Midterm Flashcards
What is psychological assessment?
The use of standardized procedures and or instruments to observe and measure particular aspects of human behavior in comparison to (normal distribution) nomothetic
What is cognitive assessment?
Measuring someone’s cognitive abilities/IQ
What is meant by “normal” or “abnormal”?
Normal- at or near the norm (average)
Abnormal- considered significantly deviated from the mean (1.5 to 2 standard deviations, intellectually gifted or disabled)
What are the “pillars” or “components” or main sources of data of assessment?
Interviews, norm-referenced measures, behavioral observations, informal assessment procedures
What are the strengths of intelligence testing?
Excellent standardization, good overall psychometric properties, useful diagnostic info, good administration procedures, helpful scoring criteria
What are the limitations of intelligence testing?
Limited normative data, limitations to psychometric properties, differing number of children used to compute WISC standardization, poor quality of some test materials
Steps in assessment process from referral to feedback
- review referral information to see why this person is being referred
- decide whether or not to accept the referral
- obtain relevant background info (aim to understand the patient)
- consider the influence of relevant others (parents, teachers, etc.)
- select and administer an assessment battery (used only, valid, reliable, representative and appropriate measures for the patient and use standardized administration and appropriate scoring)
- interpret the assessment results (consider all adverse factors of assessment, information from informal assessments, uniqueness & implications of conflicting scores)
- develop a conceptualization of patients and recommendations
- write a report (with empathetic and jargon-free language)
- meet with patient and others, if applicable to review results
- follow up on recommendations and conduct reevaluation
What is included in the informed consent for assessment (ethics)?
When psychologists conduct research, assessment, therapy, counseling or consulting services gain consent in a understandable way (it includes competency, disclosure of info, voluntary participation
Why is informed consent important in assessment?
It helps guide clients to make choices about their services
Release of test data
Test data- (recordings, client patient responses, psychologists notes)
Psychologists may refrain from releasing test data to protect and client/patient or others from substantial harm
Maintaining test security
Psychologists should store test materials in secure locations and prevent unauthorized access, Separating test data and materials, Limiting access to test materials
What are the APA guidelines?
Do no harm, respect the rights of patients, recommendations for specific professional behavior and conduct
Who is Galton?
Founder of formal testing; studied sensory acuity and reaction time in relation to intelligence
Who is Cattell?
Collaborated with Galton and studied individual differences, coined the term “mental test”
Who is Pearson?
Collaborated with Galton and Cattell and studied correlation coefficients, created Pearsons r (correlation coefficient)
Who is Binet?
developed the first official test of intelligence, created binet-simon scale, which was later translated from French into English by Goddard and then called the Stanford-Binet after it was updated by Terman, one of Goddard’s students
Who is Stern?
Developed the concept of an intelligence quotient (IQ)
Who is Yerkes?
Took a different approach involving testing with tasks of increasing difficulty, which is the foundation of the WAIS; also helped to develop Army Alpha and Army Beta Tests
Who is Wechsler?
Developed modified version of Army Alpha/Beta called Wechsler-Bellevue – First test to have Verbal, Non-Verbal, and Full Scale IQ and served as the foundation for the WISC, WAIS, and WPPSI
Who created the multi-factor theories of intelligence?
Thorndike, Cattell and Horn
Who created the general and specific factor theories of intelligence?
Spearman, Vernon and Carroll
How is a multi-factor theory of intelligence different than the general/specific factor theory of intelligence?
multi-factor theories emphasize a broader array of independent abilities, while general/specific factor theories center around a singular general intelligence that influences specific skills
Factors (hereditary and non) impacting intelligence
Hereditary- genes are associated with the mental development
Non-Hereditary- family/home background, biological factors/early development
Krueger & Dunning (1999) (conclusions of research)
People with limited knowledge suffer a dual burden: not only do they reach mistaken/regrettable errors, but their incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it
What is intelligence?
Capacity to act purposefully, think rationally and deal effectively with the environment
What is the measure of g?
general intelligence (g) is often derived from a combination of performance on various cognitive tasks
What is Gf? (Fluid intelligence)
A single underlying construct of intelligence responsible for one’s performance on mental tasks
What is Gc? (Crystallized intelligence)
Intelligence is the result of interactions between several, distinct cognitive abilities of already accumulated skills
What is reliability?
Consistent and predictable measurement
4 types of reliability
test-retest, alternate forms, internal consistency and inter-rater
What is validity?
Accuracy, does the instrument measure what it claims to measure
7 types of validity
content, face, logical, criterion, predictive, concurrent, construct
Content Validity
Are the items on the test sufficiently representative of the construct?
Face validity
Do the items appear to be relevant to what they are measuring?
Logical Validity
Through systematic & empirical study in development, was the domain covered?
Criterion Validity
assesses how well a test’s scores correlate with other tests or external criteria (predictive vs concurrent)
Predictive Validity
measurement to accurately predict a future outcome, such as a behavior, performance, or disease
Concurrent validity
shows how well a new assessment agrees with an established assessment
Discriminant Validity
that determines whether measurements or concepts that are not supposed to be related are actually unrelated
What is the normal curve/distribution?
represents the shape of an important class of statistical probabilities
What is a percentile rank?
A statistical measure that indicates the percentage of scores in a data set that fall below a specific score
What is a confidence interval?
A range of values that describes the uncertainty surrounding an estimate
What is the difference between relative and statistically significant differences/strengths and weaknesses?
RS indicates intellectual giftedness and RW represents Intellectual deficit
What is the normative sample? who was the test standardized on? WISC/WAIS
WISC- 2,200 children who were selected to represent the school-age population in the US in 2012
WAIS- 2,200 individuals from late-adolescence through adulthood without LNS, FW, CA which were used on 1,800 16-69 year olds
WISC age range, demographic breakdown?
Age range 6:0-16:11 months, 5 indexes, 10 primary core subtests & 6 supplemental tests
WAIS age range, demographic breakdown?
Age range 16:00-90:11, 4 indexes, 10 primary subtests, 5 supplemental
WAIS/WISC use of supplemental subtests
The WISC has 6 & WAIS has 5
Can be used to substitute for core subtests if substitution rules are met, may be substituted for a core subtest that was invalidated due to error