Course content available in articles and chapters. contains published journal articles & book chapters
Fulfills Psychological Testing
A working knowledge of psychological testing is important for all mental health therapists, whether they administer, score, and interpret tests themselves or whether they refer their clients for testing and review testing reports from other professionals. Psychological testing requires an appreciation for the issues involved in test development and in administration, scoring, and interpretation. In addition, psychological testing requires a fundamental understanding of psychometrics, appropriate use of norms and standardization, and identification of test bias. Mental health professionals must understand why test security is essential and be able to address the ethical and legal issues involved in competing interests for access. In addition, they must appreciate the utility of informant discrepancies and the specific competencies required in different clinical settings.
This advanced beginner to intermediate course is comprised of two sections. The first section consists of selected book chapters that review the fundamental concepts involved in psychometrics and psychological testing in an engaging way, aimed at non-mathematicians. The second section includes recent journal articles that highlight important general clinical issues and unique considerations for special populations. Topics include safeguarding test security, integrating informant discrepancies, conducting competent assessments in child custody for diverse families, assessing attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in young adults, and selecting self-report measures of anxiety and depression in late life. The course concludes with a timely article that addresses the advantages, challenges, and future directions of the rapidly growing area of digital assessment.
Educational Objectives
This course will teach the participant to:
Discuss the different purposes, types, and assumptions of psychological tests
Explain the main factors in test development, including standardization, the type of construct, the number and format of items, and the choice of raters
Identify key issues in the administration, scoring, and interpretation of tests
Compare the types of validity and explain how to identify test bias
Explain why examiner competence is important in child custody testing in ethnically diverse families
Discuss the components of ADHD assessment in young adults
Identify the advantages and challenges of digital testing as well as future directions for research and practice
Syllabus
Section one: Introduction to psychometrics and psychological testing
Overview
Focuses for different professionals and settings
Traits versus states
Personality traits versus ability traits
Attitudes
Assumptions of tests
Tests and Scales
Standardization
Single-item versus multi-item tests
Free-response versus multiple choice tests
Power versus speed tests
Self-ratings versus peer ratings
Administering and scoring questions and tests
Computer/internet-based measures
Practical issues in scoring tests
Random responding, missing data, and guessing
Interpreting Scores
Appropriate use of percentiles and norms
Scaling scores (Z-scores, T-scores)
Normal distributions, stanines, and quartiles
Test validity, bias, and invariance
Types of validity
Methods of validation
Unfairness and test equivalence
Detecting internal and external bias
Section Two: Clinical applications
Development and evaluation of assessments for counseling professionals
Validity and The Standards of Educational and Psychological Testing
Types of evidence for validity
Test Security
Concerns about failure to maintain test security
Professional endorsements of test security
Test materials versus test data
Competing interests regarding access to tests by non-psychologists
Test security and digital assessment
Discrepancies in Youth Mental Health Assessments
Frequency and value of informant discrepancies
Recommendations for future research on informant discrepancies
Psychological testing in child custody evaluations with ethnically diverse families
Selection of tests in light of standardization sample
Competence of examiner
Promoting fairness in administration and interpretation of tests
Diagnosing ADHD in Young Adults
Reasons for increase in adult ADHD diagnoses
Primary statistics used to evaluate clinical utility of ADHD assessment measures
Clinical interview and behavioral rating scales
Symptom and performance validity testing
Neuropsychological testing (e.g., continuous performance, working memory, executive functioning)
Assessment of anxiety in older adults
Aging-related differences in anxiety symptom manifestations
Choosing self-report measures of late-life anxiety
Future recommendations
Assessment of late-life depression
Complexity of differential diagnosis in elderly
Advantages and limitations of self-report measures for late-life depression
Choosing self-report measures of late-life depression
