Chapter 2 - Historical, Cultural, and Legal/Ethical Considerations

Question 1

Albemarle Paper Company v. Moody

Answer 1

Occurred in 1976. An industrial psychologist at a paper mill found that scores on a general ability test predicted measures of job performance. However, as a group, Whites scored better than Blacks on the test. The U.S. District Court found the use of the test to be sufficiently job related. An appeals court did not. It ruled that discrimination had occurred, however unintended.

Question 2

Alfred Binet

Answer 2

a

Question 3

James McKeen Cattell

Answer 3

a

Question 4

Charles Darwin

Answer 4

a

Question 5

Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education

Answer 5

A document that presents standards for educational test developers in four areas: 1) developing/selecting tests, 2) interpreting scores, 3) striving for fairness, and 4) informing testtakers.

Question 6

Code of Professional Ethics

Answer 6

A code that defines the standard of care expected of members of that profession.

Question 7

Collectivist Culture

Answer 7

A culture where value is placed on traits such as conformity, cooperation, interdependence, and striving towards group goals.

Question 8

Confidentiality

Answer 8

“Confidentiality concerns matters of communication outside the courtroom, whereas privilege protects clients from disclosure in judicial proceedings.”

Question 9

Culture

Answer 9

The socially transmitted behavior patterns, beliefs, and products of work of a particular population, community, or group of people.

Question 10

Culture-Specific Test

Answer 10

Tests designed for use with people from one culture but not from another.

Question 11

Debra P. v. Turlington

Answer 11

Occurred in 1981. The federal court ruled that minimum competency testing in Florida was unconstitutional because it perpetuated the effects of past discrimination.

Question 12

Ethics

Answer 12

A body of principles of right, proper, or good conduct.

Question 13

Eugenics

Answer 13

The science of improving the qualities of a breed through intervention with factors related to heredity.

Question 14

Francis Galton

Answer 14

Father of the individual differences field. He sought to explore and quantify individual differences between people, and wanted to classify people “according to their natural gifts” and to ascertain their “deviation from the average”. He devised or contributed to the development of many current tools of psychological assessment, including questionnaires, rating scales, and self-report inventories. He also pioneered the coefficient of correlation.

Question 15

Henry H. Goddard

Answer 15

a

Question 16

Griggs v. Duke Power Company

Answer 16

Occurred in 1971. Black employees brought suit against a private company for discriminatory hiring practices. The U.S. Supreme Court found problems with “broad and general testing devices” and ruled that tests must “fairly measure the knowledge or skills required by a particular job.”

Question 17

HIPAA

Answer 17

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. It established new federal privacy standards that limited the ways in which health care providers and others can use patients’ personal information.

Question 18

Hired Gun

Answer 18

Professionals who are willing to testify to almost anything, willing to provide whatever professional opinion is desired by those who will pay their fees.

Question 19

Hobson v. Hansen

Answer 19

Occurred in 1967. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that ability tests developed on Whites could not lawfully be used to track Black students in the school system. To do so could result in resegregation of desegregated schools.

Question 20

Individualist Culture

Answer 20

A culture characterized by value being placed on traits such as self-reliance, autonomy, independence, uniqueness, and competitiveness.

Question 21

Informed Consent

Answer 21

A testtaker’s agreement, or consent, to undergo the test once they have full knowledge of how they are being evaluated, how the test data will be used, and what (if any) information will be released to whom.

Question 22

Jaffee v. Redmond

Answer 22

Occurred in 1996. Communication between a psychotherapist and a patient (an presumably a psychological assessor and a client) is privileged in federal courts.

Question 23

Larry P. v. Riles

Answer 23

Occurred in 1979. A California judge ruled that the use of intelligence tests to place Black children in special classes had a discriminatory impact because the tests were “racially and culturally biased.”

Question 24

Laws

Answer 24

Rules that individuals must obey because they are deemed to be good for society as a whole.

Question 25

Litigation

Answer 25

The court-mediated resolution of legal matters of a civil, criminal, or administrative nature.

Question 26

Minimum Competency Testing Programs

Answer 26

Formal testing programs designed to be used in decisions regarding various aspects of students’ education.

Question 27

Christiana D. Morgan

Answer 27

a

Question 28

Henry A. Murray

Answer 28

a

Question 29

ODDA

Answer 29

Oregon’s Death with Dignity act, which provides that a patient with a medical condition thought to give that patient 6 months or less to live may end his or her own life by voluntarily requesting a lethal dose of medication.

Question 30

Karl Pearson

Answer 30

a

Question 31

Privacy Right

Answer 31

A right that “recognizes the freedom of the individual to pick and choose for himself the time, circumstances, and particularly the extent to which he wishes to share or withhold from others his attitudes, beliefs, behavior, and opinions.”

Question 32

Privileged Information

Answer 32

Information that is protected by law from disclosure in a legal proceeding. It is typically extended to parties who communicate with each other in the context of certain relationships, including the lawyer-client relationship, the doctor-patient relationship, the priest-penitent relationship, and the husband-wife relationship. In most states, this is also given to the psychologist-client relationship.

Question 33

Projective Test

Answer 33

A test in which an individual is assumed to “project” onto some ambiguous stimulus his or her own unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivation. The ambiguous stimulus might be an inkblot, a drawing, a photograph, or something else.

Question 34

Psychoanalysis

Answer 34

A theory of personality and psychological treatment developed by Sigmund Freud, wherein symbolic significance is assigned to many nonverbal acts.

Question 35

Public Law 105-17

Answer 35

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997. Established that children should not be inappropriately placed in special education programs due to cultural differences. Schools should accommodate existing test instruments and other alternate means of assessment for the purpose of gauging the progress of special education students as measured by state- and district-wide assessments.

Question 36

Quota System

Answer 36

A selection procedure whereby a fixed number or percentage of applicants from certain backgrounds were selected.

Question 37

Hermann Rorschach

Answer 37

a

Question 38

Self-Report

Answer 38

A process whereby assessees themselves supply assessment-related information by responding to questions, keeping a diary, or self-monitoring thoughts or behaviors.

Question 39

Sputnik

Answer 39

a

Question 40

Standard of Care

Answer 40

The level at which the average, reasonable, and prudent professional would provide diagnostic or therapeutic services under the same or similar conditions.

Question 41

Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California

Answer 41

Occurred in 1974. Established that therapists (and presumably psychological assessors) must reveal privileged information if a third party is endangered. In the words of the court, “Protective privilege ends where the public peril begins.”

Question 42

Truth-in-Testing Legislation

Answer 42

Laws that were designed to give testtakers a way to learn the criteria by which they were being judged.

Question 43

David Wechsler

Answer 43

a

Question 44

Lightner Witmer

Answer 44

a

Question 45

Robert S. Woodworth

Answer 45

a

Question 46

Wilhelm Max Wundt

Answer 46

a

Question 47

Affirmative Action

Answer 47

Voluntary and mandatory efforts undertaken by federal, state, and local governments, private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and promote equal opportunity for all in education and employment.