitions should help to clarify the difference between assessment and testing in psychology. Definition of Psychological Testing "An objective and standardized measure of a sample of behaviour" (Anastasi, 1990) Definition of Psychological Assessment "An extremely complex process of solving problems (answering questions) in which psychological tests are often used as one of the methods of collecting relevant data"

contast goddard and bite's views on intelligence

Binet - intelligence is not a single, scalable thing like height - binet feared schoolmaster with exaggerated zeal would use IQ as a convenient excuse to get rid of all the children who trouble us - 3 principles 1. the scores are practical device - they do not define anything innate or permanent 2. the scale is rough, empirical guid for identifying individuals with mild disabilities and learning disbilities who need special help - is not device for ranking normal children 3. whatever the cause of difficulty, emphasis should be placed upon improvement through special training; low scores shall not be used to mark children as incapable Goddard - intelligence scores as measures of a single, innate entity - wish to identify in order to recognize limits, segregate, and curtail breeding to prevent further deterioration of an endangered american stock

The weschsler intelligence scale for children, fourth edition WISC IV measures intelligence in individuals in what age range ? How are the Weschler preschool and primary scale of intelligence third edition (WPPSI-III_ age ranges different? what about the wrestler adult intelligence scale fourth edition (WAIS IV)

WISC IV age range the WISC IV is intended for children between the ages of 6 years and 16 years, 11 months. Children younger than 6 and over the age of 2 years 6 month, receive the WPPSI 111 and over the age of 17 would be given the WAIS II

contrast a neurological hard and soft sign provide an example of each

a hard sign is an indicator of definite neurological deficit (e.g adnormal reflex performance soft sign is an indicator that suggest neurological deficit e.g. 15 point discrepancy on the WAID verbal and performance scales

achievement vs aptitude tests

achievement - focus on learning from structtured input eg wechsler individual achievement test (WIAT) apititude - focud on informal learning also reffered to as prognostic tests e.g. graduate record examination GRE

what are the advantages and disadvantages to self report method of personality assessment? what are some safeguards in the MMPI to guard against these effects>

advantages - first hand perspective of how an individual views their traits and personality disadvantages - individual may try to present themselves in a better light - individuals may not have a realistic view of their own traits - individuals may answer with an acquiescence response set, meaning they agree with questions, regardless of content - individuals may answer in a way they believe the test admisnistraot wants them to answer The MMPI has several scales designed to determine whether a respondent is presenting accurately

what might be situations where test scores would have negative utility e.g. the cost of testing would outweigh the benefits

answers will vary, but a test has negative utility when the costs outweigh the benefits. e.g. extensive testing for part time retail work, putting a child through lengthy neurological assessment in order to diagnose add

come up with examples of convergent and divergent thinking questions for the same concept eg convergent question: how many dimes does it take to make 1 dollar.. divergent questions: brainstorm different way to make change for 1 dollar

answers will vary. Remember that convergent thinking is thinking that requires one to come up with a single correct answer while divergent thinking is thinking that requires a variety of answers where there is no one correct answer

suppose a particular test of cognitive ability has been found to have great utility selecting members of a high school debate team. How much utility would this same test have for the following situations a) law school applications b) art school applications c) a police hostage positions in a labour union d) Executive level positions in a labour union e) actors in a theme park who spend their day dressed in a character costume

answers would vary. would have most for a c and d but probably negative utility for b and e

describe the DSM IV TR structure including axes. what are the pros and cons to using the DSM for assessing psychological disorders? summarize the main changes is DSM V

axis 1 - primary clinical problem ie mood disorder, disorders of infancy axis 2 - mental retardation and personality disorders axis 3 - physical conditions that may affect mental functioning i.e. headache axis 4 - problem of sources of street i.e. financial axis 5 global rating of overall functioning GAF - provides common language for clinicians and researchers - little cultural sensitivity - relitively unrealiable - different clinician different answers - very medical perspective changes made in mood disorder, somatoform disorders and disorder of infancy

