PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
Week 1 (Dr. Natasha Todorov) 1. History of psychological testing
https://youtu.be/pmg2NEL7390
• Rules of psychological assessment have been developed from historical foundations.
Things to consider include:
o Why do we compare our clients data to norms? Why do we use base rates to make decisions about statistical and clinical significance?
o Where did the term IQ come from? Is IQ used today the same as that proposed by the first cognitive psychologists?
o Why do we use standardised presentation techniques?
o Should we be measuring physiological data as well as cognitive data? Why?
Why not?
o Why do we use a common language to describe our test results? Is this a new development in psychology?
2. Ethical issues to do with psychological assessment Refer to chapter 2 of the Primer
The principles of professional conduct were developed to safeguard:
• The welfare of consumers of psychological services
• The integrity of the profession
The current code of ethics is built around three general principles:
• Respect for the rights of people
o Including the right to autonomy and justice
• Propriety
o Incorporates the principles of beneficence, non-maleficence (including competence) and responsibility to clients, the profession and society
• Integrity
o Reflects the need for psychologists to have good character and acknowledges the high level of trust intrinsic to their professional relationships, and impact of their conduct on the reputation of the profession
How do these principles relate to psychological assessment specifically?
PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
• You must ensure appropriate choice, administration and interpretation of psychological tests. This means knowing your tests and knowing the uses and misuses of psychometric information provided about the tests. You must be able to present clear explanations of the test - its nature, its purposes, and the results you obtain from it - to your client. This means no jargon and the use of age appropriate or culture appropriate language.
• You must not endorse or lend credence to inappropriate use of tests by others.
This means being able to evaluate your own, and other peoples actions and
• You should be able to provide evidence of the validity of programs, procedures and tests used. This means knowing experimental procedure and statistical analysis and keeping up-to-date with the literature.
• You must not compromise the effective use of tests nor render them to misuse.
That is, tests are confidential and must be stored very safely and not shown to anyone who is not a psychologist or a client.
• Psychological assessment in which the psychologist writing the report has
personally assessed and interviewed the person tested is preferable to the practice of ‘blind’* test interpretation and report writing. (Blind* interpretation can be defined as the interpretation of a test protocol where the psychologist has not been in contact with the person tested. Blind interpretation has sometimes been adopted in the selection of candidates for employment, by computerised testing services, or when asked for a “second opinion” by a colleague). Clearly, a testees written permission must be obtained before blind data are made available to a third party.
There are good, solid, evidence-based reasons for these rules (see lecture 4 and chapter 7 of the Primer [the Science of Test Interpretation] for research findings relevant to the suggestions made above).
In essence, important ethical issues are as follows:
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[Assessment in Organisations]
Organisational Psychology involves the application of psychological research and theory to influencing and understanding how individuals behave, think and feel in work settings. It is not related to the broader aspects of running an organisation, but rather the people involved with organisation. Namely, organisational psychologists work with organisations, teams and individual employees to improve their performance and increase experience, effectiveness and productivity in the workplace. This typically involves devising strategies such as recruiting, motivating, developing, changing and inspiring. In essence, organisational psychology is the science of people at work.
Selecting personnel in organisational context
Psychological assessment is used for selection of personnel (and development of personnel e.g., training, coaching, intervention) in organisations. Namely, the Minnesota Theory of Work Adjustment (TWA) provides a useful guide for assessing which individuals are selected to work for an organisation, as it conceptualises a person-environment fit theory: the better the fit between a person and the job (or organisation), the better the outcome for the person and the organisation. Accordingly, the selection paradigm involves matching the person to the job or organisation, and then evaluating the effectiveness of the match. This is achieved through the following processes:
1) Firstly, analysing the unique set of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that an
individual has to offer in their role, as well as analysing the organisation’s specified set of KSAs required for certain roles (e.g., in medicine, patient rapport); if there is a match between the two elements, this will lead to the outcome of good performance, hence selection of personnel ensues (i.e., tenure).
2) Additionally, analysing the individual’s set of interests, attitudes and values that they want fulfilled in work (e.g., strong need for variety, high need for ethical behaviour), as well as analysing the organisation’s ability to supply or reinforce to fulfil these interests, attitudes and values; if so, this will lead to the outcome of the individual being satisfied with the employee, hence selection of personnel ensues (i.e., tenure).
In essence, psychological assessment in organisations involves matching a person’s qualities and fits to the organisation’s qualities and fits. This benefits the individual and the
organisation. It simply requires the organisational psychologist to apply what they have learnt about assessment of individual differences (e.g., reliability, validity) to the analysis of the job and measurement of performance of the job.
Selection process summary, and where elements of psychological assessment take place
What are the KSA requirements of the organisation?
What KSAs do they have to offer? Do these match the requirements of the
organisation? What are their interests, attitudes and values? Do these match those of the organisation?
Is tenure achievable, as per the TWA?
E.g., standardised tests with psychometric properties (reliability and validity); is it worth it though?
Job analysis to determine KSAs
required Advertising and
Recruitment Assess applicants Hiring decision
Measure job performance, evaluate costs and benefits of decision
[Assessment in Organisations]
Criterion-related validity: Predictive validity
Does predictor (IV or X; e.g., cognitive ability, conscientiousness) correlate (-1 to +1) with outcome* (DV or Y; e.g., supervisor ratings of job performance, job satisfaction)?
*typical outcome measures/criteria used in organisational psychology include:
- job performance - tenure
- absenteeism - job stress
- organisational commitment - counterproductive behaviour - job satisfaction
The standard correlation values between test scores and performance on the job are generally quite low. This is because selection is not a perfect science, will not be able to predict perfectly – lots of things happen between when you select persons and later their performance (e.g., individuals find another job, individuals got the sack, individuals experience health deterioration).
Correlation
value Utility
>.35 Very beneficial à It has been empirically found that using tests with validities of over .35 derives costs benefits for the organisations
.21 – .35 Likely to be useful .11 – .20 Depends on
circumstances
<.11 Unlikely to be useful
Tests and methods used in organisational selection contexts People are assessed using:
Psychometric tests related to certain constructs
Cognitive ability Personality
Provides an indication of the individual’s learning potential, problem solving, decision making - Group tests (e.g., Wonderlick
Personnel Test, Raven’s matrices)
> individual tests (e.g., WAIS) - Has the best predictive validity for
job performance
- Not the only predictor of job performance, however (i.e., job performance is more than problem solving, doing tasks)
Provides an indication of the
individual’s prosocial aspects, and what they “will do” over what they “can do”.
For example, the Big 5:
- Conscientiousness predicts the vigilance, desire to do a task well, be efficient and organised (also has good predictive validity for job
performance; explains incremental variance above and beyond cognitive ability)
- Extraversion predicts teamwork and leadership
