What Do We Measure? Intelligence Achievement Personality Symptoms Memory Vocational match Perception Social skills Stress Coping Etc, etc etc. Can psychologists measure everything?

Why Is Assessment Important? It can drastically change someone’s life Diagnosis of a learning disability Admittance to a hospital Diagnosis of a disorder w/ stigma Decline offer of employment Custody of children

Creating Confident Conclusions Convergence between sources Reliability Inter-rater Test-retest Internal consistency

Creating Confident Conclusions Validity - assessing what we intend to assess Concurrent - other current measures Predictive - future events Content - covers all content Face validity - appearance

What are some ways to gather information?

How Do We Gather Info? Interviews Self-report tests IQ tests* Neuropsych tests Projective tests Behavioral Assessment Biological tests* Autopsies Imaging Physiological

Interviews Structured Semi-structured Unstructured

Structured Interviews PRO Precise Consistent Decrease defensiveness or judging Accurate Exhaustive CON Length/time Irrelevance

Unstructured Interviews PRO Use own words Adaptive Good for “undiagnosable” issues CON Unreliable Subjective Not for research Clinician info-seeking bias

Self-report Questionnaires Individuals read questions & select most appropriate answer Why use? Quick & easy Norms & scoring Empirically supported Track change Client comfort Quick and easy for research

Self-Report Questionnaires When are they bad? Language problems Reading problems Can be long (e.g. MMPI-2 = 567 items) Faking or Response Bias

The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale How satisfied are you with your marriage? How satisfied are you with your husband/wife as a spouse? How satisfied are you with your relationship with your husband/wife? Rated on a 7 point Likert scale from 1 (extremely dissatisfied) to 7 (extremely satisfied)

Neuropsychological Assessment Used to measure brain (dys)function Often used for: Testing after brain injuries Memory concerns Dementia and other cognitive declines

Neuropsychological Tests Typically a battery measure different skills/elements E.g. memory, language, sensory-motor integration, perception, motor skills Conclusions based on patterns

Behavioral Assessment Behavioral observations = observing people in a “natural” environment Role-playing = observing people in an imagined situation Why use behavioral assessment?

Why Use? Lie about their usual behavior Behavior may not apply to a therapy situation Natural environment Practice and observe rare behaviors

Why Not Use? Social desirability/undesirability Time commitment E.g. school observations Role-played behavior may not carry-over outside therapy

Projective Tests Individuals respond to vague stimuli inkblots Pictures of events Colors Pictures of hands Open-ended sentences Clients “project” their experiences/disorder/personality

Rorschach Inkblot Test First released in 1921 Comprehensive System (1970s) Results scored on 100+ characteristics Parts vs. whole Reactions unusual vs. typical Use of white space vs. black space Does the tester see the reaction?

General Inkblot Instructions 1. What do you see here? 2. Do you see anything else? 3. Will you please show me where you see that?

Criticisms of Rorschach 1. Poor test-retest reliability 2. Questionable ability to detect pathology 3. Many people score as abnormal 4. Poor incremental validity 5. Few norms for ethnic minorities

Use Projective Tests (n=412) Projective TestsAlways/Freq.Occasionally Rorschach43%82% Sentence Completion34%80% TAT34%82% NonprojectiveAlways/Freq.Occasionally WAIS IQ Test59%93% MMPI-258%85% BDI21%71%