contrast Cattell's theory of personality with McCrae and Costa's theory

cartel's big five introversion/extraversion low anxiety/high anxiety tough mindedness/receptivity independence/accommodation low self control / high self control McCraw and costa's extraversion talkative vs silent neurotosism - calm vs anxious openness - imaginative vs silent agreebleness - cooperative vs negative conscientioussness - tidy vs clean

compare and contrast the cartel horn carrot (CHC) model of intelligence with carrel and horn model of inteligence

cattel and horn recognize two factors under general intellectual ability: fluid and crystallized intelligence CHC model of intelligence recognized ten factors excising under general intellectual ability - reading and writing ability'- auditory processing - long term retrieval - processing speed - decision speed and reaction time - fluid reasoning - crystallized knowledge - short term memory - visual processing Both theories believe in an overarching g concept (general intelligence and have fluid and crystallized intelligence, but the CHC model is more comprehensive and recognizes additional forms of intelligence, but the CHC model is more comprehensive and recognized additional forms of intelligence.

what part of criterion related validity

concurrent validity predictive validity - validity coefficient - incremental validity expectancy data

whats part of face validity

content validity

what is content validity and what are some problems with this concept?

content validity may be claimed when the test samples or takes examples of the content domain in an appropriate and representative fashion. For example, a final should draw questions from the course's full curriculum. Problems that arise from content validity are due to the sampling assumption. A professor may not be sampling fairly. For example, whole chapters may be left out. In other cases, the content domain may be very hard to define. For example, it may be difficult for a teacher to determine the content domain or item universe for a fourth grade course in arithmetic.

explain the difference between culture free and culture specific intelligence tests. provide an example of each

culture loading is the extent to which a test incorporates the vocabulary, concepts, traditions, knowledge and feelings associated with a particular culture culture fair tests conceivably permit a cleaner separation of natural ability from specific learning. The enable better analysis a prediction of an individual's ultimate potential. An exampl of a culturally fair intelligence test is Raven's matrices. Culture specific tests, on the other hand are intended to be equivalents of traditional test that are geared toward specific cultural groups. example are the chitling test and the clack intelligence test of cultural homogeneity

discuss the use of projective techniques in custody evaluation. what are the pros and cons to using theses techniques in this situation

custody evaluation is a psychological assessment of parents or guardians and their parental capacity to aid in decisions about awarding custody, children are also assessed for their needs and preferences. projective techniques are often used with children in these circumstances because they offer flexibility and some standardized assessment tools may be difficult for young children

difference between nominal, ordinal, internal and ration measure

difference between nominal, ordinal, internal and ration measure Nominal scale: - simplest form of measurement - classification or categorization based on one or more distinguishing characteristics - DSM 5 disorder classification Ordinal scales: - also permit classification - allow rank ordering on a charateristic - no absolute zero - numbers do not indicate unit of measurement - ie priority for IBI treatment Interval: - same features as nominal and ordinal scales - contain equal intervals between numbers, nut like ordinal scales, there is no absolute zero ie. intelligence test ratio: - same feature as all above - has a true zero point, therefore all mathematical operations can be meaningfully performed - equal intervals between number on the scale ie. timed test on WISC or WAIS

explain behavioural assessment of personality and how this approach is different from more traditional psychometric approaches

emphasis on what a person does in a situations, rather than global inferences about heir attributes. goal is to determine why a person engages in particular behaviour and to use that information to develop an intervention matched to the needs of the individual - can provide baseline data with which other behavioural data can be compared - can provede a record of an individuals' behavioural strenghs and weaknesses across a variety of situations; - can pinpoint environmental conditions that may be triggering, maintaining or extinguishing behaviours, and may target specific behavioural patterns for modification through interventions

whats part of construct validity

evidence of homogeneity evidence of changes with age evidence of pretest post test changes evidence from district groups convergent evidence discriminant evidence factor analysis

