Psychological - Lecture 1 - Dr Greg Yelland

In essence, whereas psychological testing involves measurement, assessment involves evaluation

TESTING may be individual or group in nature. After test administration, the tester is more concerned with tallying responses rather than with the underlying meaning of the scores.

ASSESSMENT is typically individualised. In contrast to testing, assessment more typically focuses on how an individual processes rather than simply the results of that processing.

PSYCHOLOGICAL TESTING: One tester may be substituted for the other without appreciably affecting the outcome of testing.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT: The assessor is key to the process of selecting tests and/or other tools of evaluation, as well as in drawing conclusions from the entire evaluation.

TESTING requires technician-like skills in terms of administration and scoring, as well as in interpreting a test result.

ASSESSMENT requires an educated selection of tools of evaluation, skill in evaluation, and thoughtful integration of data.

Typically, testing yields a score or a series of scores.

Assessment entails a logical problem-solving approach to answer a referral problem.

TESTING: To gauge, numerically, some ability or attribute.

ASSESSMENT: To answer a referral question, solve a problem, or arrive at a decision.

Psychological traits and states exist

Psychological traits and states can be quantified and

measured

Test-related behaviour predicts non-test-related behaviour

Tests and other measurement techniques have strengths and weaknesses

Various sources of error are part of the measurement process

Testing can be conducted in a fair and unbiased manner

Testing/assessment benefits society

(slide18)

we assume that psychological traits and states exist

57:00

We don’t directly observe traits and states, but we make inferences about them from a person’s behaviour

- Measure behaviours either via OBSERVATION or SELF REPORT (58:30)

104: 10

* *This is WHY we do tests - i.e., what we measure tells us something about BEHAVIOUR.

- For example, we might be interested in a person’s future behaviour, such as her future job performance

- Cognitive ability tests are held to be the best single predictor of job performance, particularly knowledge intensive work

**Whereas some tests mimic the actual behaviours a psychologist is trying to assess

- e.g., ROLE PLAY

1:06:45 - other tests are remote (e.g., implicit measures of racist beliefs, which

are, in turn, associated with prejudice and discrimination)

e.g., Weschler Test of Adult Reading as a measure of pre-morbid IQ

Psychological tests are imperfect measures of psychological attributes - because we are NOT MEASURING THE ATTRIBUTE DIRECTLY - (STARTING POINT FOR LAB)

they are IMPERFECT - find the best compromise between the RELIABILITY & VALIDITY>

see other card re what test USERS need to understand.

Error’ refers to the idea that factors other than what a test attempts to measure will influence performance on a test (thinking in terms of ‘residuals’ rather than ‘error’ might be more apt)

Classical test theory (i.e., true score model)

- Test score made up of truescore+error(i.e.,X=T+E)

MUST try to MINIMISE ERROR so we get closer to the TRUE SCORE

- will increase the error if use the test in a way or on a population it was not intended

Greg’s example - both used on dementia Canterbury Assessment Battery (2.5hrs) & Mini Mental State Examination (regarded as gold standard) - 1 page - prob more error

STABLE & DISTINCTIVE patterns of behaviour that characterise an individual and her reactions to the environment

**also PERSONALITY TRAITS: E.g., the number of basic dimensions or factors that have been proposed are 2 (Eysenck), 5 (Costa & McCrae) and 16 (Cattell)

(week 7 - theories and measurement of personality)

**SPECIFIC INTELLECTUAL ABILITIES

such as those identified by psychometric theories of intelligence

E.g., the number of intellectual abilities that proposed are: 1 (g; Spearman), 7 (Thurstone) and 120 (Guilford), as well as Gardner’s proposed multiple intelligences (Theories and measurement of intelligence week 5)

