Lesson 8
Psychological Scales and Implications
• The goal of assessment is to help counsellors to develop an
understanding of the client or an individual.
• By using assessment and appraisal procedures, you will be
able to gain understanding of the individual and in turn foster
individual’s understanding himself or herself.
• The selection of any tool whether quantitative or qualitative
depends on the type of information the counsellor is
interested in gathering.
• Psychological tests are designed to assess the characteristics
of people such as their abilities, attitudes, motivations,
interests, needs and values and so on.
Construction of tests.
• In a standardized test, individual scores are compared with a norm or standard
arrived at on the basis of performance of sample of individuals of the same age or
grade level from around.
• Good standardized tests are the result of years of research.
• they comprise of a series of items/questions with well-defined correct answers such
as in case of tests of INTELLIGENCE OR ACHIEVEMENT.
• While PERSONALITY INVENTORIES, do not have right or wrong answers, but are
designed to assess person’s pre-dispositions, tendencies and preferences.
• A standard test has a manual which provides complete information of how the test
was developed, evidence of its consistency, accuracy and objectivity.
Test Development
• Tests vary in their content depending on the
aspect of behaviour that is assessed.
• Psychological tests are also classified into
– individual and group tests,
– verbal tests and non-verbal tests
– performance tests.
Types of psychological tests
• Intelligence Test
• Interest Inventories
• Aptitude Test
• Achievement Test
• Attitude Scale
• Personality Test
INTELLIGENCE
• Intelligence has been one of the most popular
psychological terms used in identifying individual
differences.
• It has helped to explain that people differ from each other
in their ability to understand complex ideas or to learn
from experience.
• Theories by Binet, Weschler, Spearman and Thurston are
based on the psychometric approach where intelligence is
considered as an aggregate of abilities.
• It is expressed in terms of a single index of abilities
• Howard Gardener’s theory of multiple intelligences puts
forth that intelligence is not a single entity and there exists
multiple intelligences.
Types of intelligences proposed by Gardener are briefly
discussed below
• 1. Linguistic Intelligence: The capacity to use language fluently and flexibly, to
express one’s thinking and understanding others. Used in reading a book, writing a
paper, a novel or a poem; and understanding spoken words. Poets and writers
exhibit this ability.
• 2. Logical Mathematical Intelligence: Thinking logically, critically, using abstract
reasoning to manipulate symbols and solve mathematical problems.
• 3. Spatial Intelligence: Abilities involved in forming, using and transforming mental
images. Used in getting from one place to another, in reading a map, and is
packing suitcase in the trunk of a car so that they all fit into a compact space.
Pilots, sailors, interior decorators, surgeons, fashion designers generally exhibit this
ability.
• 4. Musical Intelligence: Capacity to produce, create and manipulate musical
patterns. Used in singing a song, composing a sonata, playing a trumpet or even
appreciating the structure of a piece of music.
• 5. Bodily-Kinesthetic Intelligence: Ability to use one„s body and muscle
structure in a coordinated planned way. Used in dancing, playing basket
ball, running a mile or throwing a javelin. Athletes, dancers, actors,
gymnasts, sports person, surgeon exhibit this more than others.
• 6. Interpersonal Intelligence: Used in relating to other people, such as
when we try to understand another person's behaviour, motives or
emotions, counselors, psychologists, politicians, social workers, religious
leaders are shown to be high on this ability.
• 7. Intrapersonal Intelligence: Knowledge of one's internal strengths and
limitations and using that knowledge to relate to others.
• 8. Naturalistic Intelligence: Complete awareness to our relationship with
the natural world, useful in recognizing the beauty of different species of
flora and fauna and making a distinction in the natural world.
• 9. Existential Intelligence: Can be defined as the ability to be sensitive to, or
have the capacity for, conceptualizing or tackling deeper or larger questions
about human existence, such as the meaning of life, why are we born, why
do you die, what is consciousness or how did we get here.
Emotional Intelligence
• Jumping to conclusions without adequate
reflection can lead to erroneous thinking.