explain the contributions of the setting and situational variables to projective assessment of personality

examining factors - age - specific instructions - reinforcement cues - postural, gestural, facial cues - presence - TAT stories written in private are less guarded less optimistic and written with more affect than those written in the presence of the examiner - own needs and expectations subjective feelings about person being assessed

the tower of hanoi is a common test to assess executive function. define executive functioning and explain how the tower of hanoi measure these skill

excutive functioning involve the ability to organize, plan and inhibit impulses. these abilities are associated with frontal and prefrontal lobes of the brain the tests asks the test taker to solve a puzzle by following three rules 1. only one ring may be moved at a time 2. the ring is moved from one peg to another 3. no ring may ever be placed on a smaller one. this test involves problem solving abilities, planning and inhibiting responses, all skill of executive functioning

determine whether the stated interpretations of the IQ score are sound interpret IQ scores simon got an IQ score if 115, this score means that simon's innate ability to do things that require brains or intelligence is about one standard deviation about the mean or at about the 84th percentile if simon received the IQ score of 115 when he was in the sixth grade we know that he was old enough that the score will remain stable, neither increasing not decreasing appreciably for many years the IQ test that sion and henry took was an establishesd and highly respected test, but the publisher still may not have checked to see whether the IQ scores are useful for predicting performance in school and may not have published relevant results in the test manual although simon's teacher needs to know simon's score, and it should be posted in the school records, Simon should not be allowed to know what his IQ score is

false IQ scores do not measure innate abilities unocidfied by environment false IQ scores may change and sometimes markedly false one cannot count on finding predictive validity data in the test manual for IQ tests false Simon had a right to know his IQ score

compare and contrast fixed and flexible batteries. what are the advantages and disadvantages of each approach

fixed batteries such as the halstead retina are designed to comprehensively same the test takers neuropsychological functioning. these tests are prepackage. flexible batteries are a collection of tests that are hand picked by the test user for a specific purpose fixed advantages - less demanding especially for new test users - very comprehensive - clear scoring methods disadvantages specific disability of test taker may adversely influence performance - time consuming flexible advantages - test user can adapt assessment given the specific referral question disadvantages large responsibilit on part of the test user to select the tests with integrate dinging - tests may overlap therefore may waste time

a more recent theory of multiple intelligences is cattle and horn's Gf-Gc theory which holds that there are two basic types of intelligence: fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Describe each type

fluid intelligence: largely nonverbal form of metal efficient related to a person's inherent capacity to learn in solve problems Crystallized intelligence: highly culturally dependant and represents what one has learned thought the investment of fluid intelligence in cultural contexts.

explain the concept of intelligence inflation as discussed by flynn. What are the psychometric implications of the flynn effect

increase in 3 iQ points per decade largest gains in tests measuring fluid intelligence flynns' hypothesis is that IQ tests do not measure intelligence, but rather scores are correlated with a weak causal link to intelligence, an increase in abstract problem solving rather then intelligence. whether you call it intelligence or abstract problem slogan ability, people have become intellectually more capable just the same

why is employing a biopsychosocial approach so important when assessing for clinical diagnosis?

is a multidisciplinary appraoch to assesment, addressing relevent biological, psychological, social, cultureal and environmental variables contributing to the presenting issue. - essential because there are a variety of explanations for problematic behaviour - bio - medical and psychiatric, neurological, medication reaction - psycho - psychologicalal features and skill deficits - social - environmental, interpersonal, physical influences

if someone has damage to the following brain sites, how might this affect their functioning spinal cord frontal lobe hypothalamus temporal lobe cerebellum

many reflexes for survival may be impaired, varying degrees of paralysis or other motor difficulties frontal - concentration and attention, higher level thinking problem solving, speech hypothalamus - eating and drinking behaviours, alteration of mood states temporal - sound discrimination, recognition and comprehension; music appreciation, memory cerebellum: fine motor movements and coordination

explain how dynamic, performance, portfolio and authentic assessment differ from more traditional forms of educational assessment. What are the pros and cons to these approaches? for what reason might an examiner choose an alternative individual ability test over the more established ability tests such as the WISC IV and the stanfort binet 5?

