Issues in Psychological Testing Worksheet

Issues in Psychological Testing Worksheet

Using the text for this course, the University Library, the Internet, and/or other resources answer the following questions.  Your response to each question should be at least 200 words in length.

1.     What are at least two ethical issues associated with psychological testing?  What impact do these issues have on the field of psychological testing?

One of the major ethical issues associated with psychological testing is informed consent to the assessment. This is an assurance of proper communication between the psychologist and the client throughout the entire testing process. Researchers must ensure that all barriers of communication are satisfied before consent can be recognized. Psychologists must ensure that the client is properly informed, and educated regarding the purpose of the test, how long the test is expected to take, and all procedures used in the test completely, and also understands the direct act of giving consent (American Psychology Association, 2010). If the client is unable to legally provide consent, for example, the client is disabled, or under age, the parent or legal guardian of he individual is responsible for providing the required consent for testing; the psychologist is responsible in this case to ensure the parent or legal guardian is fully informed (Hogan, 2007). The purpose of informed consent is to create a binding contract between the researcher and his or her clients. Clients are also able to withdraw consent at any time during the testing process (Hogan, 2007).

According to Hogan (2007) confidentiality is another major concern associated with psychological testing. This concern is addressed by ethic codes that prohibit a psychologist from engaging in discussion or making reference to an individual’s test results outside the appropriate area of communication (Hogan, 2007). The ethic code also stipulates that a psychologist must retain patient records in an efficient, effective, and secured environment to ensure any information is not compromised. The only exception to the code of confidentiality is when a direct threat or harm to self or others is present (Hogan, 2007).

These issues impact psychological testing because the lack of conduct codes, and ethical practices, the field of psychology would be placed under scrutiny as an unreliable practice. This would negatively impact individuals seeking treatment from a mental health professional, and would devastate the moral and professional structure of patient care in the mental health field.

2.     What are at least two legal issues associated with psychological testing?  How do these issues affect the field of psychological testing?

A major legal issue that psychologists face is ensuring appropriate accommodations is met in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990. The ADA stipulates that necessary accommodations must be made available for any person who is unable to conform to normal testing environments or protocols (Hogan, 2007).  Included in this stipulation is providing alternatives for hearing or visually impaired individuals, and providing alternative physical accommodations for ease of access to facilities for physically disabled individuals (EEOC, n.d.). Psychologists must take care while ensuring reasonable accommodations are made for these individuals without creating an environment that produces an unfair advantage over other clients (Hogan, 2007).

Discrimination is another major concern because of the idea that some methods used for testing purposes may infringe on the rights of individuals from a particular race, or with religious, or sexual preferences, and gender identities under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991 (EEOC, 2009). Under the federal antidiscrimination laws, psychologists are prohibited from the application of tests, or any other variance of selection that may result in a discriminatory process, produce an unfair advantage, or adversely impacts individuals based on any of the known criteria of federal laws (Hogan, 2007).

These two issues reflect two major concerns not only for psychologists, but also for society in general. In the field of psychology, both patients and those employed in the field must be able to receive proper accommodations and equal treatment under the law. Because psychology is a science of understanding human thoughts, attitudes, and behaviors, these two laws are a primary concern for those working with a wide variety of differences.

3.     Which court case do you feel has had the largest impact on the field of psychological testing?  Why?

I believe that three court cases equally influenced the field of psychological testing. These cases, Larry P. v Riles, PASE v. Hannon, and Crawford v. Honig produced a combined illustration of discriminatory practices in testing, and the diagnosis of mental retardation or learning disabilities. These cases also illustrated the need for proper testing measures, and the understanding of the basic principles of intelligence, and the tools used to determine intelligence levels of individuals. The final illustration was the bias, which by today’s standards would seem extremely primitive (Hogan, 2007)

I believe that these three cases each outlined flaws, biases, and improper processes used in testing individual levels of intelligence, which also influences test development for other aspects of psychology like mental competency assessments, behavioral assessments, and attitude assessments. Biases that influence a singular aspect of a particular field produce high levels of exposure to other aspects of the field, and place the entire practice into question; hence damaging credibility. In order for psychological testing to be viewed as a practice that employs the highest level of integrity, laws and various codes of conduct must be applied as a safeguard. This does not infer that those who practice psychology approach their processes with any form of bias, but it does infer that the potential is evident.

