Lecture 1 Flashcards
Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing 2014
Developed jointly by: American Educational Research Association. American Psychological Association. National Council on Measurement in Education. Tell you how to use psychological tests, evaluate them, etc. Most recent revision addressing fairness in testing, special pops, disabilities, diversity, technology. First published in 1966 and are now on the 5th revision.
Rights and responsibilities of test users: knowing validity evidence for interpretations (from test selection to use of scores), positive and negative consequences of test use, protect security of test content and privacy of test takers, should provide pertinent and timely info to test takers and other test users with whom they share scores.
Rights and responsibilities of test takers
Right to info to help them prepare so that the test results are accurate. Right to protection of personally identifiable results from unauthorized people/uses. Responsibility to present themselves accurately in the testing process and to respect copyright in test materials.
Report of the task force on test user qualifications
- Practice and Science directorates APA. Task force led to guidelines.
Test user qualifications
Psychometric and measurement knowledge (standardization etc.). Selection of appropriate tests. Test administration procedures. Ethnic, racial, cultural, gender, age, and linguistic variables. Testing individuals with disabilities. Supervised experience. Have to be competent to be ethical but can be competent and unethical.
Assessment ethical standards
- 01 Bases for assessment: psychologists base the opinions on information and techniques sufficient to substantiate the findings.
- 02 Use of assessments: appropriate for the use, reliability and validity, appropriate language. “Knowing” is competence. “Acting” is ethics.
- 03 Informed consent: obtain it knowingly, intelligently, and willing except for certain situations (routine educational testing etc.).
- 04 Release of raw test data: raw/scaled scores, client responses, notes and recordings. This is info unique to the person you tested. You need consent to release all of this.
- 05 Test construction: psychologists who develop tests and other assessment techniques use appropriate psychometric procedures and current scientific or professional knowledge for their design, standardization, validation, reduction, or elimination of bias, and recommendations for use.
- 06 Interpreting assessment results: watch out for definitive statements, there are false positives, qualify your statements.
- 07 Assessment by unqualified persons: do not promote use of techniques by unqualified persons, except for training and with supervision (relates to 2.05, delegation of work to others)
- 08 Obsolete tests and outdated results: Don’t base assessment or intervention decisions/recommendations on data or test results that are outdated for current purposes - do not base decisions on tests and measures that are obsolete and not useful for the current purpose (most psychologists switch to new version within one year - ok to use old versions for some purposes like research where you started with the old one)
- 09 Test scoring and interpretation services: select on the basis of evidence of validity of program and procedures as well as other appropriate considerations. Retain responsibility for the appropriate application, interpretation, and use of assessment instruments, whether they score and interpret themselves or use automated services (questionably unethical to just use automated, also have to know how the computer is coming up with all that).
- 10 Explaining assessment results: ensure that explanations of results are given unless the nature of the relationship precludes it (e.g. forensic where court is client) and this fact has been clearly explained to person being tested.
- 11 Maintaining test security: the term test materials refers to manuals, instruments, protocols, and test questions or stimuli (not test data).
Scenarios
Can’t have people take stuff home because security but also not how it was standardized and could also be bad for welfare if something negatively affects them. They do have right to raw data if they insist, may have to type all of it up off of the record form. Court order: 1.02 comes into play with conflict. There’s a statement from Pearson you can present the judge with. Ideally get permission where you would turn it over to another psychologist who would then protect the material.
Obsolete tests
No consensus on when tests are no longer acceptable. Clinical lore is 1 year to switch. Obsolescence is not just determined by time. Expense, convenience, and additional training needs are not acceptable reasons. Use most advanced and psychometrically sound instruments available. Psychologists must often choose (e.g. conflicts over what is more psychometrically sound). Use professional judgement in determining the most relevant, valid, and reliable instrument for current purpose of assessment. Which instrument is based on most appropriate theoretical underpinnings for current purpose. Do longitudinal or comparative needs warrant an earlier version, and would newer version introduce more extraneous variables, counterbalancing any benefits for using newer instrument. Caution against strict interpretation of 9.08: non-current tests are not necessarily obsolete.