needed to make instruction compatible with contemporary views of learning and motivation - constructivism - giving students options evaluating students knowledge or skills in a context that approximates the real world or real life as closely as possible - emphasis on process as well as product requires students to complete tasks that demonstrate ability to apply knowledge or skill or put understanding into action - simulated or real life situations - open ended tasks that assess higher order thinking

the reliability of a test may be reported simply as .85. Can validity be reported in the same way why or why not?

no, reporting validity is a more complex process than reporting reliability. Often different approaches and several different calculations, including correlations, are employed. The reason for this is that validity is a somewhat subjective measure focusing not only on what the test scores, but also on how well the test does what it does

explain the difference between a personality trait and personality state. Identify measures that assess each of these personality constructs

personality trait is an enduring, characteristic way of behaving, while a personality state is a transitory condition. personality traits are measures by cattle's sixteen personality factors (16 PF), eyesenck's personality inventory, costa's neoperosnality tests personality state - state- trait anxiety inventory

define the following terms related to personality and personality testing - personality - personality trait - personality types - personality states - structured (objective personality assesment - projective personality assessment

personality: distinctive and relatively enduring way of thinking, feeling and acting personality trait: enduring, characteristic way of behaving or a dispositon such as a tendency to be cautious or adventurous; common way to describe people personlaity type: a constellation of traits and states that is similar in pattern to one identified category of personality within a taxonomy of personalities personality states: transitory conditions of the individual; emotions and moods that vary in intensity and fluctuate over time structured objective personality assessment: empirically derived tests created around pre determined criteria; highly structures response formats require little interpretation in scoring projective personality assesment: tests where an individual is presented with an ambiguous stimulus; based on the assumption that the testtaker will transfer Project unconscious conflicts and motives onto the stimulus

desvrib the primary and ethical standards that clinicians must follow when conducting psychological testing or assessment, be sure to identify who can purchase and administer tests as well as the rights or testtakers

principle 1: respect for the dignity of person principle 2: responsible caring - only trained individuals with professional credentials and experience may administer or interpret tests principle 3: integrity of relationship principle 4: responsibility to society

contrast objective and projective assessment of personality. what are the advantages and disadvantages of each of these approaches

projective assesment: - involves suppying structure to relatievely unstructured or incomplete stimuli - unlike objective measures, projective measures allow testeakers considerable flexibility in their responses - little no no psychometrtoc data established - qualitative objective assessment - little if any judgement on part of scorer - consists of short answers - have more reliability and validity then projective tests thus better at predicting behaviour - quantitative score that can be compared with normative score data - MMPI

if the correlation for studying and amount of error on an exam was -.90 how you interpret the results? negative correlation

show that more studying was typically associated with less errors and less studying with more errors

compare and contrast the stanford binet intelligence scale 5th edition and the wrestler intelligence scale for children 4th edition

simmilarities - published in 2003 - individually administered - child friendly - software available for scoring and report writing - similar norming - CHC model of intelligence Differences different cognitive and nonverbal factors

difference between testing and assessment

testing - to obtain some gauge with regard to an ability or attribute - individual or group testing; answers tabulated tester not key to process - technical like skills of administration and scoring; little interpretation - test score or series or score assessment - to answer a refferral question, solve a problem or arrive at a decision - typically individualized; focus is on how an individual processes not just results - assessor in instrumental in selecting tools and drawing conclusion - educated selection of tools; skills in evaluation, thought organization - logical problem solving approach that bring many sources of data

explain the barnum effect. How can clinicians safeguard against this effect?