References

EEOC. (n.d.). Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/ada.html

 EEOC. (2009). Federal Laws Prohibiting Job Discrimination Questions and Answers. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html

 American Psychology Association. (2010). ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ethics/code/

Hogan, T.P. (2007). Psychological testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

Attitude Survey

Marriage Equality Survey

The measure of human attitudes is extremely important with regard to issues of equality in society. The attitude of the population influences law makers, and voter decisions in regard to changes in equal rights of individuals within the population. Historical data shows that the United States has faced several key issues in regard to equal rights ranging from the dissolution of slavery, race equality, and most recently, equal rights for LGBT couples to engage in legalized marriage. Psychologists use attitude surveys to interpret subjective attitudes of individuals into quantifiable empirical data. Individual attitudes differ from personality traits and interests because individual attitudes are commonly associated with a specific object or situation (Hogan, 2007). Individual attitudes are complex becuase they are composed of affective, behavioral, and cognitive actions, feelings, and thoughts that an individual displays in reaction to, or result of a particular object or situation (Hogan, 2007).

The format of the survey is built using a population-based approach to attitude assessment surveys, which is considered the most reliable method of obtaining general population information regarding attitude toward a particular topic (United Nations Entity for Equality and Empowerment of Women, 2012).  The survey will use the Likert scale, which is the most common ordinal scale used by survey researchers, and focuses on assessing individual opinions (Armstrong, n.d.). IN addition to the Likert scale, the survey will include initial questions primarily used in Interval or Ratio scales. This paper will discuss the various aspects of design, administration, scoring, interpretation of the survey along with any issues experienced during the development process.

Design

The target audience for this survey is two-fold and focuses on registered voters in various regions of the United States. The particular trait the survey is designed to measure is the attitude of both age brackets hold toward same-sex marriage equality. The survey should be administered via surveymonkey.com® to collect data and will use FaceBook® as the primary distribution medium. The decision to use FaceBook® as the distribution medium was made because FaceBook® advertising process can be configured for absolute targeting of the desired audience. The survey will be composed of ten items and should take no more than one to two minutes to complete. The Likert scale is usually composed of a minimum of five response categories that indicate how strongly the individual responds to the item or question (Armstrong, n.d.). The Interval or Ratio scale questions will be the first questions of the survey and are designed to acquire personal information of the survey taker like age, education level, and political and religious affiliation. This information is vital to the survey because the issue of marriage equality varies between these particular categories.

The second set of questions will use the Likert scale to measure the individual’s attitude toward the question or statement. The possible answers include strongly agree, agree, undecided, disagree, and strongly disagree with corresponding scores of -1, -2, 0, +1, and +2. These corresponding scores and demographic data will be collected in an electronic survey report that will be used to correlate individual scores and demographics into a descriptive format. The items are considered to be the assertions and the responses are correlated using the Likert scale; a process referred to as the method of summated ratings (Hogan, 2007). The Likert scale proposes that one single attitude construct is the primary basis of all of the items in the survey. The statements or questions used in the survey are designed to acquire demographic data, and attitude of the various demographics toward marriage equality.

Administration, Scoring, and Interpretation

The survey is to be administered via electronic placement on FaceBook®. This process is accomplished using FaceBook’s advertising medium, which allows for drill-down targeting to specific audiences. This method allows researchers to gather data relevant to the survey, and minimizes potential for untargeted subjects to gain access to the survey. This is accomplished when a user who meets the set criteria logs into his or her FabeBook® account. On the side of the page, a box is displayed with the header “How do You Feel About Marriage Equality?” That statement is a hyperlink to the survey URL http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MF5VNPVthat is hosted by a well known Internet survey system, surveymonkey.com. The results of the survey are indicated on a scoring basis. The lower the score indicates that the individual displays lower favorability for the topic, whereas the higher score indicates a stronger level of favorability. The scores follow the same directionality, meaning the negative score always indicates a lower favorability. The scores equate to the raw data that is collected in mass distribution of the survey and compared to known norms of similar surveys, which will help provide an accurate interpretation. For example, if there is a known tendency to score a particular item very high, the raw scores of the test can be interpreted to take this tendency into account.