• The notion of emotional intelligence
broadens the concept of intelligence and
involves
– i) Perceiving or sensing emotions,
– ii) Using emotion to assist thoughts,
– iii) Understanding emotions, and
– iv) Managing emotions.
Interest Inventories
• In order to help individuals make vocational
and & educational choices, the counsellor
needs to know his/her interest for activities.
• The study of interest would help you as
counsellor to better understand the students
in terms of his/her likes and dislikes.
Aptitude Tests:
• Aptitude is thought of as a natural tendency, special ability, or
capacity or cluster of abilities.
• Often these natural abilities are looked at in relationship to a
person’s readiness to learn or their suitability for a particular
career.
– For example, in order to be successful architect, one must possess the
cluster of abilities such as a keen sense of observation, a sense of
aesthetic visual memory, abstract reasoning, and an ability to sketch free
hand.
• Aptitude may be defined as a trait that characterizes an
individual’s ability to perform in an area or to acquire the
learning necessary for performance in a given area.
Achievement Tests:
• Achievement is what one successfully accomplishes in an area of study /
activity / domain.
– In the case of students, it may be conceptualized as successful learning of the
assigned educational material.
– Such learning is usually demonstrated to teachers and others either through a
verbal presentation or a written examination.
– An achievement test measures knowledge and skills attained by the student in
a particular area, usually acquired after classroom teaching or training.
• Achievement test scores are often used to determine the level of
instruction for which a individual is prepared, to indicate subjective
strengths and weakness.
• To indicate the relative standing of the individual in a group.
• Achievement test data, in combination with other data, is used to help
guidance counsellors plan student's future programmes.
Types of achievement tests
• Formative and Summative Tests:
– Formative tests are used to measure progress made in knowledge and skills
before and during instruction. Summative achievement tests are given at the
end of course instruction, so as to assess the outcome of the instruction.
• Prognostic tests:
– Readiness or prognostic tests are used to predict how well an individual is
expected to profit from training.
• Diagnostic Test:
– Diagnostic achievement tests provide information on performance of the
students in different subjects and indicate their strengths and weakness in
reading, arithmetic and language usage.
– Achievement test can be either criterion referenced (CRT) or norm referenced
(NRT).
– Norm Referenced Tests (NRTs) are designed to highlight achievement
differences
– Criterion-reference tests (CRTs) determine the strengths of the test taker
Attitude Scale
• Attitudes are expressions of how much we like or dislike
various things.
• We tend to approach and seek out to be associated with
things we like, we avoid, shun or reject things we do not
like.
• Attitude represent our evaluations and performance
towards a wide variety of objects, events, persons, and
situations.
• The defining characteristics of attitudes are that they
express evaluations along the lines of liking-disliking,
pro-anti, favoring – disfavoring or positive–negative.
Types of Attitude Scales:
• The method of equal appearing intervals
• The method of summative ratings
• The attitude scales which are developed using
these scaling techniques consists of a number of
carefully edited and selected items called
statements
• The method of equal appearing intervals was
originally developed by Thurstone and Chave.
– Unfavorable, Neutral, Favorable(-1,0,1 or -2,-1,0,1,2)
• In the method of summated ratings developed by Likert.
• the item score is obtained by assigning arbitrary weights
of 5, 4, 3, 2 and 1 for Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A),
Undecided (U), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD)
for the statements favoring a point of view.
• On the other hand, the scoring weights of 1, 2, 3, 4 and
5 are used for the respective responses for statements
opposing this point of view.
• In addition to the above two scales, there some more
techniques, such as, Error Choice Technique, Free
Response Technique, Paired Comparisons, Opinion
Polling or Surveying, etc. are used for testing attitude.
Personality Test:
• Personality refers to a unique combination of
characteristics of an individual, which pre-
disposes the person to behave in a particular
and consistent way
Techniques of Testing Personality
A number of techniques are used for testing personality. The
techniques are:
• Interview
• Observation
• Self-report Measures
• Checklists
• Rating Scales
• Situational Tests or Behavioural Tests
• Projective Techniques
• Anecdotal Records
• Autobiography
• The Daily Diary
Self-Report Measures
• Self-report measures are personality scales that ask individuals to answer
a series of questions/statements about their characteristic behaviour.
