Psychological Assessment

1. Psychological Assessment • Use of specified procedures to evaluate the abilities, behaviors and personal qualities of people • Measure individual differences

2. History of assessment • China 4000 years ago • Sir Francis Galton (1869) Intelligence • Quantify intelligence ( measure ) • Intelligence- bell shaped curve, normal distribution • Could measure by test

3. Formal Assessment • Systematic procedure and measurement instruments used by trained professionals to assess an individual’s functioning, aptitudes, abilities, or mental states. • Reliability • Degree to which test produces similar scores each time • Stability or consistency of the scores produced by an instrument

4. Formal Assessment • Test-retest reliability • Measure of correlation between the scores of the same people of the same test given on two different occasions. Perfectly reliable to +1.00 • Correlations coefficient totally unreliable scores 0.00

5. Formal Assessment • Parallel forms • Different versions of a test used to assess reliability • The change of forms reduces affects of direct practice, memory or desire of an individual to stay consistent over time.

6. Formal Assessment • Internal consistency • The degree to which a test yields similar scores across its different parts • Odds vs. evens • Split-half reliability • Measure of correlation between test taker’s performance on a different halves of test

7. Validity • Extent to which a test measures what it was intended to measure. • Face validity • Degree to which test items appear to be directly related to the attribute the researcher wishes to measure-simple, straightforward

8. Criterion Validity • Degree to which test scores indicate a result on a specific measure that is consistent with some other criterion of charities being assessed ex. High SAT=success in college • Predictive validity

9. Norms • Standards based on measurements of a large group of people • Used for comparing the scores of an individual with those others with in a well defined group • Ex. IQ norm=100

10. Standardization • Set of uniform procedures for treating each participant in a test, interview, or experiment, or for recording data.

11. Intelligence • The global capacity to profit from experience and to go beyond given information about the environment

12. Intelligence Alfred Binet (1905) • 1st intelligence test • Measured mental age • Age at which a child is performing intellectually, expressed in terms of the average age at which normal children achieve a particular score • Chronological age • number of years/months since someone is born

13. Alfred Binet • Four features to Binet’s approach • Estimate of current intelligence • Test children to see if they need help • Test to help find weak areas for additional help/training • Constructed test empirically

14. IQ tests • Intelligence quotient • 1) Stanford Lewis-Binet • Terman (1916) • Standardized Binet’s test for grammar school kids • IQ=mental age divided by chronological age times 100 • Updated frequently • Norm 90-110 • 70 retarded • 130 superior • 2) Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale (1939) • David Wechsler • Combined non-verbal

15. Theories of IntelligencePsychometrics • Field of psychology that specializes in mental testing • Factor analysis • Statistical procedure that detects a small number of dimensions clusters or factors with in a larger set of independent variables

16. Psychometrics • g • Charles Spearman (1927) • The factor of general intelligence underlying all intelligent performance • s • Individual domain

17. Psychometrics • RaymanCattell (1963) • Fluid intelligence • Ability to see complex relationships and solve problems • Crystallized Intelligence • Knowledge a person has already acquired and the ability to access that knowledge • Vocabulary, arithmetic, general info

18. Psychometrics • JP Gulliford 1961 • Structure of intellect • Content-type of information • Product-form information is represented • Operation-type of mental activity performed

19. Psychometrics • Robert Sternberg (1988) • Componential Intelligence • Mental processes that underlie thinking and problem solving • Knowledge acquisition • Learning new facts • Performance components • Problem-solving strategies • Metacognative components • Selecting strategies and monitoring progress • Experimental intelligence • People’s ability to deal with novel and extreme problems • Contextual intelligences • Managing day to day affairs • Adapt, select, shape • Street smarts/ business sense

20. Howard Gardner (1983) • Multiple Intelligences • eight total

21. Emotional Intelligence • EQ-Emotional Quotient • The ability to perceive, appraise and express emotions accurately and appropriately, use emotion to help thinking • Ability to analyze emotions regulates emotions to promote emotional growth

22. Minority Groups • IQ’s- are lower in minorities with test available • Ex. Juke and Kallikak families • Today Latino and African Americans score lower

23. Heredibility estimate • Statistical estimate of the degree of inheritance of a given trait or behavior, assessed by the degree of similarity between individuals who vary in their extent of genetic similarity • Older the higher the correlation • Identical twins highest

24. Environment • Socioeconomic status • Parents education-mother specifically • Economics, health, educational resources

25. Validity of IQ test • Good predictor of school, college and job success • Cultures Role • Stereotype threat • Threat associated with being at risk for confirming a negative stereotype of one’s group • Context not content of test is an issue

26. Creativity • Ability to generate ideas or products that are both novel and appropriate to the circumstances. • Divergent thinking • An ability to produce unusual but appropriate responses to problems • Up to IQ 120 ability increases, decreases after that • Mental illness in creativity i.e. Mania • Motivation an issue • Intrinsic key

27. Assessment and Society • Cautions • Error free assessment • Ethical-shaping education • Labeling students