PSYC704-PSYHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT

TEST:

TOPIC: Address the complexities (historical and current) involved in using psychological

assessment in a multicultural context like South Africa.

Psychological assessment is a process of testing that uses a combination of techniques to help

arrive at a hypothesis about a person and their personality, behaviour and capabilities.

Psychological assessment is also referred to as psychological testing or performing a

psychological battery on an individual. In the past and today’s day and age, there have been

many underlying complications and issues associated with psychological assessment in a

multicultural context like South Africa. This essay will address the complexities of historical

and current that is involved in a country that accommodates diversity. The essay will focus its

attention on understanding the context of clinical assessment, effects, looking at the statutory

control of Psychological assessment with regard to legislations. This essay will also discuss

instruments, that is, trends and abilities, measuring people, keeping in mind validity,

reliability and standardization of measure as well as equating and identifying differences in

society, providing a political view and discussing social and ethical implications of testing in

South Africa.

Firstly, in South Africa, psychological assessment or testing was for a long time viewed as

unjust and discriminatory. Presently, practitioners are becoming aware of the advantages of

sound assessment as well as improvements in test development have lead to implementation

of fair tests in the clinical practice to the people of the community. According to Groth-

Marnat, G, 2003, one needs to understand the context in which the assessment occurs. This

understanding includes appreciating the terminology, concerns and issues as well as the likely

roles of the people from such contexts. The central role of a clinician who conducts

assessments is to answer specific questions and aid in making relevant decisions. They must

integrate a wide range of data and bring into focus diverse areas of knowledge using an

objective approach. When looking at a multicultural context, such as South Africa in relation

to General Psychology, it is important to keep in mind the various factors which range from

society at large to everyday and academic performance, division of the many races and

classes, people from different educational backgrounds and social bias. This leads to greater

demands on psychological assessment in the clinical setting with regard to creating

awareness, exposure and making it more cost effective. Often, there are issues that arise with

regard to assessment and testing. Due to the lack of formal education, there are fewer

competent clinicians that are employed and put to provide their services to society.

Implications of this, is because there are limited professionals, people do not receive the help

they need, unsuccessful implementation occurs and people will most likely be misdiagnosed.

Access also becomes a problem, as some people may be underprivileged and cannot afford to

get help or assistance and because there is diversity, for example, black people would rather

seek help from a Sangoma instead of a clinician who would carry out psychological

assessments.

Secondly, with regards to legislation, South Africa faces challenges in terms of psychology

test use, adaption and development (Bartram, 2004). For example, changes in legislation, i.e.

S.A employment act no.55 of 1998 refers to psychological assessments and tests that

specifically emphasizes the significance of appropriate psychometric properties for

psychological tests and the importance of ensuring equity, validity, reliability and no biasness

(Foxcroft & Roodt, 2005). The implementation of act assists in protecting the people and

their rights, leaving no room for discriminatory practices in the workplace.

Thirdly, there are many instruments that are used in the practice namely, questionnaires,

surveys, tests vary, for example aptitude tests, diagnostic tests, personality tests, intelligence

tests and neuropsychological tests and assessment scales to name a few. It is important, for

example, that the clinician who is administering these tests are well schooled and have

enough knowledge of what the test is about as well as the client’s capability. This will ensure

validity, reliability, successful diagnosis and a correct report. With regard to this, one who is

testing should keep the trends in mind. Trends refer to a continuing or a pattern of a test,

which is often associated with particular demographics of a population. Test results will

differ as people may interpret it in different ways. Trends will also help the one who is testing

make a most likely diagnosis of a person. The issue that often arises here is having diversity

and language barriers in a multicultural country such as South Africa. Most assessments and

tests are written in English and a lot maybe lost in translation which can have a negative

effect on people and their diagnosis. Thus, people who take these tests must understand what

is being communicated to them and the clinician must know the client’s capability of

answering such tests whether illustrated to them, orally done or written. If interpreted

incorrectly, this might lead to miscommunication, invalid results and the client will most

possibly be wrongly diagnosed. A psychological assessment and test must be both valid, i.e.

is the instrument measuring what it was designed to measure and reliable, i.e. repeated tests

resulting in consistent results over time and the clinician should ensure standardization of

measure that is, assessment procedures are conducted under the same environment to achieve

the same testing performance from those who are being tested.

Fourthly, if one looks at South Africa from a political perspective, they will immediately

associate it with the apartheid era. In the apartheid era, debates circulated around human

rights as it was one of the major things that people fought for and with regards to

psychological assessment and testing, one can say that many people were denied human

rights, for example, because they were a particular race or class they were denied access to

medical health facilities. They were robbed of opportunity to visit a health professional to

enquire about their clinical condition and seek professional help. They were underprivileged

and never exposed to such facilities and thus deteriorated in contrast to the privileged that

were given access to health professionals and often were treated for their conditions. In

today’s democratic South Africa, everyone according to the constitution has the right to equal

healthcare and facilities which are most often funded by the government.

Lastly, there are social and ethical implications of testing in South Africa. From a social

perspective, people were and are often discriminated, biased and prejudiced against and

society most time, perceives those who have clinical conditions and get help, assessed or

tested as different or social outcasts. They assume that these people are not able to function

normally in society and should therefore be disregarded in society. Ethical issues of testing

stemmed from the past and still prevail today, from one ethnic group to another, where many

were and are still categorized and labelled and discriminated and seen with a social difference

rather than it being seen as a person with a differing lifestyle or condition and they are the

ones who are disadvantaged and unfairly denied in the workplace. They were looked down

upon and passed over for example, in job opportunities and not accepted into Universities and

colleges because of purported bias in standardized tests.

In essence, the importance of the instruments used in psychological assessment and testing is

to uplift society, create a different perspective, change one’s thoughts, and get rid of bias,

prejudice and discrimination. Although, there is now access, there needs to be professional

people carrying out these assessments and tests. Clinicians employed must be competent

which will benefit society, in the tests which are carried out provide the correct information

as well as valid and reliable results. Psychological assessment has advanced in leaps and

bounds in South Africa. The access and exposure of psychological assessment has increased

drastically from the past to the present day in South Africa. However, a greater need for such

psychological assessment and tests are required in the underprivileged areas of South Africa.

The only way to combat this is to equip more clinicians with background, experience and

knowledge to implement these assessments and tests and make it more widely accessible to

various factions of South African society, so everyone may add to society in order for them to

thrive and grow.