• When you respond to a self-report personality inventory, you endorse
statements as true or false as applied to you.
•
• You indicate how often you behave in a particular way or you rate yourself
with respect to certain qualities.
• The logic underlying this approach is simple. Who know you better than
you do ?
• A variety of personal characteristics can be measured through self-report
inventories.
Projective Technique
• Projective techniques focus on a composite picture of the personality as a whole.
• This method is called the projective techniques because the individual is
stimulated to project his personality into the test exercises.
• The stimuli used in projective techniques attempt to arouse responses that are a
projection of the inner self or motives and personality traits that are usually
hidden and often even unsuspected by the individual himself.
• The subject may be asked to respond to series of picture, words, inkblots or
similarly ambiguous stimuli.
• The interpretation of responses requires a long period of training and should be
done only by those who are specially qualified.
• The most popularly known projective technique is the Rorschach Inkblots Test and
Thematic Apperception Test (TA).
Some Tests.
Cognitive/Intelligence Tests
• Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Third Edition (WISC-IV)
• Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI-IV)
• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test – Fifth Edition (SB-V)
• Differential Abilities Scale – Second Edition (DAS-II)
Achievement Tests
• Wechsler Individual Achievement Test – Third Edition (WIAT-III)
• Kaufman Test of Educational Achievement – Second Edition (KTEA-
II)
• Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement – Fourth Edition (WJA-IV)
• Gray Oral Reading Tests – Fifth Edition (GORT-5)
• Gray Silent Reading Test (GSRT)
• Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults (SATA)
• Nelson Denny Reading Test – Forms G and H
• Comprehensive Mathematical Abilities Test (CMAT)
Tests of Psychological Process
• Wide Range Tests of Memory and Learning – Second Edition (WRAML-2)
• Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability – Fourth Edition (WJC-IV)
• NEPSY-II – A Developmental Neuropsychological Battery, Second Edition
• The Comprehensive Test of Phonological Processing, Second Edition
(CTOPP-2)
• Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals – Fourth Edition (CELF-4)
• Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language (CASL)
• Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System (D-KEFS)
• Test of Problem Solving – Third Edition (TOPS-3)
• Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, Fourth Edition (PPVT-IV)
• Integrated Visual and Auditory Continuous Performance Test (IVA-CPT)
• Test of Everyday Attention for Children (TEA-Ch)
• SCAN-3 Test of Auditory Processing in Children – Third Edition
Visual Motor Integration and Graphomotor Function
• Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration
• Developmental Test of Visual Perception
• Developmental Test of Motor Coordination
Behavior Rating Scales
• Behavior Assessment System for Children-Second
Edition (BASC-2) – Parent, Teacher, Child
• Conners 3 Rating Scales (Parent, Teacher)
• Behavior Rating Index of Executive Functions (BRIEF)
Tests of Adaptive Behavior
• Scales of Independent Behavior – Revised
• Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales
Neuropsychological Tests
(may include one or more of the following)
• Delis-Kaplan Executive Functioning System (D-KEFS)
• Rey Osterrieth Complex Figure (RCFT)
• Grooved Pegboard Test
• Controlled Oral Word Association Test (COWAT)
• Stroop Color and Word Test
• Trail Making Test (TMT)
• Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST)
• Ruff Figural Fluency Test
• Hooper Visual Orientation Test
• Judgment of Line Orientation
• Boston Naming Test
Psychological and Emotional Testing* – screener (may
include one or more of the following)
• Robert’s Apperception Test
• Thematic Apperception Test
• Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory
• Millon Pre-Adolescent Clinical Inventory
• Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent
• House-Tree-Person and Kinetic Family Projective Drawings
• Revised Children’s Manifest Anxiety Scale
• Kovac’s Children’s Depression Inventory
• Sentence Completion Test
• Harris-Goodenough Draw-A-Person Rating System
• Social Anxiety Scale
• Juvenile Bipolar Questionnaire
