Psychological Assessment Flashcards
are based on empirically validated relationships between test results and target criteria and make use of a multiple regression equation or similar technique, while clinical predictions are based on the decision-maker’s intuition, experience, and knowledge. Studies comparing the two methods have generally found that the actuarial method alone is more accurate than clinical judgment alone.
Acturial Versus Clinical Prediction
focuses on overt and covert behaviors and utilizes various techniques including behavioral interviews, behavioral observation, protocol analysis and other cognitive measures, and psychophysiological measures. Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) is a type of behavioral assessment that involves identifying and altering the antecedents and consequences that are maintaining an undesirable behavior.
Behavioral Assessment
is a measure of visual-motor integration that is also used as a screening tool for neuropsychological impairment. It includes 16 stimulus cards consisting of geometric figures that the examinees first copies and then draws from memory.
Bender-Gestalt-II
The initial identification of the personality traits that make up the “Big Five” (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience) utilized an atheoretical lexical approach that entailed identifying personality characteristics listed in the dictionary and then using factor analysis to identify the core traits (factors).
Big Five Personality Traits
Horn and Cattell proposed that general intelligence can be described in terms of two types: Crystallized intelligence (Gc) refers to acquired knowledge and skills and is affected by educational and cultural experiences, whereas fluid intelligence (Gf) enables an individual to solve novel problems and perceive relations and similarities and does not depend on specific instruction.
Crystallized And Fluid Intelligence
involves periodic assessment of school-aged children with brief standardized and validated measures of basic academic skills that reflect the current school curriculum for the purposes of evaluating instructional effectiveness and making instructional decisions.
Curriculum-Based Measurement
has two meanings: In the context of multiaptitude batteries, differential validity is desirable, and a battery lacks differential validity when each test or subtest has similar validity coefficients for each criterion group or category. In the context of job selection, differential validity is undesirable and occurs when a predictor has different validity coefficients for different groups of individuals (e.g., men and women).
Differential Validity
was derived from Vygotsky’s method for evaluating a child’s mental development and involves deliberate deviation from standardized testing procedures to obtain additional information about an examinee and/or determine if he/she would benefit from assistance or instruction. Testing the limits, a type of dynamic assessment, involves providing an examinee with additional cues, suggestions, or feedback and is ordinarily done after standard administration of the test to preserve the applicability of the test’s norms.
Dynamic Assessment/Testing The Limits
Research conducted prior to 2000 found that IQ test scores consistently increased over the previous 70 years in the United States and other industrialized countries. This increase is referred to as the Flynn effect, involves a rate of at least three IQ points per decade, and is apparently due primarily to increases in fluid intelligence. Recent research suggests, however, that the Flynn effect has reversed in some countries and, in the U.S., for individuals with IQs of 110 and above.
Flynn Effect
is used to assess level of consciousness following brain injury and involves rating the patient in terms of three responses - visual response (eye opening), best motor response, and best verbal response.
Glasgow Coma Scale
The Halstead-Reitan Neuropsychological Battery is used to detect brain damage and determine its severity and possible location. It produces a Halstead Impairment Index that ranges from 0 to 1.0, with higher scores indicating greater impairment.
Halstead-Reitan
Correlations between the IQ scores of people with varying degrees of genetic similarity are used to demonstrate the impact of heredity on intelligence. The studies have found that, the closer the genetic similarity, the higher the correlation (e.g., identical twins reared together, r = .85; identical twins reared apart, r = .67).
Heredity And Intelligence
IDEA requires that (a) all disabled people from infancy to 21 years of age must be evaluated by a team of specialists to determine their specific needs; (b) an Individualized Educational Program (IEP) must be developed for each disabled child enrolled in the public education system that provides education for the student in the “least restrictive environment” and that has been approved by the child’s parents; and (c) while reliable, valid, and nondiscriminatory psychological tests can be used, assignment to special education classes cannot be made on the basis of IQ tests only.
Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Infant and preschool tests are generally considered valid as screening devices for developmental delays and disabilities; but, when administered to children aged two or younger, they have little predictive validity. Examples include the Denver Development Screening Test, Bayley Scales, and Fagan Test of Infant Intelligence.
Infant and Preschool Tests
(Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, Third Edition) is appropriate for individuals ages 5:0 to 12:11. It was designed to evaluate a child’s strengths and weaknesses in terms of linguistic abilities, assist in the diagnosis of dyslexia and problems related to phonological coding, and track a child’s progress as the result of an intervention.
ITPA-3