the barnum effect is the consequence of one's belief that a vague personality description truly describes oneself when in reality, that description may apply to almost anyone - clinicians must be aware of this tendency - be completing a comprehensive assessment and presenting specific details about the individual being assessed clinicians can avoid generalized assessments

apply the cattle horn carroll HCH model of intelligence to the stanford binet intelligence scale 5th editor and the wechsler intelligence scale

the cartel horn and carroll's model of intelligence recognizes ten factors existing under general intellectual ability the wrestler scales are also influenced by the CHC model of intelligence although the terminology is a little different. Each of the CHC factors are assessed under the four indexes - verbal comprehension,( crystallized intelligence) perceptual reasoning, ( fluid intelligence) working memory and processing speed - processing speed factor

what does the correlation coefficient tell us about two scores

the extent to which as person's position is the same with respect to two sets of scores. For example r may express the degree of similarity between how you score on a test of mathematics and a test of vocabulary

describe the process of forensic psychological assessment. what are some of the challenges to this process

the theory and application of psychological evaluation and measurement in a legal context. - a forensic psychological assessment process should involve multiple data sources, as is the case with all psychometric assessment some challenges are - experts may be called upon to offer opinions on individuals they have never personally interviewed or observed - opinions pertain to momentous matters, so there is a lot of responsibility in providing this expert opinion

explain the concept of a projective hypothesis. how do we see projective hypotheses applied in the rorschach and thematic apperception test

the thesis that an individual supplies structure to unstructured stimuli in a manner consistent with the individual's own unique pattern of conscious and unconscious needs, fears, desires, impulses, conflicts, and ways of perceiving and responding when interpreting a respondent's answers on the TAT or the Rorschach the assessor looks for defines mechanisms, ego responses, needs and drives

contrast norm and criterion referenced evaluation

types of norms: norms are statistics that supply a frame of reference by which meaning may be given to obtain scores Percentile: - ranking that conveys information about relative position of a score within a distribution of scores - expression of the percentage of people whose score on a test or measure falls below a particular raw score - e.g.an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 100 is at the 50th percentile Developmental 1. age norms -age equivalent scores; "mental age" - average performance of different samples test takers who were at various ages at the time the test was administered e.g mat is functioning at an 3 year, 2 month level in expressive language 2. grade norms - indicate average test performance of test takers in a given school grade - developed by administering the test to representative samples of children over consecutive grade levels mean (or medium) score for children at each grade level is calculated e.g Simone is functioning at a grade 9.2 level in mathematics. National - scores are compared across the country - e.g SAT scores compared across the united states Local - individual schools or communities - e.g norms for achievement test compared across subbury Subgroup - eduction level; handedness; community type e.g. norms for left handed individuals or students living in rural settings

list the subtests tat comprise each of the four indexes on the WISC-IV a) verbal comprehension index b) perceptual reasoning index c) processing speed index d) working memory index

verbal comprehension index - similarities - vocabulary - comprehension - information - word reasoning working memory index - digit span - letter number sequencing - arithmetic processing speed index - coding - symbol search - cancellation perceptual reasoning index - block design - picture concepts - matrix reasoning - picture completion

compare and contrast the woodcock reading mastery tests with the woodcock johnson III. wy might you administer each of these tests? what are the benefits of administering tests

when conducting achievement assessments it is better to begin with multiple subject tests such as the W-J III and move to a single subject test such as the WRMT-R if a particular area is noted to be a weakness or strength depending on the purpose of assessment WJ III - can be measured to assess school readiness - influenced by CHC model of intelligence - phonological awareness subscale (best predictor of reading acquisition and deficit in this area major cause of severe reading problem - long administration time - ages 2 - 90 - word attack is in the extended battery and is commonly given(phonetic analysis) woodcock reading mastery test - single subject test measuring two factors with regard to reading (basic skills and reading comprehension) - ages 5 - 75 - tests combine to form clusters