UNIT 2/ Ch.2., Historical, Cultural, and Legal/Ethical Considerations

Question 1

tests and testing programs first came into being

Answer 1

in China as early as 2200 b.c.e., though the selection of government officials was still mostly based on political and familial ties
Hoping to make the selection of officials more efficient, formal, and meritocratic, emperors of the Sui dynasty created the imperial examination system in the seventh century. Every three years, examinees who had passed local and provincial exams from all over the empire arrived at the capital to undergo rigorous testing about a wide variety of subjects.
. This system became one of the most durable institutions in world history, operating with few interruptions over the next 13 centuries until it was replaced by political reform efforts in the Qing dynasty in 1906

Question 2

On what were applicants for jobs in ancient China tested?

Answer 2

deep knowledge of civil law and had to demonstrate proficiency in geography, agriculture, and military strategy—all of which were vital to serving in a large agricultural society that was frequently at war. Some test subjects may seem surprising to modern sensibility: archery, horsemanship, religious rites, classical literature, and poetry writing. According to cultural ideals, a government official should be a soldier-scholar ready to serve the ruling dynasty with physical prowess, moral rectitude, and a deep knowledge of accumulated cultural wisdom from the past

Question 3

imperial examination

Answer 3

In dynasties with state-sponsored examinations for official positions (referred to as imperial examination), the privileges of making the grade varied.

Question 4

Christian von Wolff

Answer 4

had anticipated psychology as a science and psychological measurement as a specialty within that science.

Question 5

Francis Galton and best known achievement

Answer 5

darwins half cousin
Galton (1869) aspired to classify people “according to their natural gifts” (p. 1) and to ascertain their “deviation from an average” (p. 11). Along the way, Galton would be credited with devising or contributing to the development of many contemporary tools of psychological assessment, including questionnaires, rating scales, and self-report inventories.
s initial work on heredity was done with sweet peas, in part because there tended to be fewer variations among the peas in a single pod. In this work Galton pioneered the use of a statistical concept central to psychological experimentation and testing: the coefficient of correlation***

Question 6

Wilhelm Max Wundt and assesssment

Answer 6

Wundt and his students tried to formulate a general description of human abilities with respect to variables such as reaction time, perception, and attention span. In contrast to Galton, Wundt focused on how people were similar, not different. In fact, Wundt viewed individual differences as a frustrating source of error in experimentation, and he attempted to control all extraneous variables in an effort to reduce error to a minimum. As we will see, such attempts are fairly routine in contemporary assessment.

Question 7

ames McKeen Cattell and assessment

Answer 7

completed a doctoral dissertation that dealt with individual differences—specifically, individual differences in reaction time.
coining the term “mental test”

Question 8

Charles Spearman

Answer 8

credited with originating the concept of test reliability as well as building the mathematical framework for the statistical technique of factor analysis.

Question 9

20th century testing reform

Answer 9

began with intelligence tests
Alfred Binet (1857–1911) and his colleague Victor Henri published several articles in which they argued for the measurement of abilities such as memory and social comprehension. Ten years later, Binet and collaborator Theodore Simon published a 30-item “measuring scale of intelligence” designed to help identify Paris schoolchildren with intellectual disability
Weshler later developed it for adults (WAIS)

Question 10

Group intelligence tests

Answer 10

came into being in the United States in response to the military’s need for an efficient method of screening the intellectual ability of World War I recruits.

Question 11

WWi and testing reform

Answer 11

-World War I had brought with it not only the need to screen the intellectual functioning of recruits but also the need to screen for recruits’ general adjustment.
-psychologists began developing a measure of adjustment and emotional stability that could be administered quickly and efficiently to groups of recruits. The committee developed several experimental versions of what were, in essence, paper-and-pencil psychiatric interviews. To disguise the true purpose of one such test, the questionnaire was labeled as a “Personal Data Sheet.” Draftees and volunteers were asked to indicate yes or no to a series of questions that probed for the existence of various kinds of psychopathology.

Question 12

Woodworth Psychoneurotic Inventory.

