Lesson 6 - Assessment of Decision-Making Styles Flashcards
Define: Assessment
The intensive case study of an individual or the systemic study of groups of individuals.
Why might assessment be collaborative?
o 1. Benefits from contributions of person being assessed
o 2. Active involvement is apt to bode well for active involvement in problem resolution and action.
o 3. Assessment is termed heightening self-awareness or self-exploration, and important basis for development.
Define: Standardized Test
Give an example
Based on a systematic set of rules regarding administration, scoring, and interpretation.
Rorschach Test
• A qualitative standardized test
Define: Projective Techniques
Given an ambiguous enough stimulus, the respondent is likely to project personal associations and meanings onto that stimulus.
eg., How I use astrology and dream dictionaries.
Define: Objective Test
Respondant produces a conscious response to a conscious, clear, and unambiguous item.
Contrasts with Projective Techniques
True or False: Projective techniques are more affected by social desirability than Objective testing.
False
Define: Test-Retest
Use the same measure at 2 different times for the same group of people.
Define: Parallel forms (or split half)
Obtain 2 different observations (i.e., parallel forms of the observation) from the same group of people.
Define: Internal Consistency
Obtain one set of observations (more than one component or item to the observation) from a group of individuals.
Define: Inter-rater
Have 2 people rate behaviours and determine the amount of agreement between them.
Define: Content
What is measured:
Define: Concurrent (Criterion-related)
What is measured:
-How well the items (or components) represent the entire universe of items
How obtained:
-Ask experts if the items tap the construct of interest
Define: Predictive (Criterion-related)
What is measured:
-How well a measure estimates a criterion
How obtained:
-Select a criterion and correlated the measure with the criterion in the present
Define: Construct
What is measured:
-How well a measure reflects a latent variable or underlying construct; links the observed scores to some underlying model or theory
How obtained:
-Can be done in several ways:
• Correlate to “Gold Standard”
• Factor Analysis
• Convergent and Discriminant validity
How can qualitative assessments be misused in counselling?
Provide appearance of objectivity which encourages over-reliance in at least two ways:
1. It is tempting to shift responsibility for decision-making onto an impersonal instrument 2. Not a short cut or a quick solution.
Test scores change over time.
-The Hazard of the single time period:
• The risk of assuming a single test is indicative of stable variables.
List 5 advantages of qualitative assessment
Require more active roles for clients
Generally, more holistic, more integrative.
More congruent with a developmental perspective
-Since the implicit aim is usually to enhance awareness and understanding
More intimately related to counselling process
-Due to active therapist-client partnership
Flexible and adaptable
-Can be adjusted rather easily
List 3 disadvantages of qualitative assessment.
o More time consuming
o More affected by subjective interpretation
o Not great for investigating a psychological variable in a large sample/population
List the 4 criteria that a Case Study needs to fulfill
- Must be divergent sources of information
-Can’t have only one source of information
• E.g., a parent’s description - Sample domains of relevance to a problem of living
-E.g., not enough to sample vocational interests (when examining a career decision
• Also assess aptitudes, skills, career goals, and decision-making strategies - Conclusions drawn from a convergence of evidence
- Tests, academic performance, and opinions of teachers and parents might supply multiple sources of evidence for the conclusion that a person is intelligent or mechanically inclined or whatever. - Maintain a chain of evidence that links information gathered from exploration to conclusions reached.
- Links might require judgment, but at least there is some assurance that conclusions are based on evidence rather than otherwise.
Which parenting styles tend to produce young adults with stronger decision-making abilities?
Higher levels of autonomy in Democratic and Permissive families
Describe the Synthesis Process using appx. 4 steps
The process includes such steps as:
- a person surveys a wide range of alternatives and carefully evaluates the objectives to be accomplished;
- the negative and positive consequences are contrasted;
- the decision maker is deeply engaged in seeking out new data with which to more adequately assess the alternatives;
- finally, once the decision is made, the person prepares to implement the chosen course of action.
List and define the 5 subscales of Scott and Bruce’s (1995) GDMS instrument.
Rational
o Characterized by a thorough search for and logical evaluation of alternatives;
Intuitive
o Characterized by a reliance on hunches and feelings;
Dependent
o Characterized by a search for advice and direction from others;
Avoidant
o Characterized by attempts to avoid decision-making;
Spontaneous
o Characterized by a sense of immediacy and a desire to get through the decision-making process as soon as possible.
List and define the 4 subscales of Johnson, Coscarelli, and Johnson’s (1986) Decision-Making Inventory
Spontaneous
• Holistic Thinking
• Continually establish and re-establish goals as a process of change
• Quickly relate thoughts together that may not be commonly related
Systematic
• Join component parts of a task in a step-by-step process
• Establish goals by weighing alternative through pre-established logical means
Internal
• Independently think tasks or problems through and are not comfortable in making decisions as a result of talking the task or problem out with other people
External
• Tend to talk about decisions and they value the opinions of others in making their decisions
List and Define the 4 Strategies of the Melbourne Decision Making Questionnaire (MDMQ)
4 Strategies:
Vigilance
The vigilant decision maker searches painstakingly for relevant information, assimilates information in an unbiased manner, and evaluates alternatives carefully before making a choice.
Buckpassing
The buckpassing decision maker is shifting responsibility to someone else, or constructing wishful rationalizations to justify the least objectionable alternative.
Procrastination
The procrastinating decision maker attempts to escape difficult decisions by delaying or postponing choice.
Hypervigilance
The hypervigilant or panicky decision maker searches frantically for a way out of dilemmas. She or he tends to be impulsive, seizing hastily contrived solutions that seem to promise relief from conflict.
What was the MDMQ specifically designed to accomplish?
Cross-Cultural Comparisons
What was unique about the Johnson, Coscarelli, and Johnson’s (1986) Decision-Making Inventory?
It differentiated and measured information gathering and analyzing separately.
A client is considering a training program in massage therapy and wants to know if that would be a good career move. An interest test indicates a high score for massage therapy. The counsellor reports the score and off the client goes in a cloud of dust to enroll in the training program.
What is wrong with this use of testing?
It is being used as a shortcut and fails to teach the client good decision making.
No Aptitude Test.
Score can easily change.
Counsellor shifts responsibility to the test.
How is quantitative and qualitative information integrated within a case study?
A cycle of hypothesis formation and hypothesis testing.
-Isolating distinctive features and integrating features into a whole portrait.
A counsellor and client engage in the exploratory cycle until a portrait is crystallized enough to relate to options and solid enough to support confidence
Define: Prospect Theory
People underweigh the probability of moderate and high-probability events.
Overweigh low-probability events
List the 5 Patterns of Conflict Theory
- Unconflicted Adherence
- Unconflicted Change
- Defensive Avoidance
- Hypervigilance
- Vigilance
What is the main criticism of conflict theory?
Predisposes researcher to assume there is conflict
While model may be appropriate for United States, it may not explain much in other cultures