Issues Experienced in Survey Creation

As the population-based approach applies to this survey, the main goal of the survey is to ascertain the examinees demographics, and perceptions of same-sex marriage in the United States. With this in mind, I tried to design statements and questions to measure accurate demographic data and attitudes toward same-sex marriage amongst the various demographics. This form of data collection should provide a higher rate of validity of the interpretation that the lower scores equal a lower perception of same-sex marriage than the higher scores, and provide a cross-correlation between the score rankings and the demographic data. This process should result in a data set that shows how high or low marriage equality is favored amongst various demographics of the general populous. The items and questions used should provide a reliable gauge of observable behavior, previous feelings or belief factors, and current opinion and attitudes across the various demographics recorded. One of the most difficult factors was wording of the items and questions as to not lead the examinee to a particular outcome or response. Although I believe the questions are presented in a fairly neutral manner, I tried to word them to reduce the potential for misinterpretation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the attitude survey regarding marriage equality is created using the Likert scale method, and questions used in the Interval and Ratio scale to record and interpret a general opinion of marriage equality in comparison to various demographics within the populous. The survey also attempts to measure the attitude toward marriage equality based on the collected demographic data to validate different affective, behavioral, and cognitive components associated with the various demographic data. Thus, providing a validated comparison of attitude toward marriage equality amongst people in different age, educational, political, religious, and sexual preferences. A working version of this survey can be retrieved at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MF5VNPV

References

Armstrong, W. B. (n.d.). Planning Your Survey. Retrieved from http://http://studentresearch.ucsd.edu/sriweb/Presentations/PlanningYourSurvey.pdf

Hogan, T.P. (2007). Psychological testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.

United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. (2012). UN Women. Retrieved from http://http://www.endvawnow.org/en/articles/339-baseline-assessments-quantitative-and-qualitative.html

What is Psychological Testing

What is Psychological Testing

Psychological testing is defined by Anne Anastasi (1908-2001) as an objective and standardized measure of sample behavior (Domino, & Domino, 2006). The definition provided by Anastasi focuses attention of researchers on three primary elements involved in psychological testing; Objectivity, standardization, and sampling of behavior. Objectivity in theory covers most aspects of the test performed. Objectivity also infers that how a test is scored and interpreted is not a baseline function of a subjective decision of any particular researcher but are based on the objective criteria of the test (Domino, & Domino, 2006). Standardization infers that a test requires uniformity and should not account for who administers, scores, or interprets the test (Domino, & Domino, 2006). Sampling of behavior is the act of obtaining a sample of an individual’s behavior that is a representative form from which researchers can draw inferences and hypotheses (Domino, & Domino, 2006).

Beyond the criteria in Anastasi’s focus of psychological testing, there are three other factors of testing one should consider. The first is to consider the administration process of the test in an experimental method (Domino, & Domino, 2006). Standardized testing varies in relation to psychological testing because researchers are not always able to control the variety of variables of the test that is performed. In response to this issue, researchers must be able to focus on standardizing procedures, eliminating conflicting causes, controlling the experimental constructs, and the generation of a solid hypotheses that allows further investigation (Domino, & Domino, 2006). The second factor to consider that researchers must view a test as a process of interviewing test subjects. This process may or may not be performed in a verbal form. For example, an instructor may call upon a student to perform a verbal interview, or the interview can be performed in the form of a structured written format, which gives researchers greater potential of reaching larger amounts of subjects than a verbal test permits (Domino, & Domino, 2006). The third factor is to consider testing as a “tool of the trade” that is used by researchers. Every professional has tools that he or she uses regularly to perform certain functions of the job (Domino, & Domino, 2006). These tools give the individual the ability to perform his or her job functions efficiently, and produce expected results of basic job functions. For some professions, these tools can include text-books used by teachers, dental drills used by dentists, or graphic software used by architects. In research, basic testing is a useful tool to test hypotheses, and produce desired results for a variety of reasons for tests to be performed (Domino, & Domino, 2006).