Answer 12

This instrument was the first widely used self-report measure of personality. In general, self-report refers to a process whereby assessees themselves supply assessment-related information by responding to questions, keeping a diary, or self-monitoring thoughts or behaviors.

Question 13

self-reported personality tests advantages and disadvantages

Answer 13

respondents are arguably the best-qualified people to provide answers about themselves.
BUT, respondents may have poor insight into themselves. People might honestly believe some things about themselves that in reality are not true. And regardless of the quality of their insight, some respondents are unwilling to reveal anything about themselves that is personal or that could show them in a negative light.

Question 14

projective personality tests

Answer 14

projective test is one in which an individual is assumed to “project” onto some ambiguous stimulus his or her own unique needs, fears, hopes, and motivation
rorschach, thematic apperception, sentence completion

Question 15

Henry H. Goddard and westernized biases in IQ testing

Answer 15

-began using such tests to measure the intelligence of people seeking to immigrate to the United States
-found most immigrants from various nationalities to be mentally deficient when tested. In one widely quoted report,
He believed intelligence tests held the key to answers to questions about everything from what job one should be working at to what activities could make one happy. Further, Goddard came to associate low intelligence with many of the day’s most urgent social problems, ranging from crime to unemployment to poverty. According to him, addressing the problem of low intelligence was a prerequisite to addressing prevailing social problems.

Question 16

Charles davenport

Answer 16

staunch advocate of eugenics, the science of improving the qualities of a breed (in this case, humans) through intervention with factors related to heredity.
collected were used to argue the case that mental deficiency was caused by a recessive gene and could be inherited, much like eye color is inherited. Consequently, Goddard believed that—in the interest of the greater good of society at large—mentally deficient individuals should be segregated or institutionalized

Question 17

Abraham Myerson

Answer 17

Myerson reanalyzed data from studies purporting to support the idea that various physical and mental conditions could be inherited, and he criticized those studies on statistical grounds. He especially criticized Goddard for making sweeping and unfounded generalizations from questionable data. Goddard’s book became an increasing cause for concern because it was used (along with related writings on the menace of feeblemindedness) to support radical arguments in favor of eugenics, forced sterilization, restricted immigration, and other social causes.

Question 18

culture-specific tests,

Answer 18

tests designed for use with people from one culture but not from another, soon began to appear on the scene.

Question 19

steps required to ensure a test can be administered cross culturally

Answer 19

Those steps might involve administering a preliminary version of the test to a tryout sample of testtakers from various cultural backgrounds, particularly from those whose members are likely to be administered the final version of the test. Examiners who administer the test may be asked to describe their impressions with regard to various aspects of testtakers’ responses
All of the accumulated test scores from the tryout sample will be analyzed to determine if any individual item seems to be biased with regard to race, gender, or culture. In addition, a panel of independent reviewers may be asked to go through the test items and screen them for possible bias. A revised version of the test may then be administered to a large sample of testtakers that is representative of key variables of the latest U.S. Census data (such as age, gender, ethnic background, and socioeconomic status). Information from this large-scale test administration will also be used to root out any identifiable sources of bias, often using sophisticated statistical techniques designed for this purpose.

Question 20

psychoanalysis,

Answer 20

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

Question 21

individualist vs collectivist culture and how it impacts assessment

Answer 21

individualist culture (typically associated with the dominant culture in countries such as the United States and Great Britain) is characterized by value being placed on traits such as self-reliance, autonomy, independence, uniqueness, and competitiveness. In a collectivist culture (typically associated with the dominant culture in many countries throughout Asia, Latin America, and Africa), value is placed on traits such as conformity, cooperation, interdependence, and striving toward group goals.
= people raised in Western culture tend to see themselves as having a unique constellation of traits that are stable over time and through situation
=the person raised in a collectivist culture believes that “one’s behavior is determined, contingent on, and, to a large extent organized by what the actor perceives to be the thoughts, feelings, and actions of others in the relationship

Question 22

Cultural Formulation Interview (CFI).