Distinguishable, less stable or enduring attributes

e.g., mood states; emotional states, such as Positive or Negative Affect

slide 20

59:20 - can be biased (self preservation)

with children -

PARENT REPORT: more hopeful about child’s behaviours - tend to overestimate

TEACHER REPORT: tend to under estimate (less experience with child)

measuring some trait - but not doing it directly.

implicit measurement procedures (e.g., Implicit Association Task; Go-No-Go Association Task)

Inferences about people’s beliefs about other ethnic or racial groups

1:02

E.g., Michell (1997) has argued that psychologists sidestep the scientific task of showing that an attribute is quantitative and that we skip straight to the instrumental task of constructing procedures for numerically assigning magnitudes to these attributes (i.e., creating measurement instruments)

WILL COVER THIS IN:

(Test development I and II (weeks 3 and 4)

(Theories of intelligence

& personality (weeks 5 & 7)

1:10:40

Hippopotamus BIG THING BIG WORD

Ant LITTLE THING LITTLE WORD

incongruous words are

Butterfly LITTLE THING BIG WORD

Ship BIG THING; LITTLE WORD

Butterfly = Little Word (2yr old)

Butterfly = Big Word (4yr old)

Point in child’s development where they begin to explicitly understand what they have implicitly known since they began talking: the properties of a word are not the same as the properties of the thing

used

MEASURE of a child’s awareness of the implicit properties of a word.

to infer a child’s level of METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

BIG-WORD / LITTLE WORD TEST is

used to INFER child’s level of METALINGUISTIC AWARENESS

- MA taken as an indication of preparedness for reading &/or potential susceptibility for dyslexia

whether a child makes judgements about word size on basis of word length is a MEASURE of a child’s awareness of the implicit properties of a word.

- precursor to reading - CANNOT QUANTIFY IT.

IT IS EITHER THERE OR IT IS NOT!!!

TRAIT - STATE - TRAIT (1:15:30)

**The psychometric properties of a test � Is the test reliable? (week 2)

Is the test valid?

- they are IMPERFECT - find the best compromise between the RELIABILITY & VALIDITY>

**HOW A TEST WAS DEVELOPED (week 3 & 4)

- How are the attributes conceptualised?

- How was the test constructed? (e.g., scales)

- What sample of people was the test developed on?

Lab 2 -

**The CIRCUMSTANCES under which it is appropriate to administer a test

**How the test should be administered

**To whom should a test be administered

**How the test results should be interpreted

*MEASUREMENT INSTRUMENTS

Some tests are simply better than others in measuring what they purport to measure

E.g., a test of Conscientiousness whose behavioural items reflect Extraversion

Issues of content and construct validity raised here

*TEST-TAKERS & TEST ADMINISTRATORS

Some administrators are more professional than others in following test instructions

Test-takers might experience high anxiety before an IQ test, which affects performance

*All major test publishers strive to develop instruments that are fair when used in strict accordance with the guidelines in the test manual

*However, fairness-related questions and problems do occasionally arise

e. g., using test on different individuals than intended

or use the wrong norms when interpreting tests

*Psychological testing and assessment is an intrinsically ethical practice - intended - but there are traps (Ethics Lecture - Week 8 & Labs)

**Although testing and assessment may seem undesirable at times, do the benefits of testing outweigh the costs?

*An historical example of the SOCIAL COSTS of testing

H. H. Goddard and the menace of the feeble minded 15

Popularised the Frenchman Albert Binet’s intelligence scale

Source of the descriptor “moron” – below average IQ “high grade defectives”

Wanted to prevent the entry of the feeble minded into the US

Application of this test led Goddard to believe that the majority of refugees arriving to America from Eastern and Southern Europe were “morons”/feeble- minded

*An historical example of the SOCIAL BENEFITS of testing

Ability and the emergence of meritocracy

Awarding jobs and rewarding people on the basis of ability is historically novel

E.g.,Samuel Pepys, 1st person in the 1660s,was a middle-class Briton who was among 27 the first officials to make his way up in government by virtue of the fact that he was smart.