What Do We Measure?

Intelligence Achievement Personality Symptoms Memory Vocational match Perception

Social skills Stress Coping Etc, etc etc. Can psychologists

measure everything?

Why Is Assessment Important?

It can drastically change someone’s life Diagnosis of a learning disability Admittance to a hospital Diagnosis of a disorder w/ stigma Decline offer of employment Custody of children

Creating Confident Conclusions

Convergence between sources Reliability

Inter-rater Test-retest Internal consistency

Creating Confident Conclusions

Validity - assessing what we intend to assess Concurrent - other current measures Predictive - future events Content - covers all content Face validity - appearance

What are some ways to gather information?

How Do We Gather Info?

InterviewsSelf-report testsIQ tests*Neuropsych tests

Projective tests Behavioral

Assessment Biological tests*

Autopsies Imaging Physiological

Interviews

Structured

Semi-structured

Unstructured

Structured Interviews

PRO Precise Consistent Decrease

defensiveness or judging

Accurate Exhaustive

CON Length/time Irrelevance

Unstructured Interviews

PRO Use own words Adaptive Good for

“undiagnosable” issues

CON Unreliable Subjective Not for research Clinician info-seeking

bias

Self-report Questionnaires

Individuals read questions & select most appropriate answer

Why use? Quick & easy Norms & scoring Empirically supported Track change Client comfort Quick and easy for research

Self-Report Questionnaires

When are they bad? Language problems Reading problems Can be long (e.g. MMPI-2 = 567 items) Faking or Response Bias

The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale

How satisfied are you with your marriage? How satisfied are you with your husband/wife

as a spouse? How satisfied are you with your relationship

with your husband/wife? Rated on a 7 point Likert scale from 1

(extremely dissatisfied) to 7 (extremely satisfied)

Neuropsychological Assessment

Used to measure brain (dys)function Often used for:

Testing after brain injuries Memory concerns Dementia and other cognitive declines

Neuropsychological Tests

Typically a battery measure different skills/elements E.g. memory, language, sensory-motor

integration, perception, motor skills Conclusions based on patterns

Behavioral Assessment

Behavioral observations = observing people in a “natural” environment

Role-playing = observing people in an imagined situation

Why use behavioral assessment?

Why Use?

Lie about their usual behavior Behavior may not apply to a therapy situation Natural environment Practice and observe rare behaviors

Why Not Use?

Social desirability/undesirability Time commitment

E.g. school observations Role-played behavior may not carry-over

outside therapy

Projective Tests

Individuals respond to vague stimuli inkblots Pictures of events Colors Pictures of hands Open-ended sentences

Clients “project” their experiences/disorder/personality

Rorschach Inkblot Test

First released in 1921 Comprehensive System (1970s) Results scored on 100+ characteristics

Parts vs. whole Reactions unusual vs. typical Use of white space vs. black space Does the tester see the reaction?

General Inkblot Instructions

1. What do you see here?

2. Do you see anything else?

3. Will you please show me where you see that?

Criticisms of Rorschach

1. Poor test-retest reliability2. Questionable ability to detect pathology3. Many people score as abnormal4. Poor incremental validity5. Few norms for ethnic minorities

Use Projective Tests (n=412)

Projective Tests Always/Freq. Occasionally

Rorschach 43% 82%

Sentence Completion 34% 80%

TAT 34% 82%

Nonprojective Always/Freq. Occasionally

WAIS IQ Test 59% 93%

MMPI-2 58% 85%

BDI 21% 71%