Answer 22

The CFI consists of 16 questions, and is based on a comprehensive literature review of 140 publications in seven languages. Field tested with 321 patients by 75 clinicians in six countries, the CFI has been revised through patient and clinician feedback (Lewis-Fernández et al., 2016). The 16 questions cover topics of enduring interest in mental health such as patients’ explanations of illness (definitions for their presenting problem, preferred idiomatic terms, level of severity, causes), perceived social stressors and supports, the role of cultural identity in their lives and in relation to the presenting problem, individual coping mechanisms, past help-seeking behaviors, personal barriers to care, current expectations of treatment, and potential differences between patients and clinicians that can impact rapport

Question 23

problems with the CFI

Answer 23

feels too rigid, especially when a patient’s responses to CFI questions seem to naturally lead to questions about the medical or psychiatric history.
-Second, some patients in acute illness cannot answer the questions.
=Finally, the CFI builds from the meaning-centered approach to culture in medical anthropology that mostly relies on patient interviews (Lewis-Fernández et al., 2016). The CFI thus has all of the drawbacks one would expect from a self-report instrument that lacks a behavioral component.

Question 24

test-related discrimination

Answer 24

major test publishers may be best understood as evidence of the great complexity of the assessment enterprise rather than as a conspiracy to use tests to discriminate against individuals from certain groups
one view: If systematic differences related to group membership were found to exist on job ability test scores, then what, if anything, should be done? One view is that nothing needs to be done. According to this view, the test was designed to measure job ability, and it does what it was designed to do. In support of this view is evidence suggesting that group differences in scores on professionally developed tests do reflect differences in real-world performance
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION VIEW: refers to voluntary and mandatory efforts undertaken by federal, state, and local governments, private employers, and schools to combat discrimination and to promote equal opportunity for all in education and employment (American Psychological Association, 1996, p. 2). Affirmative action seeks to create equal opportunity actively, not passively. One impetus to affirmative action is the view that “policies that appear to be neutral with regard to ethnicity or gender can operate in ways that advantage individuals from one group over individuals from another group

Question 25

how to implement affirmative action in testing

Answer 25

altering test-scoring procedures according to set guidelines. For example, an individual’s score on a test could be revised according to the individual’s group membership (McNemar, 1975). While proponents of this approach view such remedies as necessary to address past inequities, others condemn manipulation of test scores as introducing “inequity in equity”

Question 26

difference between laws ands ethics

Answer 26

ethics is a body of principles of right, proper, or good conduct

Question 27

code of professional ethics/ standard of care

Answer 27

is recognized and accepted by members of a profession, it defines the standard of care expected of members of that profession. In this context, we may define standard of care as the level at which the average, reasonable, and prudent professional would provide diagnostic or therapeutic services under the same or similar conditions.

Question 28

public concern about psychological assessment

Answer 28

is reflected in the extensive involvement of the government in many aspects of the assessment process in recent decades. Assessment has been affected in numerous and important ways by activities of the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of federal and state government

Question 29

minimum competency testing programs:

Answer 29

formal testing programs designed to be used in decisions regarding various aspects of students’ education. The data from such programs was used in decision making about grade promotions, awarding of diplomas, and identification of areas for remedial instruction. These laws grew out of grassroots support for the idea that high-school graduates should have, at the very least, “minimal competencies” in areas such as reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Question 30

Truth-in-testing legislation

Answer 30

was also passed at the state level beginning in the 1980s. The primary objective of these laws was to give testtakers a way to learn the criteria by which they are being judged. Some truth-in-testing laws require providing descriptions of (1) the test’s purpose and its subject matter, (2) the knowledge and skills the test purports to measure, (3) procedures for ensuring accuracy in scoring, (4) procedures for notifying testtakers of errors in scoring, and (5) procedures for ensuring the testtaker’s confidentiality.

Question 31

quota system,

Answer 31

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

Question 32

discrimination

Answer 32

defined as the practice of making distinctions in hiring, promotion, or other selection decisions that tend to systematically favor members of a majority group regardless of actual qualifications for positions. Discrimination may occur as the result of intentional or unintentional action on the part of an employer

Question 33

reverse discrimination

Answer 33

may be defined as the practice of making distinctions in hiring, promotion, or other selection decisions that systematically tend to favor racially, ethnically, socioeconomically, or culturally diverse persons regardless of actual qualifications for positions.