Basic Assumptions

Using tests in psychological settings requires several foundational assumptions of the advent and implementation that researchers use to gauge psychological measures. First, researchers must surmise that traits and characteristics of an individual is measurable, quantifiable, and to be different from other individuals (Hogan, 2007). Furthermore, under this qualification, researchers must assume that human traits are a description of potentially important aspects of human individuality (Hogan, 2007). Second, researchers must presume that individual traits and characteristics are reasonably consistent, which aids researchers keep exposure to fluctuations to a minimum. The last assumption is that researchers must be able to observe individual traits and characteristics using some form of observational method. This assumption is very important because the lack of observable behavior negates the ability to quantify underlying constructs (Hogan, 2007).

Major Categories

There are several major categories associated with psychological testing. The first encompasses the quantification of human mental abilities by administering both individual and group tests (Hogan, 2007). These tests are designed to measure human intelligence, critical thinking, memory capacity, spacial ability, quantitative reasoning, and vocabulary (Hogan, 2007). Achievement tests are designed to measure individual or group knowledge in one particular area and are usually administered for batteries, certifications, individual achievement tests, government sponsored programs, and single-subject tests (Hogan, 2007). Personality tests are objective tests measure individual personality traits, and include a variety of techniques to obtain results. The last two categories are designed to measure human attitudes and interests, and neuropsychology, and use vocational interest tests and measures of brain functionality respective to the objective of the study (Hogan, 2007).

Uses and Users

The distinction between a test and the context of which it is applied is vague; however, the context does primarily use one or more tests (Hogan, 2007). Psychological tests are primarily applied in settings related to clinical research, educational uses, human resources, and other research programs. Clinical settings like counseling, clinical psychology, neuropsychology, and school psychology use intelligence tests, objective personality tests, and projective techniques to obtain desired results, which can be applied to the proper setting (Hogan, 2007). In a clinical setting, a researcher will administer the tests to a patient to determine his or her psychological profile, whereas tests administered in an educational setting are used to determine the abilities and achievement abilities of students (Hogan, 2007). Business and military applications include the use of ability and personality tests to gain insight into applicants for new positions or promotions within the organization. The research context relates to the use of a variety of psychological tests as the dependent baseline variable in experimental processes, sample descriptions, and test research (Hogan, 2007).

Reliability and Validity

Reliability and Validity of tests measure the sustainability and effectiveness of a particular test, or group of tests. Reliability is specifically related to the consistency, dependability, and replicability of the psychometric results of the test (Hogan, 2007). Reliability, however, does not pertain to constant errors that universally affect the scores of the traits of individuals being measured. However, it does address unsystematic errors and fluctuations related to scores related to the difference of the individuals conducting the test, different instruments used to implement the test, and variations of the measurement conditions (Hogan, 2007; Domino, & Domino, 2006). Validity is related to the ability the interpretation of particular test results. Validity is not a concern fo the actual test being performed, or the purpose of the test. It is concentrated on the relationship of test scores to the construct or trait that researchers are measuring (Hogan, 2007; Domino, & Domino, 2006).

Conclusion

In conclusion, psychological tests are designed to measure characteristic and trait constructs by testing an individuals abilities, achievements, attitudes, interests, and personality by administering a test and interpreting the results based on these assumptions. The measures of tests are used in contexts of business, clinical, educational, and research environments, and rely on the reliability and validity of the various constructs of the test, produced results, and environmental factors involved in the administration of the test itself. Once a test has met the requirements of reliability, proper uses, and application to specific purpose, it is deemed a viable test.

References

Domino, G., & Domino, M.L. (2006). Psychological Testing: An Introduction (2nd ed.). New York, New York: Cambridge Publishing.

Hogan, T.P. (2007). Psychological testing: A practical introduction (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.