Question 34

disparate treatment vs disparate impact

Answer 34

refers to the consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that was intentionally devised to yield some discriminatory result or outcome. Possible motivations for disparate treatment include racial prejudice and a desire to maintain the status quo. =disparate impact refers to the consequence of an employer’s hiring or promotion practice that unintentionally yielded a discriminatory result or outcome.

Question 35

litigation

Answer 35

the court-mediated resolution of legal matters of a civil, criminal, or administrative nature) can influence our daily lives. =Litigation has sometimes been referred to as “judge-made law” because it typically comes in the form of a ruling by a court. And although judges do, in essence, create law by their rulings, these rulings are seldom made in a vacuum.

Question 36

Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals

Answer 36

The origins of this case can be traced to Mrs. Daubert’s use of the prescription drug Bendectin to relieve nausea during pregnancy. The plaintiffs sued the manufacturer of this drug, Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, when their children were born with birth defects. They claimed that Mrs. Daubert’s use of Bendectin had caused their children’s birth defects. ruled against appealed, this time to the U.S. Supreme Court. A question before the Court was whether the judge in the original trial had acted properly by not allowing the plaintiffs’ research to be admitted into evidence.

Question 37

Frye v. the United States and rule 702

Answer 37

, the Court held that scientific research is admissible as evidence when the research study or method enjoys general acceptance. rule 702: Rule 702 changed that by allowing more experts to testify regarding the admissibility of the original expert testimony. Beyond expert testimony indicating that some research method or technique enjoyed general acceptance in the field, other experts were now allowed to testify and present their opinions with regard to the admissibility of the evidence. So, an expert might offer an opinion to a jury concerning the acceptability of a research study or method regardless of whether that opinion represented the opinions of other experts. Rule 702 was enacted to assist juries in their fact-finding by helping them to understand the issues involved.

Question 38

frye vs daubert standard

Answer 38

he Daubert ruling superseded the long-standing policy, set forth in Frye, of admitting into evidence only scientific testimony that had won general acceptance in the scientific community. Opposing expert testimony, whether such testimony had won general acceptance in the scientific community, would be admissible. he Daubert standard, used in federal courts, focuses on the scientific validity and reliability of expert testimony, while the Frye standard, used in some state courts, relies on the general acceptance of the methodology within the scientific community

Question 39

Three levels of tests A, B, C

Answer 39

Level A: Tests or aids that can adequately be administered, scored, and interpreted with the aid of the manual and a general orientation to the kind of institution or organization in which one is working (for instance, achievement or proficiency tests). Level B: Tests or aids that require some technical knowledge of test construction and use and of supporting psychological and educational fields such as statistics, individual differences, psychology of adjustment, personnel psychology, and guidance (e.g., aptitude tests and adjustment inventories applicable to normal populations). Level C: Tests and aids that require substantial understanding of testing and supporting psychological fields together with supervised experience in the use of these devices (for instance, projective tests, individual mental tests).

Question 40

Code of Fair Testing Practices in Education. J AND ITS FOUR STANDARDS it explains

Answer 40

(1) developing/selecting tests, (2) interpreting scores, (3) striving for fairness, and (4) informing testtakers.

Question 41

3 challenges of testing those with disabiltiiers

Answer 41

(1) transforming the test into a form that can be taken by the testtaker, (2) transforming the responses of the testtaker so that they are scorable, and (3) meaningfully interpreting the test data.

Question 42

hired guns

Answer 42

Some fear that professionals willing to testify to almost anything (so-called hired guns) will corrupt the process by providing whatever professional opinion is desired by those who will pay their fees.

Question 43

Supporters of death-with-dignity legislation

Answer 43

- argue that life-sustaining equipment and methods can extend life beyond a time when it is meaningful and that the first obligation of health and mental health professionals is to relieve suffering -they may point to the dogged determination of people intent on dying and to stories of how many terminally ill people have struggled to end their lives using all kinds of less-than-sure methods, enduring even greater suffering in the process.

Question 44

arguments against MAID

Answer 44

-question whether suicide is ever a rational choice under any circumstances, and they fear that state-condoned aid in dying will serve to destigmatize suicide in general - It is argued that the first duty of health and mental health professionals is to do no harm (Jennings, 1991). Some fear that professionals willing to testify to almost anything (so-called hired guns) will corrupt the process by providing whatever professional opinion is desired by those who will pay their fees. Critics also point with concern to the experience of the Dutch death-with-dignity legislation. In the Netherlands, relatively few individuals requesting physician-assisted suicide are referred for psychological assessment. Further, the highest court of that land ruled that “in rare cases, physician-assisted suicide is possible even for individuals suffering only from mental problems rather than from physical illnesses” (Abeles & Barlev, 1999, p. 233). On moral and religious grounds, it has been argued that death should be viewed as the province solely of Divine, not human, intervention.

Question 45

The ODDA Assessment Process

Answer 45

. Review of Records and Case History Consultation with Treating Professionals 3. Patient Interviews 4. Interviews with Family Members and Significant Others 5. Assessment of Competence 66. Assessment of Psychopathology 7.7. Reporting Findings and Recommendations

Question 46

diff between guidelines and standareds

Answer 46

Although standards must be followed by all psychologists, guidelines are more aspirational in nature

Question 47

rights of test-takers

Answer 47

-The right of informed consent -The right to be informed of test findings -The right to privacy and confidentiality

Question 48

Competency in providing informed consent has been broken down into several components:

Answer 48

(1) Being able to evidence a choice as to whether one wants to participate; (2) demonstrating a factual understanding of the issues; (3) being able to reason about the facts of a study, treatment, or whatever it is to which consent is sought, and (4) appreciating the nature of the situation Another consideration related to competency is the extent to which persons diagnosed with psychopathology may be incompetent to provide informed consent If a testtaker is incapable of providing an informed consent to testing, such consent may be obtained from a parent or a legal representative.

Question 49

what is done if individual cannot consent to testing themselves?

Answer 49

Consent must be in written rather than spoken form. The written form should specify (1) the general purpose of the testing, (2) the specific reason it is being undertaken in the present case, and (3) the general type of instruments to be administered.

Question 50

when deception is allowed

Answer 50

For example, the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct (2017) provides that psychologists (a) do not use deception unless it is absolutely necessary, (b) do not use deception at all if it will cause participants emotional distress, and (c) fully debrief participants.

Question 51

privileged information

Answer 51

privileged; it is information that is protected by law from disclosure in a legal proceeding. State statutes have extended the concept of privileged information to parties who communicate with each other in the context of certain relationships

Question 52

diff between confidentriality and priviledged infop

Answer 52

may be distinguished from privilege in that, whereas “confidentiality concerns matters of communication outside the courtroom, privilege protects clients from disclosure in judicial proceedings” (Jagim et al., 1978, p. 459). Privilege is not absolute. There are occasions when a court can deem the disclosure of certain information necessary and can order the disclosure of that information. Should the psychologist or other professional so ordered refuse, the professional does so under the threat of going to jail, being fined, and other legal consequences. -Privilege in the psychologist–client relationship belongs to the client, not the psychologist. The competent client can direct the psychologist to disclose information to some third party (such as an attorney or an insurance carrier), and the psychologist is obligated to make the disclosure.

Question 53

privacy right

Answer 53

privacy right “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 54

cumulative scoring.2

Answer 54

In cumulative scoring, a trait is measured by a series of test items. Each response to a test item is converted to a number according to a test “key” (e.g., correct = 1 and incorrect = 0). The magnitude of the trait is assumed to correspond in some way to the sum of the keyed responses. You were probably first introduced to cumulative scoring early in elementary school when you observed that your score on a weekly spelling test had everything to do with how many words you spelled correctly or incorrectly.

Question 55

transient error

Answer 55

It is possible, for example, that this portion of the variance could be accounted for by transient error, a source of error attributable to variations in the testtaker’s feelings, moods, or mental state over time. Then again, this 5% of the error may be due to other factors that are yet to be identified.